Narc. Magazine Online
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Laura Doyle takes the chance to enjoy an opportunity for Newcastle’s queer community to come together and just be at Transtock 2
Image by Em (courtesy of Jade Broadhead)
There’s power in community, and it took Transtock to remind me of that.
A cold November evening in the centre of Newcastle when there’s a home match at St. James’ Park is not the most appealing place to be, so you could understand why one might be less than thrilled to make the journey into the city for any reason – even to attend the second edition of the North East’s only dedicated trans and non-binary festival. However one step into The Globe, and the anxieties of being out past my bedtime evaporated into the slightly musty, slightly overwarm interior of the community-run grassroots venue. Within this compact corner pub-turned-venue, everyone was truly free to be themselves. Transtock 2 featured yet another diverse line-up of trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming artists – some plugged, some acoustic, some spoken word, but all with an authentic punk undercurrent that can only come from outsiders to the mainstream.
Jade Mia Broadhead, frontwoman of Dinky Bossetti and brains behind Transtock, opened proceedings with a scaled back set of original works. She’d return later in the evening with her full band to serve as main support to Transtock’s main headliners with a full set of Dinky’s ferociously witty queer punk bops. Appearing alongside her on the bill included DIY singer-songwriter Freya Bentley, multi-instrumentalist and Nasty Woman Sandy Wells-Lee, acoustic folk-punk Elena Sirett, and synthwave soloist That Clare. Heartfelt punk poetry came from Hexham Pride CEO Alice Skye, who has only recently dipped her toes into the spoken word scene, and Queer, disabled, and neurodivergent poet Amy Langdown – because the formats on display deserved to be as diverse as the artists performing.
Transtock’s main headliners proved to be both well worth the wait – and well worth dropping 20 quid on a new band tee. Bitchfinder General comedically blends witch trial iconography with bonafide punk sentiment to create fiercely energetic, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes heartfelt, always chaotically delightful rock music. Also, they have a cat in a bonnet on their tees.
Beneath the music and the performances on stage, Transtock was an opportunity for Newcastle’s queer community to come together and just be. Suddenly, the name of the transgender support charity for which Transtock raises money makes sense: Be helps transgender folks find their path to existence in a society that is making that decidedly more difficult. If more people could experience the sense of simply being that Transtock provides to the gender non-conforming, everyone might get on a little better.
