Reviews of Hate Mail:

Hate male? Daily Mail? Smell of middle England giving you the fear? Family values rotting in hell? Ste is your man. Up front and confrontational about pretty much everything. Around here we love him! North West of England ranting queercore lo-fi wired-up punk rock. He sounds like Holly Johnson fronting a fractured angry Buzzcocks via raw Carter USM and dare you listen to something new or sit and.... One skinny looking man, one edgy scratchy skinny guitar, a fractured drum machine and a barbed line in relentless baiting just about everyone with his defiant lyrical feistiness. He don’t like those Four Puffs on Jonathan Ross with their televised clichés and limp wrists and you can’t help but smile when you see a song title like Four Puffs And A Shotgun. Nice version of Pet Shop Boys’ Bedsitter and it isn’t about fitting in or playing by the rules (or indeed breaking the rules) or conforming to the stereotype. Proper raw punk rock laced with positive anger and a welcoming smile and a little more than scratching each other’s eyes out. Ste McCabe is a national treasure, call the Daily Mail and ask them where their review is, excellent album.

Organ zine.

A shock of the new from Manchester, Ste McCabe's debut album delivers handsomely.
I mean, as an opening track 'Queer Clubbing' is like a camp Art Brut, which is a wonderful thing indeed. Hot on it's heels comes 'Hate Mail', which is a thundering fuzz pop tune, somewhat like Buzzcocks and 'I'm Not Bitter' which carries on the lineage of fast, feisty pop, garbled lyrics and sniping while sounding fun. Then you have gems like 'Huyton Scum', which sounds like it could have come from some weird alternative version of Grease.
It says how good an album this is that the 'Bedsitter' cover is one of the least interesting things on here, although it does fit in with the theme of the album though. 'Rant (By The Seaside)' diversifies things somewhat, being a ukulele lead Bobby McGee's style thing. All I can say to finish is that you should get this album, if you like nasty fun...

Russell Barker for Russell's Reviews.

The North West of England has traditionally been a citadel of anti authority, non conformist politics. It's therefore no surprise to find that angry, political, homophobe baiting, pro feminist, queer pop-punkster Ste McCabe hails from Manchester.

His latest album 'Hate Mail' (Cherryade Records), a full on blend of pure punk guitar and a snippy, snarling, sarcastic world view, marks Ste out to be the Billy Bragg, or possibly even the Henry Rollins, of gay politics . The albums 11 tracks of short sharp gobs of spittle flecked vitriol hover in the hinterland of The Buzzcocks and Jilted John reimagined as a gay activist.

The brilliant 'Huyton Scum' is a witty diatribe about a racist, homophobic, sexist idiot, 'Four Puffs & A Shotgun' is a long overdue pop at the over rated and over paid Jonathan Ross and his overly camp band of gay uncle toms, 'Rant (By The Seaside)' describes the life of a homosexual growing up in a small, in mind as well as size, town while the ironically titled 'I'm Not Bitter' is a bitter, bile spilling 'fuck you' to a former lover.

As you can gather 'Hate Mail' ain't an album of cheerful ditties to help us forget about the world problems for a while. It's a full on confrontational album promoting a world view that get's far too little coverage in a music scene where the ugly, regressive, misogynistic cock rock of AC/DC is lauded in the NME (that's NEW Musical Express!!).

Ste won't be getting many invites to join the Conservative Party and I think I can guarantee that he won't be selling many copies of the album in the American Deep South.

The Devil Has the Best Tuna.

Ste McCabe, the man responsible for what he calls February’s “little queer explosion against homophobic, classist, sexist idiots”, aka the punk-pop EP Pink Bomb, is back with his funny and fierce album Hate Mail.
Sharp, raging opener ‘Queer Clubbing’ immediately sets up his point of view on what he calls “the land of stereotypes” and how it plays into the oppressive attitudes of the establishment: “I don’t wanna disco dance…when you speak to me, don’t try to patronise”. McCabe adds that he’s never been "a fan of misogyny”, which is in keeping with his view that gay rights and feminism are often inextricably linked. “Where there is oppression of women you will usually find the oppression of queers, too”, he has said. “Feminist straight women along with gay men and lesbians are seen as a threat to the supposed laws of gender”.
In turn, I felt a real connection with McCabe’s music. ‘I’m Not Bitter’, a track about men who use and abuse, draws attention to cock-proud “men with their hands in their pockets, think they can buy you with a double vodka”. With its messed up beats, distorted vocals and urgency, this is a punk-pop rendition of what Simone de Beauvoir laid out years ago: “The most mediocre of males still feels himself a demi-god as compared with women”.
McCabe continues the sentiment with humour that hits hard on a nerve: “Men who are so proud of their cocks, well guess what? I’ve got one, too!” McCabe explains that he uses humour “as a tool to beat my enemies in my music”, and this woman - who’s spent many a night dealing with cash-flashing, cock-sure men who assume I cost the same as a vodka tonic - certainly appreciates it.
Hate Mail’s title track is also wickedly funny as it deals with the readers of the Daily Mail, with McCabe snarling, “You’ve got style, I must confess, for a pretty little Hitler in a floral dress”, while ‘Four Puffs and a Shotgun’ has McCabe committing to kissing “the straight guy’s arse” with “a limp wrist and a shopping list”.
Equally poignant yet musically pared down is the acoustic ‘Rant (By the Seaside)’, in which McCabe relays his life story, starting with an episode in which he runs away from a football and going on to describe how teachers turned a blind eye when he was bullied at school. He admits it’s “not an unusual narrative for a gay boy in a backward town”, but the rawness, honesty and subject matter of the song is certainly something different and fresh on the music scene.
Oh, and you can dance to the album, too. So what more could we want? Not a lot, that's for damn sure - it's pretty much got everything to both incense and excite.

Bree Hoskin for Gaydar Nation.

Ste McCabe specializes in tunes that fire at his audiences short sharp abrasive measures of sarcastic venom. Borne out of Manchester, it would be easy to reference that of the Buzcocks, but that's exactly where Ste McCabe is starting from. With upfront guitar and a beatbox, Ste rides roughshod over all preconceptions of how queer punk should sound. Those who ever crossed Mr. McCabe in his former life are now hanging their heads in shame, as in his lyrics he would appear to remember all, as he goes at them with a cheese grater, in a musical sense of course. In this, his debut album, where not only do the Buzzcocks meet Soft Cell, but he marks up one for the underdog. Both insanely catchy and well observed.

Atomic Duster.

If I was reviewing album cover art instead of album content, then this would win hands down!! I love it! Its one of those covers that I would love to have up on the wall....a great piece of pop art.
Ste McCabe is something of a mystery to me....I'd never heard of him or his brand of 'bedroom-budget-low-fi' music, however, this is just what I needed to land through the door of the editorial office. This is almost Pete Shelley-esque in it's delivery and urgency, cleverly penned social commentary, with heavy punk-pop undertones and easily danceable beats.
Stand out track on the album is 'Fire', an upbeat rocker that the aforementioned Mr.Shelley would have been proud of. 'This Is Not Your Party' reminiscent of early Velvet Underground and the wonderful 'Joy Division' like 'bedsitter' are worthy of a mention too. This is one for the car stereo guys!

Chris Rockson for Soundcheck Magazine.

Take a drum machine, guitar and overdrive pedal. Add one angry, working-class gay scouser, leave to simmer in years of smalltown homophobia and Viola! - the result will be something like Hate Mail, both heartbreakingly vitriolic and endearingly shambolic. McCabe makes bitter lo-fi bedroom disco, laced with scathing lyrics like, "He don't like the queers, queers make him sick, even the ones he forces to go down and suck his dick." If you like anti-assimilationist queer theory and Helen Love, you'll spunk your pants. If not, there's a new Girls Aloud album out...

Gay Times.

Earlier this year, I reviewed Ste McCabe's debut EP 'Pink Bomb', and it was hard to write that review without mentioning Wales' finest, Helen Love, a comparison that I was far from alone in drawing.

Now Ste's back with his first album,'Hate Mail',and it's basically more of the same, which might sound a bit negative, but it's not. The EP was a nice slab of queer electro punk pop. It's always nice to know what you will get when buying a record. Some of the best tracks on the album include the chant-like 'Broken Record', the title track and 'Huyton Scum', a song that was also on the aforementioned EP.

If you like the thought of the Ramones using a drum-machine and singing about gay rights, this will be definitely your cup of tea! If not, you still ought to give it a try...

Tommy Gunnarsson for Pennyblack Music.