ophelia

 

darkness

Darkness On The Edge of Town is being re-released. It feels like a lot of the themes of that record – suburban frustration, the rigours of a working life led in an era of economic stagnation and vacuum of political leadership – are relevant again. These issues aren’t just symptomatic of our time, or the 70s, but every period where society has reached an impasse, the ruling class no longer able to develop culture and industry, but with nothing else to replace them. This quote could have been written this year; it describes unerringly well the beautiful frustration Springsteen captured:

Alliance whose first proviso is separation; struggles whose first law is indecision; wild inane agitation in the name of tranquillity; most solemn preaching of tranquillity in the name of revolution; passions without truth, truths without passion; heroes without heroic deeds; history without events; development whose sole driving force seems to be the calendar, wearying with the constant repetition of the same tensions and relaxations; antagonisms that periodically seem to work themselves up to a climax only to lose their edge and fall away without being able to resolve themselves…

Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

tomorrow

The video for our new single on Young and Lost, ‘Tomorrow’, is in the works. It’ll come out sometime after Xmas. Here’s a sneak preview.

angry sign

fireflies

My friend Red makes records as Peter and the Wolf. When I listen to his music I feel free; that is to say, his music reminds me of freedom. This is probably because I have toured three times with Red, driving in a little car up and down the country with him and the band. I remember:

• Sitting on Brighton beach with Red, after two different shows, drinking beer from the can
• Meeting Red at some absurd Tube station near the M25, his hair suddenly all short
• Meeting him in Camden Town, with him wearing a cut off vest of his own making, because Texas was too hot, he said
• All of us drinking whiskey in our friend’s basement bedroom, whiskey which tasted like oak
• Driving through England, listening to The Wave Pictures and Jonathan Richman, Red sleeping in the backseat, and the rest of us watching the countryside pass us by
• Sitting around a campfire at End of the Road with him and Jeff Lewis, playing ukelele
• All of us dancing at some ridiculous club in Manchester, where we were half the clientele

My thoughts of tours with Red are in my mind now. I hope we’ll see him soon. I miss feeling free. Red’s life is guided by his music, his songs. He lives on the road, which can be difficult. But he is always free, and that is more important than chasing cash, or trying to be something you’re not. My favourite song of his, Fireflies, isn’t on Youtube, but this is just as good

I hope you hear freedom in his music too

windows