The Crematorium and Other Stories

Crikey, no-one’s posted on here in months!

In fact, the last post was a Tolpuddle preview.

I think it’s fair to say, looking back on it now that we had an amazing Tolpuddle performing as Maddy Carty & The Protest Family and as Workers Playtime, plus the almost-part-of-the-Tolpuddle furniture Unplugged session, and obligatory selfies with Jeremy Corbyn. I was going to write something about Tolpuddle Unplugged. In fact I still might, but suffice to say that every year I worry that it’s going to be a disaster, and every year it’s the opposite. I might have even figured out how it works, or at least I think so. The premise is ridiculous: Run a stage at a small but popular festival with no budget, no acts or amplification. Where do you start? Well, give it to a couple of chancers from an East London folk/punk band who’s main talent appears to be making friends, and chuck them into a field full of like-minded people who’ve stepped out of the struggle for the weekend to enjoy each other’s company while imagining a better, fairer world. It seems to work somehow.

Paul Rutland
Tolpuddle Unplugged: I think I know which side they’re all on.

The band has, though, been quiet since the summer, some of it planned and some unplanned. In a fallow year for Protest Family albums, you may have expected a solo effort from me, along the lines of somethingweirdgoingoninmyhead or Check Your Stereo. Well, the new songs are coming, a bit slower maybe, but there’s some work on it’s way that I’m already quite proud of, even before the rest of the band get their mucky paws on it and work their magic. You might have got some titbits from social media when I’ve got impatient and stuck myself in front of a live camera, or on YouTube where I’ve parked some sketches of songs where they’re easy for Doug, Lol and Russ to find, or if you’ve caught me giving some songs a run-out on my solo travels.

The Crematorium is of course the most immediately pressing message to get out there, but the song’s not going to go away, anymore than the Justice4Grenfell campaign will. We did knock up a terrific version of it for Tolpuddle with Robb Johnson on lead guitar and Maddy Carty’s amazing backing vocals, but the regular Protest Family line-up’s version is yet to be unveiled. Expect to hear it on November 14th at Ye Olde Rose & Crown as we raise money for striking workers at Whipps Cross Hospital.

Although The Death of Facts has been around since I played it at Punk 4 The Homeless in Nottingham last year, it’s not on the band’s radar yet, but I think it will be eventually. What is coming up soon (see above for when soon is) are Protest Family versions of Supersonic (using supersonic passenger flight to demonstrate that progress isn’t linear) and Han Solo (using the films of Harrison Ford to talk about consent. A chat that the actual Harrison Ford could’ve done with, by all accounts).

There’s enough love out there for If The Queen Had a Hammer that I think there will be a band version of it and, although I’m yet to share it with them, I think there’s a future for my song about Frank Turner (cheekily titled Thatcher Fucked The Kids) too. However my Blue Labour anthem Flag, Faith, Family & Fried Chicken may well fall by the wayside. It’s funny, true (look them up) and in the Protest Family style, but I think I’m tiring of it before it’s crossed the finish line. Maybe a new arrangement will give it a new lease of life. We’ll see.

Also queuing up to hit your ears is a Steve White/Russ Chandler collaboration called Winter of Discontent. Featuring Shakespeare’s Richard III re-cast as a trade union leader in the dying months of the Callaghan government, it’s the first time that I’ve put anything out there in iambic pentameter. The song will feature on a winter-themed compilation with a worldwide distribution deal* very soon. I’ll point you in the right direction when it comes out.

So, there’s songs, there’s big ideas, but maybe a lack of a vehicle to get them to you. Yes, gigs are a little thin on the ground but we do have a cunning plan or two, so (WATCH THIS SPACE).

Steve

 

*Everybody with an internet connection and an upload button’s got one.

Maddy Carty & The Protest Family

We first met Maddy Carty about two years ago.  We were both playing for the Show Culture Some Love campaign.  The Family were struck by her remarkable, strong yet vulnerable voice and sophisticated modern soul-based songs.  We immediately suggested her to play at the Matchwomen’s Festival a few months later.

During a rehearsal (yes, we do rehearse), we were trying Right To Strike (from Drums Ruin Everything).  It didn’t sound quite right.  Someone suggested that it might sound good with a female voice doing harmony, like… Maddy Carty.  We warmed to the idea that she might play keyboards on it too.  A few days later, she agreed.  More than that, she really wanted to perform Have I Got News For You with us.  By the time we met up, she was playing on four songs.  She joined us on stage at the Matchwomen’s Festival in July – and it was fun.  We did it again at the Leytonstone Festival the following week. A couple of months later, Steve and Maddy did a couple of songs together in central London.

Madd y and Steve Paul Rutland mod
Steve and Maddy  (Pic: Paul Rutland)

Meanwhile, a new movement had been brewing.  It was We Shall Overcome: hundreds of gigs across the country on the same weekend, protesting against austerity, and raising money and collecting food for those hardest hit by it.  We wanted to do something special for that – but what?  Well, who else would we call?  So in October, Maddy Protest joined us for our entire set at the Rose & Crown for Walthamstow Folk’s contribution to the weekend.  It was a great night with an enthusiastic crowd, but…

Discussing it afterwards, we felt that something was a bit off.  Was it Doug’s socks?  No, not this time.  It boiled down to this: we had used Maddy as a piano player and a backing vocalist.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  She’s fine as a piano player.  She’s fine as a backing vocalist.  But she’s got so much more.  She was easily the best singer present on stage that night (sorry, Doug), but her terrific voice was always in the background.  Also, she’s a very strong songwriter, but we played none of her songs at all.  She was happy to play that night, but on reflection it seemed to us to be a bit of an insult to her talents.

Fast forward to 2016.  We had a better idea: how about having Maddy join us properly for a one-off gig?  This time, she could back us on some of our songs – and we would back her on some of hers.  But she let us down badly, pointing out that she was getting married on the day that we’d planned for the performance. How selfish can you get?

marriage-facts
Marriage: selfish

Now it’s 2017 (check your phone if you don’t believe me) and we’ve forgiven her for that snub.  It’s finally going to happen.  On Sunday 16th July at the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival in Dorset, Maddy Carty & The Protest Family will take to the stage.  It’s going to be different.  Come and join us.

Lol

(Main pic: Thee Faction)