ireallylovemusic meets : jeremey - levellers bass machine
date : 12/9
point of concern : my first interview
summary : various issues were raised in the 30 mins chat
..
internet,green blade,new lp,crop circles, bangra !
explained that i had noticed that the excellent new lp is being
heavily promoted. far more than hello pig as this was under new
management of warners who had bought out china records.. and
showed no interest in levellers.
so after arrangements were made
the band got away from warners and signed to eagle rock for 3-4
releases. with hag being their imprint which they are hoping to
expand.
what is the new lp about ?
new lp is still issue driven but there are more personal
developments in the songs as marriage/kids as well as tackling
post 911 topics.
when asked regarding the bands opinion of the internet apparently
the levellers were one of the first bands to actually get heavily
involved, to such a degree that record labels approached them for
advise, as the band recognised this new medium as an ideal form
of communication with the fans, the band are directly involved
with the content, although jeremy fully admits he hasn't been
monitoring events recently due to constant interviews - guilt
settling in nicely now !
discussion turns to the famous metway sessions "free
studio time for local bands" .. so far the best success
for these is the excellent electric soft parade who are friends
with the levellers and were due to play the fayre as well. (indie
guitars bands sides with levellers - who would ever have thought
of such a thing)
i mentioned about ozric tentacles dance offshoot - eat static -
and wondered if jeremy had ever thought of doing a dance track
especially considering the fact that rave-experts orbital are
fellow metway residents - 'well we have the odd dance remix'
not what i meant, when pushed a bit more on this he did
actually reveal that he had done stuff, a couple of 'origin
unknown' white labels and indeed one norman cook was knocked out
by one such track !
Fat Boy slim likes the levellers and to this day the fat boy
doesn't realise that the track was made by the levellers .
excellent .. this is true subversion ..
as a new convert to the levellers music i was unaware as to the
origin of the "green blade" phrase .. apparently this
is a title of an old song that never made it onto an lp .. and
they liked it so much that they named the lp and the fayre after
it - unfortunately the fayre that was never allowed to happen dur
to resistance from local residents including an ex-policeman who
had misapprehensions regarding the band.
and the reason for a festival in
todays climate of over saturated festivals market ?
'we just wanted to recreate a small festival like the type we
used to go to, restricted access to about 6000'
sounds perfect to this listener .. and i doubt there will be any large screens with ads for orange/cocacola ..
was the local resident rejection of the fayre a source of anger/pain ?
"at first i thought it was crap - but then i realised that were still a rebel rock band"
good to hear that a band into their second decade within the industry still have romantic aspirations of being rebels, the fires of conviction still burn bright. fingers crossed for next year then - plans are already underway .. lets just hope they can overcome the fact that the band are unfortunatly still tagged as trouble causers possibly down to the fact that Jeremy used to be a 'traveller' ('living in a bus just outside bristol') subsequently they have been linked to the 'crusty' movement ever since, as they played venues/festivals that were frequented by travellers.
the band have a very unique design
appearance as jeremy does all the covers himself .. the new one
is very subtley issue releated as it shows a man sweeping a flag
with the 'rolling a' symbol over the countryside. this flag
symbol is well recognised within levellers world .. and therefore
a source for many many tatoos and has been nicknamed the rolling
egg as the symbol is very difficult to emulate well on the body
as it requires a flat surface. the band have pushed the symbol to
the fore in the video for the next single (Angels).
"symbols are very important to us"
fact : the rolling a symbol is a true local news story as they
created a huge crop circle in the image of the rolling a - and
the locals have no idea who/why/what the image is for.. i could
advise how this was done but i suspect i may be whisked away in
the dead of night. lets just say the symbol caused headaches for
those involved.
the topic of the single actually raised the point of the
wonderful world of multi formats.
Jeremy admitted that they had to do a cd1/cd2 package ('hate
them') for the first release off the new lp as this is
necessary these days but hoped that they wouldn't have to resort
to these tactics for the next release .. but he did infur that
this may not be the case anymore .. as the single is regarded as
an advert for the lp and not a chart entry.
then again Jeremy did admit that having a hit these days is not
as important as having the lp hit the charts
"number 11 was where we
always stopped"
when pushed as to why this is so
important to him
"i guess i'm just
conditioned to have a hit"
afterall there is a world of
artists these days that dont hit the charts and are doing very
well for themselves
"yeah - bangrha .. f**ing millions there .. no hits"
oh the mental image of levellers
doing a bangrha crossover hit on top of the pops.
in these strange days these things are not beyond possible
when the phrase folk-punk is raised i am advised that this is a term 'i hate', especially as the other band well known in the genre (the pogues) neither of us particulaly enjoy we dont really venture down that path much further !
a band with an opinion is a very rare commodity these days in
fact neither of us could think of a single band around at the
moment who tackle politics small or large,in their songs as
overtly as the levellers .. 'opinions aren't allowed in case they
stop someone from buying a record', the fact that they have
continued within/without the music industry support for over 10
years, having established themsleves via word of mouth prior to
the internet is testimony to the bands strngth and talents.
maybe though the tide has turned in the bands favour. i hope so.
they deserve it. listen to the new single 'come on' and hear a
breath of fresh clean air
i feel though that the bands
motivations/passions/reinvestment in local community indicate the
true beliefs of a direct action band who work outside the
standard music industry and certainly are far more noble, and
definitley worthy of far more kudos than they get.
see you at next years fayre.