Music reviews

Announcing the release of The Four Fathers’ new album, ‘Songs of Loss and Resistance’, on Bandcamp, featuring ten original songs — mostly protest songs, nine by me, and one by our guitarist Richard Clare — which is available to listen to for free, or, if you’d like, to buy as a download, or even as a limited edition CD. You can also buy individual tracks as downloads. The album covers tumultuous events in the UK and globally over the last eight years, including the existential threat to humanity posed by climate collapse, the Grenfell Tower fire, the Brexit referendum, the anti-gentrification Tidemill garden occupation in Deptford, the ongoing plight of Guantánamo’s “forever prisoners”, and the unjust imprisonment of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange. It was recorded sporadically, between July 2018 and January this year, with the great Charlie Hart, a multi-instrumentalist and producer, best-known as a member of Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance in the 1970s and ‘80s, who also plays electric piano and accordion on three of the songs.

Promoting the release of ‘Warriors (Freedom Version)’ by The Four Fathers, an amended version of the song ‘Warriors’, which I wrote about Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, and which we released in February, while Julian was still held in HMP Belmarsh, fighting his proposed extradition to the US in the UK courts. We released the updated song to mark 50 days since Julian unexpectedly regained his freedom as the result of a plea deal at the end of June, and I hope that you have time to listen to it, and that you’ll share it if you like it. Julian hasn’t made any public statements since his release, although last month his wife Stella posted the wonderful photo of the whole family together on a beach in Australia, which we used as the cover image, and I’m sure I’m joined by many other supporters in wishing him the opportunity to enjoy his freedom in peace, as I’m sure it will take him a considerable amount of time to recover from his long ordeal – of nearly seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and then five years in Belmarsh.

Photos from, and my review of the wonderful WOMAD world music festival that took place from July 25 to 28 in the grounds of Charlton Park in Wiltshire. I’ve been attending WOMAD every year since 2002 as part of my wife’s community arts group, Dot to Dot, in which we entertain the children in the festival’s World of Children area, where, this year, we charmed the kids with a giant bee figure, Queenie. Amongst the extraordinary musicians who lifted my soul this year were DAM, the Palestinian hip-hop group featuring the rapper Tamer Nafar, Nana Benz du Togo, a brilliant five-piece voodoo feminist group, the Senegalese legend Baaba Maal, and a multi-generational highlife band from Ghana.

My review of, and photos from ‘Palestine Vision’, an extraordinary evening of Palestinian music at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill on May 7, taking place to protest against Israel’s inclusion in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, which included an electrifying appearance by Palestinian hip-hop legend Tamer Nafar, and a moving set by rising pop star Bashar Murad, who set to music ‘If I Must Die’ by the much-loved poet and academic Refaat Alareer, who was targeted and murdered by Israel in Gaza in December. My video of Bashar’s musical version of Refaat’s poem is included.

Linking to, and discussing my recent interview with Chris Cook of Gorilla Radio, in which we discussed Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, the significance of the recent by-election victory in the UK of George Galloway, the continuing plight of the 16 men still held at Guantánamo who have long been approved for release, the global vigils for the prison’s closure, and the continuing plight of Julian Assange, who is still fighting in the British courts to prevent his extradition to the US to face outrageous and unjustifiable espionage charges relating to WikiLeaks’ publication, in 2010-11, of classified US files leaked by Chelsea Manning. Chris also played ‘Warriors’, my recently released song about Julian and Chelsea, recorded with The Four Fathers.

Linking to, and discussing the significance of ‘Warriors’, the new release by The Four Fathers, which I wrote about Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, and which was released to coincide with Julian’s last UK appeal against his proposed — and grotesquely unfair — extradition to the US to face espionage charges relating to the files that he published, with some of the world’s most significant newspapers, which had been leaked by Chelsea Manning, including the Guantánamo files, on which I worked a media partner.

My report about, and photos from this year’s WOMAD world music festival in Wiltshire, where, as usual, there was some excellent music from around the world — with my favourites this year being Mokoomba, Souad Massi and Horace Andy, and with a non-musical highlight being an appearance by the great Michael Rosen.

My review of the WOMAD festival’s welcome return to Charlton Park in Wiltshire for the first time since 2019, and my reflections on the festival’s history, and my 20 years of attending and working in the children’s workshops, which culminate in a children’s procession through the festival site on its final evening.

My review of BAC Beatbox Academy’s ‘Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster’, the top-rated show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019, which is back on tour after two years off the road because of Covid. If you get the chance to see it, don’t miss it!

My thoughts on the eve of England’s second Covid lockdown, set to last for a month from November 5, in which, as well as being critical of the government’s typically slow and muddled response, I also reflect on the importance of live music and other forms of culture, and how they have flickered to life, against all the odds, since Covid hit, as well as how they might resume when this lockdown ends.