Scritti Politti musician Rhodri Marsden recorded ‘The Hustle’ with Article 54 to help cope with today’s political uncertainty
Make no mistake, however: songs are being written about Brexit. You need only look on Spotify. There you can hear hundreds of them. Whether you’d actually want to listen to them is another matter – but don’t worry, because I’ve done it.
The reason for this was purely narcissistic: I was looking to see if my own Brexit album had appeared on the platform yet and checked out the competition, which comes in a huge range of musical styles.
Interesting lyrics
The Houghton Weavers, a folk band from Bolton, consider the issue of au pairs: “Are you all ready for Brexit? / You’ll have to do your own chores / You’ll have to ask granny / Cos your Swedish nanny / Won’t look after the kids any more”.
MC Drillminister bemoans attitudes towards immigrants: “And man wanna stop immigration? / Like Britain ain’t immigrant central? / Celts, Picts, Angles, Saxons, Romans, Vikings, mental”.
The Widows’ “Brexit Chainstore Massacre” offers a punky perspective – “Digging up the glory of the bygone age / national flagellation on the global stage” – while reggae artist Boom Donovan Green has a unique take on the negotiations: “May went to Brussels to get ideas / They said they’d get ideas / So she get diarrhoea.”
Introducing my album
My own approach came from the dancefloors of the 1970s, inspired by epic disco albums. I set about shoehorning the modern-day saga of Brexit into 35 minutes, using Chic-style guitars, disco strings and a chorus of four women (including my long-suffering girlfriend).
In the end, 12 of us formed the group Article 54 and whooped it up on songs including “Freedom Of Movement”, “Backstop” and “Canada Plus”.
With the uncertainty of Brexit having caused me no end of anxiety, this labour-intensive task worked out cheaper than cognitive behavioural therapy. But it felt wrong to indulge in polemic or express aggressive opinions – we hear enough of that already.
Rhodri’s Brexit album ‘The Hustle’ with Article 54:
“The real question is whether Brexit lends itself to good songs,” says Dorian Lynskey, author of 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs. “Many British musicians find that Brexit is better in the background than the foreground, and I think that’s a sensible artistic choice.”
Varying approaches
Folk singer Megan Henwood, whose beautiful “Brexit Blues” was the highlight of my Spotify trawl, says: “People don’t listen to music to be made to feel uncomfortable – people go to comedy shows for that. But with everything feeling so horrible and divided, I felt that I wanted to escape.”
Others take a more forthright approach. Rage Against The Brexit Machine, the brainchild of musician and speaker Peter Cook, has released “Nigel Farage’s Garage” and “No, Jeremy Corbyn”.
“Many of the songs are acidic,” he says. “But the point was to have another communications channel, alongside the posters and leaflets.”Leave voters also express their frustration, amongst them Chas Crane (“They asked me what I wanted / And they let me have my say / But they really couldn’t care less / Not gonna do it anyway”) and Jed Ford: (“A Brexit bomb like dynamite / chose freedom, sovereignty / To remain, the people said / was no better than slavery”).
Of course, none of these songs – mine, nor anyone else’s – will change the world. As a form of mild protest, they either serve to remind listeners that they’re not alone with their feelings about Brexit – or, conversely, to wind them up.
As DJ Brexit puts it, in his “Hard Brexit Anthem”: “Direct and ever so nifty / You’re gonna get triggered like Article 50.”
‘The Hustle’ by Article 54 is out now
