Interview with Levellers
This month sees you come to Norwich for your tour of ‘Levelling the Land’ – are you raring to go for it?Yeah, we played a couple of gigs last weekend as a warm-up type thing and they went really well, so that’s really good. I think it’s going to be a really good tour all-round; I think the kids are going to love it.
I imagine that some of them won’t be kids anymore though, haha…No, I guess not; it’s probably some of our fans’ kids that are coming along now. We’re getting a lot of that now, which is great, so yeah, it’s a big difference of age groups in the audience, but we always sort of have had. There was a lot of people that saw us a few years ago, but it’s great, because that’s what we’re doing with ‘Levelling the Land’ really, touring it and it’s still probably our most popular album, so it’ll be a good show. We’ll be playing a few B-sides and singles after that, so everything’s mixed, otherwise it’d be quite a short show if we just played the album, hehe, so we’ve had to chuck a few more bits in, but it works really well.
And is the fact that it’s 20 years since its release the whole reason for doing the tour?I think so, you know, it occurred to us because we did a tour for ‘A Weapon Called the Word’ a couple of years ago, which was an album we did in ’88, and it just seemed like the next step really. I mean we’re working on new stuff, you know, we’re working on new stuff all the time and we’re in the middle of doing stuff at the moment, so it’s not like we’re just thinking, ‘oh, we’ve got nothing else on!’ It just seemed like a good thing, because people did like it, and a lot of the issues it addresses are still all very relevant. If anything, the situation seems to have worsened now compared to what it was then, although it’s quite weird at the moment, watching the news with everything going on in the Middle East an’ all that.
I was going to say, actually, because politics have always been part of your tapestry as a band, so how do you view the infectious revolutions dominating the headlines at the moment?Well it’s strange, isn’t it? I mean politically we seem to have got involved in it even though we don’t like politics as a band much, but you can’t ignore what’s happening. Yeah, if it brings real democracy to certain areas then great, because democracy and freedom of speech and choice is brilliant, but I am quite cynical too about Libya at the moment, as to which way it’s going and why. It’s interesting, but people have got to understand that it’s dangerous as well for the people there.
It’s staggering really, the echoes of 1991 that there are politically in our country still now, but politics or otherwise, what memories of 1991 are you trying to evoke on this tour?Erm, I don’t know if that’s what we’re doing. Obviously we’re playing the records, but I suppose really in some ways in 1991 you’ve got the Gulf War and all that going on –
- Yeah, maybe you don’t want to dredge that up, haha! Exactly! You look at Libya and you’re thinking ‘how come our Foreign Office has held back and not done anything?’, is it because we’re trying to get off with some of Libya’s oil?! So it does kind of stink of 20 years ago in some ways if you’re being cynical. But I think the whole thing that we’ve always been about is that you don’t necessarily believe everything you read in the press and don’t also feel alone; there are people out there that believe the same as you and you can protest and be heard. I think if people are willing to stand up and say they’re fed up of this, they should, because you only have to look across the shores and see that isn’t the case for everyone. What we’ve always been about really though is coming down, forgetting your woes for a bit and having a dance really.
When I look back, say, 15 years ago, I remember a time when you were nobody if you didn’t have Levellers scrawled across your school bag – what do you think it was that captured the imagination of a generation?Well I think we were standing up and saying ‘look, this is where we have come from – what’s wrong with it’. You know, the government had clamped down already on free festivals and that sort of scene and they were trying to clamp down on your right to protest about justice deals and poll tax and all these things that do affect people. It was very easy back then for the politicians to just pass things through without anybody batting an eyelid, you know, and having lived through Thatcher, we wanted people to be aware of the dangers I guess, of letting your government rule your country, as opposed to working for you as an individual. That’s what governments elect to do, they’re civil servants but they seem to have forgotten the civil and the servant bit. But if you let them, they’ll abuse power, they will all over the world. It was partly that; we were fed up of all our festivals being shut down, all our teen years of wanting to have fun in the sun was being clamped down on. That’s what we were saying back then, and then in recent times, with the student riots and what’s going on globally, it does feel similar.
But obviously you’ve also always been synonymous with having a good time and songs like ‘Just the One’ were anthemic for us as carefree youths, but 20 years must have taken its toll Simon, so how do you approach a potentially boozy tour 20 years on?Well personally I treat it very carefully, haha! I mean I’ve slowed down a lot on the drinking and things; I still drink and have a good time, I just think you have to work harder to do stuff, particularly touring. It’s easy to slip into thinking, ‘well, I’m mid-40s and I should grow up really’, but I’ve never thought long in that way, so why should I now? But I keep myself fit in other ways; I do a lot of chainsaw work – we don’t have central heating, so I burn wood, which is very green and sustainable, but I prefer to go and get it myself, chainsaw it up and burn it. I do a lot of climbing still and walking and stuff. You know, I try and walk to the pub rather than drive there! I eat well and do a lot of gardening, so when I do go out on tour now, it’s good fun; you can have a few beers, but I can’t sustain the level that we used to 20 years ago! You get drunk and end up singing and partying and then the next day you haven’t got a voice!
What I think has always been great is that you’ve been able to showcase and break new artists by giving them your support slots – Seth Lakeman comes to mind straight away. What do you think of the music scene at the moment, and in particular, folk’s current stronghold?It’s hard for me, because I’m not the best at keeping on track; I’m not a massive music boffin, I’ve never been like that. I’m quite stuck in my ways about what I listen to when I get the chance to actually listen to music, but there are a lot of good acts out there at the moment I think and a lot of it does seem to be more about folk in that 60s kind of style. You’ve got your Mumford and Sons and stuff like that, that aren’t necessarily folk music to be honest, you know – see, I am quite cynical about it! People like Seth on the other hand, is great, he’s a very unique singer and writer and I think he’s fantastic. Seth was going in his own direction anyway, without any push from us, but it was nice to have him out on tour with us and show him the ropes about what touring was like. It was quite good for him. But yeah, it’s funny, a lot of our support acts in the past have gone on to very big things – Snow Patrol, people like that, Chumbawumba, Manic Street Preachers, they do really huge things and it’s nice. We still keep doing that as much as we can and the Metway is still there as a thing for young bands in Brighton. We still stuck to that principle because obviously it’s important and folk music has always been a way of passing on messages or protesting or keeping certain historical things alive. Music’s always been that for me. I guess in some ways I’ve got a folk-principled mind, even though I play heavy electric guitar as well as mandolins.
Recently you won the Roots Award on Radio 2’s Folk Awards. They said it’s awarded to bands that don’t stray from their roots, but have you ever felt knocked off course?We’ve always stuck pretty much to the way we’ve done things, you know, ‘cause it always worked for us. We’ve always been very wary of being controlled by anyone, so we’ve always tried to keep it within our own band. Over the years we’ve gone more so, getting rid of management and agencies and record companies and doing in ourselves. It’s been a learning curve, but no, I think we’ve always stuck to our guns a little bit really. Obviously musically we’ve had moments where we’ve strayed from what we were best at, but I think you have to experiment with stuff in music, you know, you shouldn’t be set in your ways. In the mid-90s there was a sort of dance-y element creeping in there from certain areas of the band that were out partying and listening to that kind of music, I guess. That starts to influence you if you’re not careful, I think, but it didn’t really mix with our sort of music in my opinion! I felt we were straying a bit, but we seem to have got it back over the last few records, especially the last record and hopefully the next one.
How chuffed are you, Simon, that a few of your dates, including Norwich have sold out already?It’s really good, really pleased. It’s a bit like 20 years ago when we were selling out everywhere we went; it’s great because you know you’re going to get good vibes, and our fan always have given that. The more vibe we get, the more vibe they get and it snowballs then, you know. Maybe I’ll start feeling like in 21 again! It does, it gives you a real buzz and it’s lovely to actually have to add dates.
Do you have any memories of Norwich at all from the last times you played here?Yeah, I know Norwich fairly well – I’ve got friends and family up that way and yeah, the UEA’s really good, but the only sad thing about it is that it’s a bit of a yomp into town from where the gig is, so I don’t often make that journey, but you know, it’s a good little gig. It’s a lot smaller than most of the tour, but it’s always worth doing.
Emma Roberts
Levellers bring their ‘Levelling the Land’ tour to the UEA on March 16th. The show is sold out, but for the latest info, go to www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk.
