Once more into the breach - "Demagogue Rules"...

A good time, I think, to dust off this song – the video promoting 2019’s “Damascus Road” album. 

After changes upon changes…

R.I.P. John...

 R.I.P. Peely – it was twenty years ago today…

Stream "The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur"...

A quick reminder that my latest album, "The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur", is available to listen to on all these streaming services!

Don't miss out!

"The Roses Of Eyam" - topline music...

It’s just been drawn to my attention that anyone looking for topline music and lyrics to “The Roses Of Eyam” can check them out at campaignchoirs.org.uk. 

Thanks to whoever posted…

Caught In The Act reviews "The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur"...

A highly appreciative review of my latest album, “The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur” from Brian Hinton in the latest edition of Caught In The Act. 

Many thanks, Brian!

***

BEAU
 
“The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur”
Cherry Red BEAULC1 – DL-only – (49:29)
…by Brian Hinton
 
The recent CD celebrating the troubadours and one man bands who plied their trade in Les Cousins basement dub in Soho reminded us of that amazing spurt of creativity. And they were built to last. Often after a long silence, I have been hugely impressed by recent gigs by Keith Christmas, Bridgit St John and other long lost visionaries.
 
Beau aka Trevor Mldgely, no longer plays live gigs, but has been extremely prolific on line, with virtual albums in 2021, 2022 and 2023 His latest album doesn’t hold back - "dogging on the pleasure beach" - but is a startling set, lovely 12 string guitar backing up his crystal clear vocals and pin sharp lyrics. Beau skewers some dangerous targets - Islamic extremists, champagne socialists, the bottom feeding media and cancel culture. Indeed in some parts of the Internet he might find himself cancelled. If not silenced.
 
For those who lost touch with him with his two long lost albums on John Peel’s label Dandelion, Beau is still a class act. I was reminded by a less plummy Jake Thackeray, or an English version of Loudon Wainwright when he had a weekly slot on a satirical TV show, to put the everyday world in context. If future generations want to know the preoccupations and irritations of the world of the mid 2020s, here it is, neatly skewered. It’s not easy listening, you can’t just put this on in the background at dinner parties (and those in Islington would be hugely affronted) but it is funny, to the point, and strangely energising. Good tunes too. It will gradually worm its way into your subconscious, and maybe help to explain the contemporary world in a witty, bemused and pun-enhanced manner, all of Beau’s own.
 
Brian Hinton
 
Beau song comments:
 
01 Shipwreck Island (3.46)
Courtesy of Daniel Defoe, Robert Louis Stevenson, R. M. Ballantyne and countless others, kids of all ages have imagined the perils of being shipwrecked on some remote desert isle. ‘Shipwreck Island’ feeds into this proud tradition.... almost!
 
02. Publish And Be Damned (4.58)
Celebrating the journalistic integrity of the free press, for so long the guardians of our liberty....
 
03. The Sound Of The Poulterer’s Man (4.23)
A song of possible redemption... In much the same way Sir Tom Stoppard used minor characters from Hamlet in his Rosencrantz and Guildenstem are Dead, so I’ve rather shamelessly dragooned a few personalities from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Sorry; Sir Tom for pinching your idea, and Mr D for the impertinence!
 
04. The Barbershop Quartet (3.56)
We know what it’s like with cities; how unpleasant things have to take place underground to maintain the veneer of hygiene on the surface. Further up the food chain, nation states are remarkably similar; and almost always, what happens down below is something we’d rather not know about..,.
 
05 Never Trust A Cat (4.08)
In the sure and certain knowledge this will alienate 50% of the population.
 
06. The Passing Of Eli Mackay (5.07)
A modern morality tale.
 
07. The Minnow (3.24) Looking at many of the postings I see on social media, I fear one day I may understand human nature.
 
08. Chavasse (4.44)
‘The past is a foreign country: they did things differently there...’ (apologies for slightly misquoting L. P. Hartley).
 
09. A Cautionary Tale (4,36)
A jaunty little song about no-platforming — the intellectual equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and going la, la, la.—
 
10. Revolution Rendezvous (3.06)
Is a paean to champagne socialists everywhere....
 
11. The Watchmaker’s Arms (3.26)

Anyone who’s eavesdropped on taproom conversations in an old-fashioned British pub — the drinking-establishment kind that doesn’t serve up effete items such as food — will understand where this song’s coming from....

 

"The Barbershop Quartet" on Alternative Roots (Brum Radio)...

A big “thank you” to Mike Davies for playing “The Barbershop Quartet” from “The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur” on the latest Alternative Roots show from Brum Radio.

The full show’s already up on Mixcloud and comes highly recommended as always. (However, if you’ve only time to check out TBQ, dive in around the 1 hour 19 mark.)

Cheers, Mike, most grateful!

"Song Of Accountability" on Roots & Branches, Australia...

Many thanks to Michael Hunter of Three D Radio, Australia for including “Song Of Accountability” – the concluding piece from “The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur” – on his Roots & Branches show last night. 

Much appreciated, Michael!

Mark E Smith and Beau's "Creation"...

I’m sure, like me, you’ve wondered over time how Mark E Smith managed to maintain his street cred? Well, a December 1977 photoshoot from Mark E’s flat in Kevin Cummins’ 2022 book, “Telling Stories – Photographs Of The Fall”, reveals all!

We all judge people by their wall art, and here Mark E notably has on display the Beau “Creation” sleeve from ’71!

(Granted, he appears to have scrawled his Tesco shopping list across it, but you certainly can’t fault the man’s taste!)

Many thanks to Ian Green for flagging this one up!

The Folk Club plays "Chavasse"...

A belated shout-out, and a big “thank you”, to Stuart Green of The Folk Club fame for playing “Chavasse” from “The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur” on his 15^th May show!

The show was broadcast live on West Norfolk Radio and Burwell Radio, but the whole programme’s streaming out on Mixcloud; and a highly recommended show it is!

(If however you just want to check out “Chavasse”, you can find it at the 48:27 point.)

Greatly appreciated, Stuart! Thanks again…

"Last Confessions..." - the march continues...

Still hanging in there at Amazon folk! Thanks, people!!

Alternative Roots plays "Revolution Rendezvous"...

Many thanks to Mike Davies for playing “Revolution Rendezvous” from “The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur” on his Alternative Roots programme on Brum Radio.
 
The whole show’s streaming on Soundcloud, and what a great show it is! Do give it a listen!

Thanks again, Mike!

Canada's "Let It Rock" reviews “The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur”...

Many thanks to Dmitry Epstein at Canada’s “Let It Rock” for his kind review of “The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur”. 

Very grateful, Dmitry! 

***

BEAU – The Last Confessions Of A Saboteur

Cherry Red 2024

Applying the “divert and entertain” method to replace the “divide and conquer” approach, English singer-songwriter is keeping his audience’s focus fresh.

It seems to be so easy to accuse Beau’s oeuvre of certain performative sameness or dismiss the veteran’s songs as a simple vehicle for his poetry – because, of course, it is, first and foremost – but that would mean missing the point of Trevor Midgley’s restless efforts to see every year pass by with a new album to accompany the period’s events. However, were it mere reports on actual affairs arriving in the form of musical pieces, assessing the Leeds troubadour’s catalogue outside of temporal constraints will feel difficult, yet, fortunately, there’s always an eternity-baiting twist in his melodic missives to lure the listeners in and reel them into thinking. And what can serve as a thought-provoking process better than a slight cognitive displacement?

Here’s why the record is launched into sonic waters with “Shipwreck Island” which rings like a sea shanty exported to a soiree, Beau’s celesta-like 12-string guitar and high voice lulling the ton before the number’s stanzas bring home the bitter truth of its title sharing letters with “isolationism” that its lyrics maroon for all to marvel at. A pity he didn’t stack vocals to up the irony of “The Barbershop Quartet” but studio trickery has never been Midgley’s way of creating tuneful pictures – in his own words, “listening to the last confessions of a saboteur / it’s meaningless, it’s worthless even working up a sweat” – so don’t expect “Never Trust A Cat” to differentiate between canine and feline delivery either.

And if it comes across like memes, Trevor will send a few more schemes, packed into “Publish And Be Damned” – a ballad for a sacrificial lamb in the shape of facts the readership are loath to accept when offered a sensation by free press, the perspective also laid out under the pop sheen of “The Watchmaker’s Arms” – and “The Sound Of The Poulterer’s Man” that’s wrapped in a folk-informed waltz around social shams, while “The Minnow” graciously swims between puns of social media. And if it’s a bit histrionic, especially in the faux-jovial “A Cautionary Tale” which attacks no-platforming, “Chavasse” presents, via introducing the unjustly forgotten titular hero, a fresh history lesson the singer-songwriter is a specialist in.

But then “Song Of Accountability” gets rid of masks and metaphors to expose Beau’s barely restrained anger at the state of the world, the emotional nerve which is this album’s tightrope rendering it a thrill through and through. And that’s the thrill that’s not to be gone soon.

****4/5

"Roots & Branches" plays "Chavasse"...

A belated “many thanks” to Michael Hunter for playing “Chavasse” from the new “Last Confessions...” album on his Australian Roots & Branches show back on 18^th April. 

Very much appreciated, Michael!

Cherry Red's streaming promo...

Cherry Red’s weekly streaming promo listing. 

Wonder what they have on this week?

Musixmatch family portrait!...

This is a family gathering, taken this morning from the Musixmatch website!

Musixmatch carries the lyrics to all eighteen of my Cherry Red album releases, all meticulously recorded over time by Vincas Stepankevicius in Lithuania.

It’s through Vincas’s efforts that the lyrics all appear contemporaneously when any of my tracks play on Spotify (just click on the little mic!)

Very many thanks for all your hard work, Vincas – it’s much appreciated!