****STOP PRESS****

‘THE FUTURE NEEDS US NOW’, my brand new album, has landed. I have…or rather I had….1048 copies here on CD ready to take out on the road in 2017 and they are available to pre-order on Bandcamp as of NOW. I mentioned this on Facebook last night and sold 50 copies before I went to bed which is unprecedented here at Solo Towers, so the early signs are very good indeed.

There’s nearly an hour of music and poetry making up this album and I hope you’ll find something on there to love.

The world seems to me to be at some kind of crossroads. There is much to be afraid of going into 2017 with an incompetent yet ever-vicious government steering the course; a rising tide of right wing hatred fuelled by a vindictive media narrative; the terms of Brexit being negotiated by the forces of self-interest and, of course, Trump; yet there is much to be hopeful for and I believe that compassion has never been closer to becoming  a major force in political decision-making despite the world being seemingly set against it.

All of this hope and doubt and anger and love is woven into every stitch of ‘THE FUTURE NEEDS US NOW’.

You can pre-order a CD here:

https://joesolomusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-future-needs-us-now

and all orders will ship ready to land on or before the scheduled release date of 6th January 2017.

The download version will be available from that date, with all money raised going to help Pauline Town‘s network in Ashton-under-Lyne, fighting the effects of austerity at street level.

As ever, your support is greatly appreciated.

More info on the album and songs will follow in January, but suffice to say I am desperate to get this record out into the world.

Bring it on.

I would just like to take the opportunity to say a MASSIVE Merry Christmas to all of you good people who have helped me along the road this year.

To everyone who cheered and sang and applauded; to everyone who shook and rattled and hollered; to everyone who booked and promoted; to everyone who ran lights and sound; who did artwork and posters; who took photos and film; to everyone who kept venues running against the odds; to everyone who had faith enough to run those festivals when they knew it was a gamble; to everyone who kept the faith in our politics and didn’t run and hide; to everyone who walked it like they talked it; to everyone who bought CDs; to everyone who downloaded; to everyone who watched the videos; who shared the links; who retweeted; who commented; who messaged when they knew I was down; who drove miles in the cold and rain to be there; who stood at our side during We Shall Overcome; who wrote articles and reviews; who donated food and cash and clothing and bedding and furniture; who offered lifts; who held out their hand; who hugged; who rebuilt; who slept in the cold for Pauline; who was there and wore the t-shirt; who couldn’t make it and STILL wore it; who cared enough to ask for help and then smashed it out of the ground.

ALL of you made magic happen this year; and because of you that magic will go on.

MERRY CHRISTMAS one and all.

Joe

We are into the final four days of this incredible journey, and although it has been a bumpy ride, I don’t think any of us could have imagined how far ‘Merry Christmas From Hatfield Main’ would come in a few short weeks- from the telly to the tabloids, and almost everything in between.

Michael Lee Toas created a fantastic ‘Story Behind…’ video which you can watch above, and I did the narration to tell of how this amazing tale unfolded. This gave us a lift in a tricky week which brought with it several reminders of the scale of the task facing us, with the empty promises of politicians ringing loud in our ears.

That said, the Daily Mail hatchet job on Tosh McDonald and Jeremy Corbyn gave us something to laugh at midweek as an article which managed to tick just about every cliche from their anti-union manual for beginners dismissed our song as:

“….a seasonal socialist ditty about the miners.”

which, given the blatant lies and mis-truths making up the rest of this slur on the word ‘journalism’, was at least based on truth even if it managed to miss the point entirely. Still, as a wise man once said, you know you’ve made it when you **** off the Daily Mail.

So we enter the home straight with a skip in our step and hope in our hearts knowing we gave it our best shot and if that wasn’t good enough then so be it. We can only give you the best song we had and tell you where to get it, and if you don’t want it then that is how this whole sorry thing works. There is still time to help us on our way though, and remember, every penny we make goes to help folks struggling to make ends meet in #FoodBankBritain. Here’s your up to date list on where to download it:

Jamie Bramwell’s We Shall Overcome: #Busk4TheHomeless event ran up and down the country last Saturday, setting the tone for our assault on the politics of despair as we prepare for #WSO2017.

It brought us some incredible images via the lens of Warren Millar, and a heartwarming video which soon went viral…..

That’s Ste Goodall on that video, just off camera on the right…..all of this is his fault 😉

The event was a massive success and we plan another on Saturday January 28th, so if you can join in and bring YOUR town to the party get in touch via the website or the Facebook group….or email me at joesolomusic@hotmail.co.uk

Big thanks to Liverpool Live TV for their coverage. A great piece here:

Most of all a MASSIVE thank you to all the musicians, artists and activists who took to the streets to get the WSO message out there, and whose efforts got a lot of homeless people out of shop doorways and into hostels, at least for a couple of nights.

Amazing work everyone.

So proud to be a part of this amazing family.

#WSO2017. BRING IT ON!

Well, as Week Two of our ‘Merry Xmas From Hatfield Main’ campaign comes to an end, it is time to reflect on seven days of utter madness and try to make some sense of it all.

Monday started well, the video footage of our recording session at Stainforth Central Club on Sunday October 30th had gone viral over the weekend and we hit 86,000 views this week proving the massive public interest in the song and the cause.

We had a massive lift that night when BBC Look North ran a piece on their evening news bulletin giving us our first television coverage. Despite one or two glaring factual errors in the reportage, most notably that we recorded at the now defunct Miner’s Welfare and not The Central. Dean and the staff there deserved their mention having put so much into making us welcome that day, but no matter, WE know who needs the respect, and now so do you.

The footage is here:

From there we spent the week sharing video and download links on every conceivable social media page we could imagine, desperate for people to download it. There was one problem- Amazon had not released it on schedule and were saying the fault lay at our end. As the second largest seller of downloads in the UK, this was a significant blow to us and we launched several attempts to contact them that all hit the same brick wall.

I had pretty much given up.

By Friday excitement had hit fever pitch. Tosh McDonald, President of ASLEF, had asked us to perform ‘Merry Christmas From Hatfield Main’ at the rail union’s Annual Dinner, just before their main speaker, Mr Jeremy Corbyn. The Hatfield Brigade gathered in the bar downstairs barely able to contain their excitement, while word came down asking if, as we were singing after a speaker from the International Brigade Memorial Trust, we could also sing ‘NO PASARAN!’…..

It would be impolite not to, we said.

So we did.

And after THAT? Well THIS happened….

That’s right. We were joined on stage by none other than Mr Corbyn himself, who took to the song with gusto and by the end was singing as loud as anyone on that stage. It was a wonderful demonstration of solidarity with a community pulling together to help those struggling in #FoodBankBritain and we cannot thank him enough for joining us up there and raising everyone’s spirits.

While Les Moore….

and Peter Stefanovic…..

went off to speak with Mr Corbyn on the subject of the Miner’s Pension Scheme, the rest of The Brigade took the Hatfield Main banner and went off on a very special mission of our own…..

Thanks to some expert coaxing from Jan Pearson, the manager of Frenchgate Shopping Centre in Doncaster had agreed to us flashmobbing the mall for an extended version of the single and here we all are….

A terrific afternoon and the perfect way to end the gigging year for me, in the finest of company with a VERY special honorary guest beside me. Just fantastic.

We got a HUGE lift on Saturday when Amazon mysteriously worked out the fault had been their end all along and brought the single out a mere 12 days after its official release date. Still, better late than never and people started downloading it immediately catapulting us to No.20 in their Top 100 best-selling songs overnight Saturday and topping the Folk Chart ahead of ‘A Fairytale of New York’ by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, a song I have loved since Xmas 1987 when it first broke my heart. If only for a few hours, we were Kings (and Queens) of The World.

Alas, these things never last and reality always bites. Without the mass media machine behind us, without Major Label backing or a TV show putting us out there; without friendly newspaper editors or a designated Press Office, the glass coach soon begins to look remarkably like a pumpkin and No.1 for an hour doesn’t mend washing machines come Monday morning.

What ‘Merry Christmas From Hatfield Main’ needs now is YOU.

We are going into WEEK 3 of our campaign and we need YOUR HELP stepping it up. Without you we look very much like a washing machine engineer and a choir of former miners and their families; but WITH you, we look like a People’s Army ready to take on the charts and help feed hundreds of people currently going without in #FoodBankBritain.

We need your shares, your retweets, your Likes, your comments, your messages of support, your reviews of the single, and above all YOUR DOWNLOADS.

Please, please, please part with 79p or 99p (depending on the site) from one of these outlets:

Incredible day with The Hatfield Brigade at the ASLEF Annual Dinner in Doncaster. We’d been invited to perform ‘Merry Christmas From Hatfield Main’ before the main speaker, none other than Mr Jeremy Corbyn.

In the event, we went on after an incredible speech by a representative of the International Brigade Memorial Trust which served as a wonderful reminder of the selfless sacrifice of the volunteers and the example they set in standing up for Socialist principles even in the face of death. There was little else to follow that but ‘No Pasaran!’ for which we were joined on stage by ASLEF President Tosh McDonald.

It went one better a few minutes later when Mr Corbyn joined us to sing ‘Merry Christmas From Hatfield Main’, which he did with gusto. This was a tremendous gesture from a man about to make a big speech to the hall, and I know The Brigade were moved by his show of solidarity and support for both the song and the community. Pete Martin shot it on video, and you can see that above.

We went from there to a cheeky flashmob in Frenchgate Shopping Centre where we raised the banner and sang out loud. Some top persuasion from Jan Pearson and the centre management caved and allowed us a few minutes free from the security guards. Jan had mentioned in passing that the managers would GET a Christmas dinner, and it was time to think about those who wouldn’t. Hehe. Top work, go get em gal!

I’d like to thank Tosh and all at ASLEF for the invite, and Mr Corbyn for walking it like he talks it and joining us in solidarity with the cause and a community standing up and trying to make a difference.

The perfect end to the gigging calendar.

2017 can’t come soon enough.

Mint.

AND REMEMBER TO BUY THE SINGLE!! From:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/merry-christmas-from-hatfield/id1171818970

On Monday evening BBC Look North ran the above piece on ‘Merry Christmas From Hatfield Main’ and The Hatfield Brigade. Nice to get a bit of telly for the cause, so big thanks to Len Tingle for helping get our message out there.

One glaring error though- and credit where credit is due- the film states we recorded the single at the local Miner’s Welfare. That no longer exists, sadly. We recorded at Stainforth Central Club on Sunday October 30th, and we owe a massive debt of gratitude to Dean and the staff there for making us so welcome and for putting Christmas up for us, only to have to take it all down again and put Halloween up after we’d gone. Thanks Dean, very much appreciated.

Our campaign marches on. Every day is a new adventure….and Friday will be fantastic. Myself and The Brigade have been asked to perform the song at the ASLEF Christmas Dinner just before Jeremy Corbyn addresses the room. This will be both an honour and an absolute pleasure to end the gigging year in such good company. Can’t wait.

More at the weekend….

‘Merry Christmas From Hatfield Main’ by Joe Solo & The Hatfield Brigade was released on Monday 28th November 2016. Since then life has been total mayhem.

The video above was published on the BBC Sunday Politics East Midlands Facebook page last night and is closing in on 50,000 views in 24 hours. To put that in perspective, the YouTube of my best known song ‘No Pasaran’ was published 3 years ago and has currently had 3,733. Yes, it is THAT frantic here.

You can download the single from most of the online stores, but at present we are focusing on i-tunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/merry-christmas-from-hatfield/id1171818970

….and don’t forget to watch the accompanying video:

We have had an amazing response from up and down the country with support from unions, politicians, Ken Loach….and we have London cabbies playing it to everyone who climbs in their taxi! Just incredible. Never in my wildest imagination did I think this was going to happen, but then I should never have underestimated the resourcefulness of The Hatfield Brigade, or the respect and affection the nation feels for our miners.

On Tuesday night we sang together in Unity Works Theatre in Wakefield as part of the Stand Up For Labour tour. On a bill which included Francesa Martinez, Norman Lovett, Matt Abbott, Grace Petrie, Tiernan Douieb and Robb Johnson (who I sang harmony with on his own Xmas single ‘JC4PM 4 Me’ to close the night) The Brigade joined me for ‘No Pasaran’ and our single in what was an emotional 15 minutes. There’s a video here:

We got very excited to find we had risen to No.8 in the I-Tunes Singer-Songwriter Top 100 and even more excited when the Daily Mirror joined our comrades at The Morning Star in backing the song.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/miners-bid-christmas-number-one-9375647#ICID=ios_TMNewsApp_AppShare_Click_FB

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-ed48-Miners-Main-aim-is-to-top-Xmas-charts#.WECrzrKLTIU

Now I have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but you can rest assured it will be a bumpy ride and will consume all involved in utter mayhem…..but it’s one hell of a lot of fun!

I’ll keep you posted……