but BE QUICK! We know Grace Petrie has gone up several levels this year and will be opening for Frank Turner on his arena tour of the UK early next year where she’ll be playing to crowds 20 times as big as we can fit into the Old School House; and with the rest of the bill made up of some of the very best live acts around, this is sure to be a pretty busy year.
So take advantage of the early bird price and GET EM ORDERED!
My last gig of 2018 is the Annual Hatfield Brigade Knees-Up at Central Club, Stainforth on Friday December 14th. I’ll be joined by Rebekah Findlay on fiddle and vocals, and the material will mostly centre around the songs from ‘Never Be Defeated’ and the three Joe Solo and the Hatfield Brigade singalongs, but there will be a few surprises thrown in for good measure.
Everyone is welcome and it’s free entry, although it is also my last We Shall Overcome gig of #WSO2018 so we’ll be making a collection of groceries for the local food bank, warm clothing for #SocksAppeal and sanitary towels for #EndPeriodPoverty solidarity campaign.
Please get there if you can.
It will be the last time I raise a guitar in anger before the new year hits and the whole job starts again, but I will be singing songs in local hospitals over the weekend of December 15th/16th as part of a Unison-inspired series of events to bring a little cheer to children unable to make it home for Christmas. There’ll be some old seasonal favourites hammered out on the uke and hopefully we’ll be able to raise a smile or two.
After that it’s back to the job of changing the world.
And there are already some absolute BANGERS confirmed for 2019.
I have always tried to make my songs mean something more than just words and tunes.
Music saved my life.
Over and over again.
And I have always used my own to help save others.
Here’s how it is all going to work this Christmas.
DOWNLOADS If you download ANY Joe Solo songs from Amazon, I-Tunes, CDBaby, Googleplay or Spotify the money will go to the ‘DN7 Hardship Fund’ set up by the Hatfield Brigade to help people struggling to make ends meet in the pit villages of South Yorkshire. This has been running all year and we will be making a sizeable donation to the local food bank this Christmas.
CD SALES ONLINE I only sell CDs on Bandcamp. They are £10 and of that tenner £5 goes to Pauline Town who moves mountains in the battle against homelessness in Greater Manchester. Those fivers become daily packed lunches, or deposits on flats, or any number of other amazing things. Pauline is an expert in making that money stretch in order to have the biggest impact, and she is saving lives on a daily basis.
CD SALES GIGS Again they are a tenner, and again £5 of that goes to Pauline so when you bag yourself some Joe Solo songs you can rest assured that half of the money you just handed over will be helping someone within days. The other fiver? Well that pays for more CDs and the whole things starts again.
On top of that all my gigs are collection points for groceries for food banks through We Shall Overcome, warm clothing for street homeless as part of my #SocksAppeal, and sanitary towels for my #EndPeriodPoverty solidarity campaign. I will never turn donations away, and all of them are shared according to where need is greatest.
So if you want to make a gift of Joe Solo songs this Christmas, or you want to fill a gap in your collection, then please do. You can do that knowing you might just have save someone’s life into the bargain.
The new album ‘Headscarves & Hurricanes’ and the new 8-track extended EP ‘The Past Won’t Last Forever’ were mastered on Monday 26th November and are available NOW to stream/download via Bandcamp, and the pre-order is set up for CD copies of both featuring the artwork of Kevin Pearson and Jamie which will follow in January.
So that’s 19 new Joe Solo songs for 2019!
‘Headscarves & Hurricanes’ tells the story of Hull’s fishing community and is set against the backdrop of the 1968 Triple Trawler Tragedy and the subsequent campaign by the ‘Headscarf Revolutionaries’ to change maritime safety law. It’s 11 songs about love and loss, pride, resilience, and survival; and it tells of a time when Working Class people were bonded to their trade and each other in ways that have been lost in modern times. It’s that shared sense of purpose I wanted to capture. The album features both Rebekah Findlay and Commoners Choir. It’s worth a listen….
‘The Past Won’t Last Forever EP’ is a collection of songs covering subjects as varied as the Peterloo Massacre, the Grunwick Strike, broken promises in the wake of the First World War, the struggles of former mining communities and the rise of the street level fascism in the UK. It features both Rebekah Findlay and the Hatfield Brigade, and is as good a set of songs as I’ve ever put out there. Again, worth your time and attention….
‘Headscarves & Hurricanes’ is available to stream/download or pre-order on this link:
The pair will set you back £15 on CD and £5 of that goes to help Pauline Town fight homelessness in Greater Manchester, so you are helping combat Austerity as well as bagging the best 19 songs I wrote this year.
So sad to hear the walking inspiration that was Harry Leslie Smith passed away in the night. Such an important voice in the struggle against Austerity, reminding us of a world before the NHS and the Welfare State when people died needlessly for lack of care and unemployment meant hardship, poverty, deprivation and squalor.
It doesn’t take much to read into those words the shadow of things to come if we don’t heed his warnings from history.
So today I call on all who care, all who GIVE a damn, to redouble our efforts and to bring down this shameful government and its ideological assaults on the poorest and most vulnerable in our communities, and to do that in the name of Harry Leslie Smith who endured more than most to leave a better world behind him.
The #ArmisticeTour came to its climax last night as our guns fell silent on the centenary of the end of the First World War.
It has been an incredible couple of weekends, six shows taking in Glossop, Wigan, Bolton, Wakefield, Ulverston and Middlesbrough. Each event doubled as a We Shall Overcome gig and the donations coming in each night were truly humbling. Rattling the bucket we raised more than £350 for Pauline Town‘s homeless packed lunches; and donations of food, warm clothing, toiletries and sanitary towels meant we sent Pauline off in one packed car full, and were able to donate Teesside Socialist Clothing Bank what looked to be close to another FOUR car fulls. Can’t thank those who brought donations enough, your compassion and generosity will literally save lives this winter.
A massive thank you has to go out to everyone who booked us and helped support these events, especially Matt Hill, Ian Whiteley, Dave Wood and Leigh Sayers without whom this tour would never have happened; and a special thank you to Lee Huck on sound and vision and humping of much PA equipment at unsociable hours of day and night.
And to our comrades at Philosophy Football for kitting us out in their First World War t-shirts. Much appreciated here.
Having been a bit worried about whether people would be interested in these shows I was absolutely overjoyed to see not only audience numbers, but the reaction after the gigs was truly heartwarming, and although I know the subject can be dark there are moments in the set of genuine slapstick……
…..one of which was caught on camera by Randers Gallery on opening night in Glossop as Rebekah and myself sang a new duet for the very first time live.
So there was laughter to go with the tears, history to be channeled as well as challenged, and a new outlook on the process of Remembrance to be discussed.
And I loved every minute. It is sheer joy to make music with Rebekah Findlay, and such is the added emotional depth her violin and voice give to these songs, that I have dusted off the shelved idea of re-recording these songs for a new album.
So 2019 will see the release of ‘Postcards From Potter’s Field’ by Joe Solo & Rebekah Findlay, and it will also see us hit the road again on the first two weekend of November.
Can’t wait.
More footage is available below courtesy of Ian Swinburne and Randers Gallery.
Incredible weekend on the road with the #ArmisticeTour hitting Glossop, Wigan and Bolton over two days.
So good to see crowds in such numbers for what is quite a dark subject, but the audience responses and the feedback after the gigs has been immense and we can’t thank you enough for your support on this.
We Shall Overcome has benefited too. We managed to collect £150 for Pauline Town‘s work with the homeless of Greater Manchester on Saturday, and I was able to hand her a HUGE bin liner full of #SocksAppeal and #EndPeriodPoverty solidarity campaign donations from previous gigs. On Saturday we raised another £105 rattling the bucket and a rammed car full of solidarity from the north west bound for the north east, which will be delivered to Teesside Socialist Clothing Bank next Sunday.
Massive thank yous to Matt Hill aka Quiet Loner whose legendary Defiance Sessions at Glossop Labour Club got us off to the best possible start; and to Ian Whiteley for answering the call and not only booking Wigan and Bolton, but opening up for us at both with his Crows Of Albion project. A massive thank you too for Lee Huck who lugged his PA into some very tight corners and put on a storming slideshow.
And there are no words to sum up the impact Rebekah Findlay has when she sprinkles that magic dust of hers. Such an honour, and enormous pleasure to share a stage and she was on spellbinding form, finding new emotional depths in those songs and cracking me up hitting the panic button as our unrehearsed new duet stayed the course despite flirting with disaster. You can check that out here:
We’re halfway through, and you can still catch us this coming weekend in Wakefield, Ulverston and Middlesbrough.
My Armistice Tour kicks off this weekend with three gigs in two days, taking in Glossop, Wigan and Bolton. I would be delighted to have your company.
I’ll be accompanied by Rebekah Findlay on violin and vocals, and we’ll be revisiting some of the songs from my 2009 and 2012 albums ‘Music From Potter’s Field’ and ‘Going Home’, stories of men and women struggling to survive and make sense of the world caught up in the maelstrom of the First World War.
The songs are about love and loss, superstition, the nature of remembrance, survivor’s guilt, shellshock, conscientious objection, burying the dead, and above all the quest for a glimmer of light in the darkest of times.
There are also four new songs including two duets, and a narrative weaving the whole thing together and trying to make sense of who we’re remembering and why, together with what put these ordinary people at the mercy of fate in the most extraordinary circumstances.
It’s good. Trust me.
The tour continues the weekend after in Wakefield and Ulverston before concluding in Middlesbrough on Remembrance Sunday which falls on the centenary of the Armistice itself.
All gigs are We Shall Overcome events, so donations of groceries for the local food bank, warm clothing for #SocksAppeal, or sanitary towels for #EndPeriodPoverty solidarity campaign are very welcome.
The new song by Joe Solo & The Hatfield Brigade was recorded at Central Club in Stainforth last Sunday. ‘Rise Up!’ will be released on Monday November 26th as soon as it is mastered, with all funds raised going to the DN7 Hardship Fund helping those struggling to make ends meet in the former pit villages of South Yorkshire.
As ever the session was total mayhem and the best fun you can have making a record. This is our third song together and every bit as shambolic as the first, but always one of my favourite days of the year.
The event doubled-up as a We Shall Overcome gig and thanks to donations from the choir we managed a fantastic stack of food, shoes, coats, socks and sanitary towels for the local food bank on top of TWO recordings; because as well as ‘Rise Up!’ I recorded Mick Lanaghan singing his own song ‘Farewell Hatfield Main’ which will close the forthcoming reissue of ‘Never Be Defeated’ released to mark the 35th anniversary of the Miner’s Strike. No finer way to finish the record than the voice of a true miner singing his own words.
‘Rise Up!’ will appear on two forthcoming CD releases. First my ‘The Past Won’t Last Forever EP’ in January, and then the ‘Never Be Defeated’ reissue in March, so look out for those!
A massive thank you to all Brigaders past and present, especially those who made some pretty long journeys to be there standing in solidarity with us on the day; and to Lindsay Rutland and Pete Martin on camera duties recording the session in photographs.
On the drive back from Darlington, following my We Shall Overcome gig at The Quakerhouse, my mind latched on to a phenomena you’ll all be used to, how the sound of rain pauses as you pass under bridges.
There’s nothing much else to do to pass the long hours alone when you’re a jobbing singer-songwriter, other than then let your mind wander.
So I did.
By the time I got home I’d written a poem called ‘Motorways’.
“Morning Mr Arthur, I’ve come to fix the fridge.”
He said: “I’ve got a little magnet of the Brooklyn Bridge….
The ice cream went all mushy first
And nothing much survived…..
We brought it back from New York
When me wife were still alive…..
But where’s me manners, sunshine
Would you like a cup of tea?
What do you say you’re here to fix
The fridge, or the TV?”
I said: “I’m no good with tellies
I’m here to do the fridge.”
He said: “I’ve got a little magnet
Of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Take no notice of me, son
Me mind’s not what it was
I lose me way a lot these days
I know I do because
I hear me when I’m talking
But there’s gaps in what I say
Like when the rain stops under bridges
As you drive a motorway
I hope the rain stops soon, son
The fridge man comes at three
Forgive me manners won’t you?
Would you like a cup of tea?
You’ll have to drink it black, mind
I’ve no milk in cos of fridge
I’ve got a little magnet
Of the Brooklyn Bridge…..”
I typed it into Facebook in the small hours of the morning. Which is social media dead time as anyone will tell you. I pressed ‘Post’ and forgot all about it.
Next morning it had 50 ‘Likes’, which for an overnight on a weekend is pretty spectacular.
The first comment was from Phil ‘Swill’ Odgers of The Men They Couldn’t Hang asking if he could possibly set it to music. I just received a demo from him called ‘Brooklyn Bridge’ and it is fantastic. To put this into perspective, I have been a TMTCH fan for more than 30 years so this is real Boy’s Own stuff here, the sort of thing you dream about when you first pick up a guitar and try strumming along to your heroes.
It was also shared by my Facebook friend Paul Meehan and picked up by dementia campaigner Ian Donaghy. Ian messaged me requesting permission to have it performed at a national conference on the subject this week. I obviously agreed.
Well Ian moved mountains. Making a few phone calls he contacted ‘The Full Monty’ and ‘Game Of Thrones’ star Mark Addy to read my poem and made a short, poignant and very moving video you can see here:
Joe Solo 