Music for Liverpool
By Steve Stallone
Although the Liverpool dockers have bowed off the stage of history, retired as the international poster boys against port privatization and casualization, those men and their families still struggle to find ways to
Most of the dockers received a moderate redundancy package when they folded the strike, but with debts piling up over the more than two years on the bricks and unemployment high, that payment will disappear soon.
During the strike, the dockers and their supporters organized numerous events and concerts to raise money to see them through the rough times. Now Creation Records has released a new CD with tracks donated by some of the biggest name bands on the current British music scene and several local Liverpool bands as a fundraiser for the dockers and their latest ventures.
The collection includes 16 songs, running a wide gamut of modern English bands. It bounces around from the power chord hard rock of Oasis ("Don't Look Back in Anger") and Smaller ("Aimless"), to the pop stylings of Rumbletrain ("Haunted") and Lovers ("Transparent"), to middle of the road rockers like TK and TK and the electronic instrumental weirdness of The Chemical Brothers ("Setting Sons") and Paul Weller ("So You Want to be a
The CD starts with a short narrative of the dockers' dispute by Irvine Welsh, the author of the best selling
"Train Spotter" and "Filth, who is also working on a docudrama about the Liverpool dockers.
From there Oasis kicks in with a song dedicated to the dockers called 36 International Viewpoint #310 April 1999
"Don't Look Back in Anger," a live recording from one of the Rock the
But the two best songs come from two of most outspoken activist musicians on the CD-Billy Bragg and Chumbawamba. Billy Bragg is a sort of modern day British Woody Guthrie. On his cut "Never Cross a Picket Line" he picks his solo electric guitar like an old American folkie spiked with a bit of punk slash chords. The song was written specifically for the dockers ("Five hundred men sacked for refusing to ever cross a picket line") towards the end of the strike and honors their solidarity and perseverance.
"Two years gone by, but still they
Ever crossed a picket line.
With their wives and children they stand together. Never cross a picket line. You must never cross a picket
The bridge recognizes the solidarity actions around the
"Look away, look away, look away
Out west to San Francisco.
Look away, look away, look away
Out south to Sidney harbor Where the dockers have
The world's longest picket line."
Okay, the Neptune Jade action really happened in Oakland, but that's close enough for a Brit.
This song alone is enough reason to buy the CD. It has the universal and timely message of an anthem and the kind of simple structure that lends itself to rewrites of verses for new and ongoing struggles. It could and should become a staple in every union songbook.
Chumbawamba has long been as a no-holds-barred anarchist band. At a music awards ceremony in February of this year band members were appalled to see Labour Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott clapping along to the Spice Girls at his 500 pound-a-seat table trying to be cool. One member, Danbert Nobacon, in a self-proclaimed "wanton act of agitprop," poured ice water over Prescott while shouting "This is for the Liverpool dockers!" before being hauled off by security guards.
Chumbawamba's contribution, "One By One," is the most rhythmic and melodic tune in the collection.
song's mournful refrain, recalling the feeling of powerlessness the dockers faced every day as they walked the line and peered past the fence to see their work going on without them.
"One by one, the ships come
One by one, the ships go sailing
Another highlight of the compilation is Doxx Band's "The Line." The group is led by Tony Melia, one of the Torside dockers. The song has the tight groove of Steely Danwith a little extra funk-and alludes to the need to be a part of the picket line at the Liverpool docks.
"Down to the line, The place for me. Down to the line, It's where I want to be. Down to the line."
In a short rap break in the middle Doxx Band makes the inference to the Liverpool struggle more explicit.
"East Coast, West Coast, U.S.A.,
Aussies and Quebies are having a
Across the world they're coming along,
A voice in music, this is our song.
On a plane, on a train, in a motor car, The word of lambs have them kneeling far, What happened to me could happen to you,
So come on down and see what you can do." Source: ILWU Dispatcher October 1998 Music For The Liverpool
Wake Up fanzine has re-released their 1980s benefit compilation for the British Miners' strike, with five bonus tracks from current bands. This time, the proceeds go to the
The socialist skinhead band Redskins (close to the SWP), offer a cover version of Billy Bragg's Levi Stubbs Tears, giving it a little more soul, as well as an introduction dissing it's writer as "Neil Kinnock's publicity officer." Bragg himself offers a simple guitar version of the Sam Cooke 60's soul classic A Change Is Gonna Come. The 80s pop-punk band The Neurotics contribute with This Fragile Life, about the young poor being sent off to fight in the Falklands while the old poor have their healthcare stolen from them at home. Other contributors include Attila the Stockbroker, The Men They Couldn't Hang, Robb Johnson, Wob, John Ward and Clownhouse. [G/JD] For order information contact http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/drewbo/