There is a wonderful consistency to everything The Early Swerve does. There are obvious things like the covers of the records and their old-school sartorial cut, but, for me, it is the less tangible things that make them such an engaging musical force. Their quintessential Englishness… perhaps even Londonness, their quirky, cheeky chappy, almost music-hall-infused Britpop vibe, a sound in turn, echoing the coolest of 60’s bands such as The Kinks and The Small Faces, and unique output and ongoing sense of musical adventure.
Musically, they mix buoyant indie with infectious poppiness, even threading in some frantic fiddle, running from folky lows to anthemic spikes to shape and dynamic the song. It’s not folk, it’s not pop, it’s not indie, it’s, well, it’s The Early Swerve, that’s the only label you need.
But for me, it is the story they are telling that is important, and one pertinent to these troubled times, something that history always supplies us with, if we bother to look. Given the song’s title, the phrase being the name for the union representative within the print industry, the footage in the video, and their mention of the year ’85, this is clearly the tale of the Wapping dispute, where, in the face of massive job losses, of technology making people redundant, unions stood up to Rupert Murdoch’s empire like modern-day Luddite martyrs. (And if you think calling someone a Luddite is a defamatory thing, go and read a few books.)
I didn’t intend this simple music review to turn into a history lesson, but this is important stuff. And if you can’t see the relevance of the life-altering power wielded back then by the powers-that-be and the world we find ourselves in 40 years later, well, just do what you have probably always done, look the other way, and dance along to the music.
Not only a very original sound and a great band, but a timeless and indeed timely reminder that people have rights, and if you don’t exercise them, they get eroded and lost.
This might be the most important song you listen to this year. In fact, I’m sure it is.
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