In The Dock: The Levellers

(If you're wondering what this is all about, click here.)

This week's subject: The Levellers

The case for the prosecution (Caskared)

I don’t like The Levellers. No, that is an understatement. I detest The Levellers.

Being a teenager in the 1990s and being of an indie-kid persuasion meant that any given social situation would at some point have The Levellers played at top volume. Many a night would end with a drunken rendition by some of my friends of "There’s only one, waaaaay-hov life, and thatssyrrrown thasssssyrrrrown thatssssssyoooouuuurrrown-ah". Bellowed that song was, sometimes getting caught in a loop, the chorus endlessly orbiting, individuality proclaimed in unison. And at home too, my little sister played them; spilling through the thin walls they drove me to distraction. The fiddles seemed to have a particular frequency that would travel further than the rest of the tune, and a knack of eking their way round the house to find my ears. After leaving home I found myself again clawing at the walls, almost Pavlovian was my reaction to how much I disliked the music when a coursemate played them in our studio. My hackles would raise, my teeth gnaw, my head throb and my mood would sour. And although their ubiquity has waned, The Levellers are still the stock soundtrack to any montage on TV about the travelling community or the mere glimpse of a dreadlock.

But the question is why? It’s more than just overplay and being haunted (in a bad way) by their tunes. It’s a holistic hatred I have, beginning with the violins, the vocals, the graphics, the very name, their melodic choices, and… and…

So, for starters the violin playing. It’s mindless. I enjoy a good céilídh, I listen to 'Late Junction' on Radio 3, I like my quality reel, but The Levellers would reduce it to a droning eternal loop of upbeat jiggery pokery (although it’s better in the later records). And they play those Vanessa May stylee electric ones that look preposterous and have a synthetic grape-like tone. What’s more they don’t complement the singer’s voice. The fiddles have at least a kind of richness to them, the fellow there’s voice is a bit nasal and very flat. He breaks up the words with a breathy glottal stop; "carry me home" becomes "carre-hey mi-hey ho-ohome-eh". It’s mediocre, not bad, but certainly not good. It has no discerning features. He’s no Billy Bragg or Elvis Costello, he’s not a Neil Hannon or softness of Sice. He’s not as bad as a lot of their contemporaries, but he’s nothing special.

Their graphics recount Expressionism, Die Brucke and the harsh imagery from times of Europe being gripped by world war. Naïve folk art too, but ultimately it’s marketing for a band. It’s cynical and pseudo, it’s abrasive and ugly with an anti-aesthetic that doesn’t really achieve anything. They are mass marketing the idea of the hand-made wood block. They also go for the carnival look crossed with Celtic symbols, ultimately watering down everything they source.

And their name, Levellers being those who bring everything down to the lowest common denominator. Well, I guess it’s appropriate as they’re nothing special. Actually, it’s a pretty noble sentiment, but then when they have been asked they say it’s after an area where they grew up, or just from a dictionary. When choosing something so politically loaded this seems a bit inane. And it’s not like the band are a-political, they are full-on committed Lefties. They’re famed for living their politics – each band member receiving a certain amount each day and not being allowed to exceed it – that’s great, refreshing, although this failed a bit when one band member left because he couldn’t get extra money to buy something fancy after he’d already spent his day’s quota on, I don’t know, a dream catcher or something.

I agree with a lot of what they have campaigned for, and I’m pleased that they have used the medium to get their voice across, it’s just the actual music I have issues with. It is the watered-down folk rock of it all – the melodies that do exactly what you expect them to do, the weak linking sections between one bellowy bit to the next, the incoherent structures…they are just not very good as a band yet are totally overrated.

The case for the defence (Damo)

To start on a general point... when you say "I don’t like band X", what are you really saying? Let me put that another way: how do you feel when someone – a journalist, a friend – berates your favourite band? Do you pull out the "all opinions are subjective" argument? (Most of these In The Dock debates are about concepts, ideas, "movements" – anything except bands. The Beatles argument that has already taken place was largely about "Beatles as phenomenon", not "Beatles as band".) Take a look at footage of The Levellers headlining the Glastonbury Festival in 1994 – those tens of thousands of people jumping up and down and enjoying themselves… do you begrudge them their entertainment? Great. Vote for the prosecution and join the people who stand in the kitchen and house parties, glaring at the people in the hallway who are… gasp!… dancing and having fun. The scallywags.

So, if we move on from the fact that everyone’s got their own views, and neatly sidestep the fact that you sang along to 'One Way' when you were younger (you did), we have to look at what else any band does to distinguish itself from another band. What do they do, say, for the wider world?

The Levellers were active against stupid legislation such as elements of the Criminal Justice Act – before, during and after the time it was "fashionable" to take this standpoint. They stood up for the people who got treated like crap for having the temerity to want to hold a little celebration near Stonehenge (if you think I’m not being even-handed, watch the Glastonbury movie that came out earlier this year). And, despite having an album called Zeitgeist, they never changed their sound to suit the incoming trends. When they were no longer trendy (ask anyone who was a student in the early 90s), they didn’t care what you thought, they just carried on. With Oasis, most of Britain seems to have decided that was a virtue. Why not The Levellers?

Oh… and they pointed out what a pile of shite the NME was becoming years before most of us did. More brownie points in my book.

What else? They set up the Metway studio in Brighton, and gave studio time and experience to lots of upcoming bands for little or no cost. That’s a legacy that still stands to this day.

Perhaps you think they have no relevance to now, or that they don’t serve as an influence to any current bands. In which case, you’ve never heard Larrikin Love. Or Gogol Bordello. Like both of them, they were – and are – a great live band. And a deceptively noisy one. By the time they get to playing 'Belarus', earplugs are usually the order of the day. And when they played Glastonbury in 2005, they were still a massive crowd draw… see the first paragraph again. Numbers aren’t everything, but people vote with their feet at festivals.

Ah yes, festivals. Fed up of the fact that Reading makes you drink the worst beer in the world, and treats you like a small kid? Fed up of the ridiculous corporatism (and the increasing chav presence) of the V Festival? They’re supposed to be fun, aren’t they? An escape from the humdrum, a chance to be yourself for the weekend. Well, they’re ahead of you again, because they set up Beautiful Days for these very reasons. People who go there once go back. It sells out quicker every year, as people realise that being treated like a human being, especially when you’ve paid money for the privilege, is a good thing. Even if you don’t like The Levellers, remember this is another thing they’ve left as a legacy for everyone, not just fans of the band. Is this too much hippy crap for you? Ho hum - go and be a goth or something.

And if the prosecution makes one lame "dog on a string" joke, it loses by default.

* * * * *

Thanks to Caskared and Damo. Now it's over to you. Guilty or innocent - YOU decide. The comments box is open and awaiting your comments - you've got until Friday to make up your mind...