This performance was part of a campaign to protest cuts to the National Health Service in 2013.
The song was written by Steve White from my band, Steve White & the Protest Family. He doesn’t usually write on commission which is a shame because he did a great job!
The performance is from the top of the market in Walthamstow.
I found this incredibly silly song in a book of comic songs on a stall at the Redbridge Green Fair.
It made me laugh out load so I thought I’d better work it up.
It was written By Robert Hargreaves & S. J. Damerel.
The final gag is courtesy of Mr Kevin Sheils who knows a bad pun when he hears one!
This is the Protest Family’s version of Florence Reece’s archetypal protest song “Which Side Are You On?” with Steve’s changes bringing it bang up to date.
I live in Walthamstow in East London. Our most famous son is nineteenth century artist and radical William Morris.
This is my arrangement of his song “No Master” from the 1892 collection “Chants for Socialists”.
I love my gourd banjo, even though I don’t play it as much as I’d like.
My instrument was made by Flatfoot Johnny who works in South London. He uses lots of reclaimed materials for his instruments and I have several. You can check him out here – https://www.flatfootjohnny.com
The tunes are very common in the minstrel tradition and date from the middle of the nineteenth century.
I performed these pieces as part of my presentation The Banjo’s Journey at The Traditions Festival in 2017.
.
Dandelions is a powerful protest song about the treatment and resistance of ordinary soldiers during the first world war.
It was written by my friend Steve O’Donoghue. I’ve heard him sing it at the folk club many times.
I approached the No Glory group who campaign against the glorification of war and they agreed it would make a powerful statement as part of their Somme centenary campaign.
Steve sings the song unaccompanied but No Glory gave me a modest budget and I arranged and recorded the song with a group. No Glory then put together this powerful video to go with it.
I blogged about the process of the recording in this post on the Steve White & the Protest Family blog – https://protestfamily.wordpress.com/2016/06/04/dandelions/