McDermott’s 2 Hours Vs Levellers Vs Oysterband - Besieged

  by Helen Tipping

published: 26 / 3 / 2019

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Review

McDermott's 2 Hours have been playing Irish punk since 1986, starting their career in Brighton and London bars and gaining a solid following. Amongst the following were a group of lads who would go on to become the Levellers. They took their name from Tommy McDermott who called for peace and love on his radio show that was broadcasting during the Derry riots. 'Besieged' is apparently the final album to feature the music and songs of Nick Burbridge. On this album Nick teams up with members of the Levellers, Oysterband and others. It's hard to tell why this will be the final album, but Nick is also a writer, playwright and performer, so perhaps wants to concentrate on other things. Opening track 'Firebird' certainly shows the influence of co-writer Jeremy Cunningham of the Levellers, as I thought I was listening to the Levellers rather than McDermott's 2 Hours when it started. Second track, 'Erin Farewell', tells the tale of a young Irish lad coming to work in construction in London, and the temptations he faces away from his wife and children. There is a huge difference between the traditional Irish lifestyle of marrying early, going to mass and working the land and the freedom of the big city away from those traditions. There is also a big difference between the reasons for moving away given by older singers and the younger men arriving for work in the 70s and 80s. 'This Child' is a hard hitting song about gangs in 'Moss Side', and how children are killed as retribution for some perceived wrong doing, how the police don't get involved, and no one cares that a family have lost a son, that a mother has a child in prison and another in the ground. This is an album of stories, of the past and the present. The stories are mostly sad, stories of hopeless drunks, wrongs done in the name of God, abuse and war, and it's hard to find any hope, but perhaps that's because hope is hard to find at the moment. 'The Last Mile' is the only song that ends on a hopeful note. It's a song for this moment and the division we are experiencing. It ends on the hopeful note that we shall overcome.

Track Listing:-

1 Firebird
2 Erin Farewell
3 This Child
4 The Last Mile
5 Forlorn Hope
6 All That Fall
7 The Warrior Monk
8 Crossed Lines
9 Besieged
10 The Damned Man’S Polka
11 All In Your Name
12 The Ring
13 Dirty Davey
14 Fox On The Run
15 Darkness And Sail
16 World Turned Upside Down
17 Harry Brewer
18 Song Of A Brother
19 Tod The Ranter
20 Black Sun (In Genoa)
21 A Fable From Aigge
22 Molloy
23 River
24 Trickster
25 Erin Farewell
26 All In Your Name