Levelling the Land

To spread the word of the Levellers along the land

From headline performances at Glastonbury and festivals throughout the world to intimate acoustic shows, the Levellers have long been one of the best live bands around. With a keen political eye and uncompromising attitudes they’ve always led from the front but yet have the sureness of touch to write pop gems like ‘What a Beautiful Day’ alongside the many anthems: ‘One Way’, ‘15 Years’, ‘Just The One’.
2007 marks the fifth year of their own Beautiful Days festival, again blazing a path for others to follow. Last year, as always, it sold out the 10,000 capacity on word of mouth alone. 2006 saw the first release “Chaos Theory” on the Levellers own label ‘On the Fiddle Recordings’.” Chaos Theory” captures the band live on DVD for the first time and amply demonstrates why they continue to sell 50,000 tickets to live shows each year. Warner Brothers are re-releasing five of the Levellers studio albums in 2007 including Levelling the Land and Zeitgeist and a new studio album is planned for 2008.
Levellers have clearly stood the test of time, the original line-up still playing with a passion and pride that, having seen off many of their early contemporaries, is still setting a standard that many young pretenders find hard to match. The songs too, sound as fresh as the day they were written; a rich catalogue is plundered night after night as Mark Chadwick and Simon Friend belt out classics such as “Men-an-Tol”, “Riverflow”, “Liberty”, “Sell Out”,” The Game”, “Hope Street” and “England My Home”.
Home England may be but 2006 saw the Levellers play far & wide: Croatia, Poland, France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden and Denmark and 2007’s diary is already packed with appearances at festivals and venues across the UK and Europe. Drawn to playing live, like moths to a flame, they’ve also developed a lively acoustic set which has seen them win over new audiences. With headline slots at the Cambridge folk festival and playing at prestigious venues such as Buxton Opera House with guests like Maddy Prior the band have easily re-discovered their folk roots.
‘Beautiful Days’ festival held over three days in August at Escot Park, Devon, has seen the Levellers joined by acts as diverse as Seth Lakeman, Echo & The Bunnymen, Steel Pulse & Killing Joke. In keeping with Levellers ethos, ‘Beautiful Days’ has no corporate sponsorship, no branding, and no media partner’s - just 10,000 happy festival go-ers.
It’s not all been a bed of roses, mutual suspicion and preconceptions have long seen the Levellers and the media occupying parallel but non-communicating universes. That ‘crusty’ tag has long hung around their necks, blinding the reality of a band that for right or wrong have always done it their way. Logic and longevity suggests that the Levellers have proved themselves as a great British band that is now firmly steeped into the public’s consciousness.
As the 20th anniversary approaches in 2008, it’s time to think anew. Those old perceptions, like the noise, died a death when the punks grew up.

www.levellers.co.uk
www.myspace.com/levellers