Next Monday, February 24, Band Of Holy Joy will be releasing a new album, Easy Listening, out via Exotic Pylon, and playing a run of shows in England and Scotland in support. Ahead of that, we’ve got the video for the track ‘There Was A Fall/The Fall’ from the album, a song about Ian Tomlinson, the newspaper seller who died after being struck by a Met policeman in 2009. A revision of an earlier track, ‘Met Police Tried To Hide PC’s Disciplinary Record’, from last year’s City Of Tales compilation album, ‘There Was A Fall/The Fall’ is just as unnerving as you would expect from a song that draws on coroner’s report-style cold anatomic detail for lyrics, performed with a snarl that, apart from this pared down objectivity, points up a glaring social injustice. It’s a potent, furious way of addressing a death that fits into a long cycle of police brutality without straying into the hysteria of shrill media commentary or A.C.A.B. graffiti. The video sees actor Tam Dean Burn applying Cleopatra make-up in front of a mirror, which, using his lonely props of red wine and a syringe, works towards a vivid conclusion where he himself comes to represent the late Tomlinson.
Take a look at the gig listings below, which will be added to with a one-off show at 299 The Venue with The Membranes and The Wedding Present as part of the NME’s C86 tour on June 14, and get hold of the album via Exotik Pylon upon release:
FEB
Thu 27 – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Fri 28 – Neu Reekie, Edinburgh w/ Momus
MARCH
Sat 1 – King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
Sun 2 – Cluny 2, Newcastle
Wed 22 – Charterhouse Bar, London (benefit gig for Resonance FM, with a DJ set from Robin the Fog)
