2018: Oh Sealand

Notes on Oh Sealand

Oh, Sealand is our seventh release and my first (and maybe last) foray into political comment. It came at a time when Britain was divided, (justly) ridiculed and inward looking. Land of the Cuckoo is an angry song, at odds with nearly everything else I’ve written, lyrically. A fuck you to a culture in which targets and middle management are ripping the soul out of the public sector. That aside, more typical Oddfellow’s themes are there: old roads, occultism, drowned villages, strange marine outposts. A welcome return too, to the Duck Pond Sailors, a local sea shanty choir.

For those who like a bit of background on the songs, The Ghosts of Watling Street was written at the request of cult author, John Higgs, best known for his book, KLF, The Band Who Burned A Million Pounds. Higgs’ book Watling Street, published July 13th 2017, is an epic journey across the UK’s oldest road. In keeping with some of the characters who populate the book, the song features the voice of comic-book writer Alan Moore and folklorist Chris Hare.
Penda’s Fen pays tribute to the Alan Clarke film made for BBC TV in 1974 and recently re-issued by the BFI. It tells the story of a young man whose certainty of what it is to be British is shattered by his burgeoning homosexuality, visions of angels and devils and his ultimate rejection of the conservative values of Middle England. Musically this song pays tribute to the sounds and styles of early 70s English prog, rock and folk. Well, it’d have been rude not to.
Sealand tells the true story of how an abandoned British world war two fort, six miles out to sea, became an independent principality. Prince Roy and Princess Joan first settled there in 1967 and, despite attacks from pirates and an attempted coup, Sealand remains the property of the Bates family.
And finally, Blood Moon is a tribute to the fisherman and author Chris Yates whose beautiful book Nightwalk, details an annual walk he takes, dusk to dawn around his home country of Hampshire.