Five-piece Düsseldorf Celtic-Folk-Punk band The Porters are back with a new album To The Good Times And The Bad that is a bittersweet release in that it also signals their sad farewell from the stage after 24 years together. 
It was at the end of October last year that an announcement appeared on the Facebook page of the top German Celtic-Punk band The Porters
“Dear Porter friends.We have good news and bad news for you.
The good thing: you’ve been waiting a long time for this. It’s finally done: 15th December 2023 our new album “To The Good Times And The Bad” will be out. We couldn’t be happier! And because this is a very special album for us, we thought of a little surprise for you on the release. You’ll learn more about this these days… Stay Tuned!
Evil: this will be our farewell album. Due to health reasons, our Captain Volker will not be able to play live shows for the time being. That’s why we’ve decided to give our current album a Porter-worthy farewell. Stay tuned to the channel and find out soon what we have planned for you.”
To say it came as a shock would be a massive understatement and sent waves of friendly messages from across the world towards the band. We added to those messages at the time and would like to reiterate our best wishes and our thanks to Volker and The Porters for some downright brilliant Celtic-Punk over the years and we hope and pray to see him return to the mic and the stage if possible.
The Porters have been at it since 2001 when Volker who at the time was also playing in German Oi! band in Düsseldorf in western Germany in an area known for its fashion and art scene. It wasn’t long though that The Porters took over and would soon rise to the top of the massive German Celtic-Punk scene. To The Good Times And The Bad is the bands fourth full length studio album and they last featured on these pages a decade ago when Wolverine Records released Welcome To The Folk Punk Show, a 4 band split double album with The Porters, The Mahones, The Judas Bunch and Malasañers. The mix of Folk and Punk is perfectly balanced keeping the rough edges of Punk along the polished professionalism of their Folk side that contrasts perfectly in the way that only Celtic-Punk can do.
The album kicks off with ‘Calamity Jane’ and you’d be mistaken if you had accidentally put a Riley Puckett album on but the Hillbilly / Country-Folk is soon disturbed by the sound of an electric guitar and what follows is classic Porters that is also classic Celtic-Punk with loud guitars, pounding drums, driving bass, expert fiddle and Volker’s warm and familiar gruff vocals. ‘Lowlife’ and ‘Orange Sunshine’ have that Social Distortion Country/Punk feel to them with twangy guitars and plenty of fist in the air singalong bits. ‘Cheater Tattoo’ is one of the standout tracks here with one hell of a great catchy as hell chorus and guitar riff but also because of the first appearance of the bands famed hammond organ. A couple of covers follow the first being a really good version of the famous anti-war Folk ballad ‘The Green Fields Of France’. Written in 1976 by Scots born Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle its perhaps most famous, especially here for its recording by The Men They Couldn’t Hang reaching #1 in the 1984 UK Indie Singles Chart, and more recently the Dropkick Murphys on The Warrior’s Code. It’s played fairly standard but Volker gives it his all and manages to make an emotional song even more so. The second cover is ‘Solidarity’ by the English Skinhead / Punk band the Angelic Upstarts.
“Give them hope, give them strength, give them lifeLike a candle burning in the black of nightsWe are with you in our hearts and in our mindsAnd we’ll pray for our nation through its darkest times”
The Upstarts were famous for more aggressive music but here they sent their solidarity to Polish workers in the Solidarity / Solidarność who would begin the downfall of the Soviet Union in their fight for freedom. The Porters version is also outstanding adding brass and fiddle and is a worthy tribute to the Angelic Upstarts vocalist Thomas Mensforth (aka Mensi) who sadly passed away on 10 December 2021, aged 65. The song symbolises the spirit of resistance, the belief in justice and calls for the oppressed to stand together.
The first sign that a new album was due out was the release of the the single ‘Forever’ and its brilliant accompanying video. A fantastic hymn to the veterans of the scene whether they are Rockabilly, Skinhead, Punk, Whatever… if you’re one of the boys you will stay forever”. Great track followed by three tracks that sweep from one side of Celtic-Punk to the other starting with ‘Pirates Of Somalia’, a jolly knees up of a song, then ‘Hammer Or Gun’, a gentle working class Folk ballad and the decision of which road in life to take while ‘Freedom Fighter’ takes you instantly to the early Punk style of The Jam or The Vapors. Fast, heads down Punk-Rock with good lyrics about the war in Ireland among others. They fully embrace their Hillbilly side for the beginning of ‘Stuck On You’ a welcome dose of black humour in a catchy pastiche of Country-Punk-Rock. We are nearing the end now and for ‘Some Shine Brighter’ Volker revealed on the band’s web-site
The idea for the album came about after some tough setbacks that we had to accept as a band. We tell stories that life writes and wrote. Texts about society’s underdogs meet very personal experiences. “The album contains one of the most touching songs I have ever written. This is ‘Some Shine Brighter’. I composed it for the funeral of a close friend of the band. It was important to all of us to arrange this song in his honor in the studio and put it on the album”
Needless to say it is an emotional song and really pulls on them heartstrings as Volker speaks from the heart. A really incredible song that will get the hairs on the back of your neck to stand and the memories of your own nearest and dearest to flash through your mind. The album understandably is a but dark but moments of humour aren’t rare and ‘Barfly’ is a fast Celtic-Folk-Rocker of a drinking song. Fittingly as farewell the curtain comes down on To The Good Times And The Bad with another cover, this time a rollicking jolly version of ‘The Last Shanty’ with the band accompanied by their friends in the shanty choir Nordenham. Written by British singer and writer of nautical songs Tom Lewis and released in 1987 it has become very popular among Folk musicians and been covered by numerous artists but I’ve not heard a better version than this one especially with the great touch of the song ending with Volker’s laughter filling the room.
(You can stream the whole of To The Good Times And The Bad via the Play-list below via You Tube)
It seems the first run of 250 signed copies of the album on vinyl sold out pretty quickly, though a quick search of the internet did show up a few places (mainly Germany) where it was still available. It also doesn’t appear to be available to buy for download but the saving grace is that it is on all the usual streaming sites including, of course, Spotify below. So a tremendous album from The Porters tempered by knowing that this is it. A band that trail blazed their way through Celtic-Punk pulling no punches whether the music was slow, fast, Punk or finger in the ear Folk. Now is our turn to salute them so raise your glasses high and give it up for The Porters.
Discography A Tribute To Arthur Guinness (Knockout Records – 2002) * Anywhere But Home (Knockout Records – 2007) * Rum, Bum & Violina (Cargo Records – 2011) * Welcome to The Folk Punk Show – Split Vinyl (Wolverine Records – 2014)
Contact The Porters WebSite Facebook YouTube
LONDON CELTIC PUNKS WEB-ZINE 
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