ALBUM REVIEW: CROCK OF BONES- ‘Celtic Crossbones’ (2019)

Alt Folk, Irish, Trad, Celtic.

Celtic Crossbones the debut album release from Crock Of Bones the hottest new band on the London Irish Folk and Trad circuit. 

Hot on the heels of their debut EP, Nasty, Brutal And Short, comes the debut album release from Crock Of Bones. Formed this year out of various members of other groups most notably LOCKS, Red Eye, Lost Revellers and rockabilly outfit The Obscuritones. So quite a diverse bunch of musicians but with links back to Celtic-Punk through the brothers Bryne and their band Pitfull Of Ugly who played energetic punked up versions of Irish folk songs through Hackney and North London in the early 90’s. Here they ply a much more traditional route though but with the same punk rock attitude they have always have. The five songs from Nasty, Brutal And Short are included on Celtic Crossbones alongside five new tracks of radical interpretations of Irish folk.

Crock Of Bones- (back) Mike Byrne, Marian McClenaghan, Jim Wharf (front) Hugh Byrne and Caitlin Roberts

Celtic Crossbones kicks off with the self penned number ‘Just One Of Them Things’ a slow swirling number with fiddle and accordion leading the way while Hugh sings of lost love. A great voice but his Dublin accent now has a wee bit of a Cockney twang about it! Next is one of the best songs ever written about the Irish on this side of the Irish sea, ‘Hot Asphalt’. Ewan MacColl (no stranger at all to these pages!) was famous for chronicling the life of the working classes and who better than the Irish road building gangs of the 50’s and 60’s. The camaraderie of these gangs of Irish workers is reflected in the comical goings on of a gang of poor Paddies digging up the road.  Somewhere along the way a policeman falls in a pot of boiling asphalt and the gang cover up his death!

“I’m thinking, says O’Reilly, that he’s lookin’ like old Nick
And burn me if I am not inclined to claim him with me pick
Now, says I, it would be easier to boil him till he melts
And to stir him nice and easy in the hot asphalt”

Played in the same style as the Dubliners famous version it’s the best version I have heard in a good while. ‘The Magnificent Eight’ is another self penned number Hugh wrote about one of his old bands Ella And The Blisters, a rootsy tootsy band of misfits that split up in 2016. The song is dedicated to all the jolly fine former members, Gabby, Sam, Luigi, Wayne, Caitlin, Richard, Sarah, Brian, Tom and Nathaniel and ‘The Magnificent Eight’ is a fine tribute to them. Banjo heavy and the tale of a band that almost nearly crossed the path into bigger times. ‘Ferry’ is a sad mournful song with great lyrics about a long distance relationship about a couple saying goodbye at the ferry terminal that comes to an end with the great line “waiting for a voice on a landline telephone”, long before the invention of mobile phones. Bands like Crock Of Bones don’t have to do much if they don’t want to. There is a huge market in London for Irish and traditional music but Crock Of Bones don’t want to be one of them bands that just churn out the covers and it’s the many self-penned numbers on Celtic Crossbones that interest me the most. Modern subjects wrapped up in auld music like on ‘Nothin Worse’ the best song on the album here. Great lyrics and accompaniment from the rest of the band. Neither fast nor slow but one of them foot tappers/thigh slappers that trad Irish folk is famous for. Grand stuff altogether! The instrumental ‘Swallowtail Jig’ is next and while there’s not an awful lot of choice on the Crock Of Bones You Tube channel (it’s the only video!!) pop along and have a look yourselves!

‘TASTHTGP’ is next up and TASTHTGP is a short way of saying ‘Talk about shit things happening to good people’ and a decent sense of humour is needed for anyone in a band. It’s a slight song but well intentioned. Next up is the song that alongside ‘Hot Asphalt’ chronicles best the life of a working class Irishman in Britain in the 50’s and 60’s, ‘McAlpine’s Fusiliers’. Of course not all dug the roads but many many did including my own Grandfather before he settled in on the railways with a shovel in his hand for 40 odd years. Most came from the countryside of Ireland to cross the Irish sea to work long and hard hours in tough jobs and their only respite came from a few beers after work. Written by Dominic Behan the title refers to the construction company of Sir Robert McAlpine who exploited employed mainly Irish workers.

“They sweated blood and they washed down mud
With pints and quarts of beer
And now we’re on the road again
With McAlpine’s fusiliers”

The song ends withe the refrain “And if you value your life, well, don’t join, by Christ with McAlpine’s Fusiliers” and judging by the broken bodies and bent backs of many of the ones who who use to while away the hours in the Irish pubs of my home town it was good advice. We are nearing the end and time for a real Irish legend of a song, ‘Follow Me Up To Carlow’. We even wrote a recent article specifically about this and its origins and many covers. A very old song recounting the Battle of Glenmalure in 1580 where us Irish had a rare victory over the English invaders! Its a great rabble-rouser of a song and has a couple of lines that contain some of the most vitriolic of any rebel song. Crock Of Bones give it plenty of oompf and it’s a joy to belt out the words at the top of your lungs! The album comes to an end with the traditional instrumental songs ‘Cooleys Reel/ Mountain Road’. Cobbled together nicely and owing a lot to The Dubliners as catchy a tune as has ever been written and just the ticket if you’re looking to give the floor a good beating!

(You can stream Celtic Crossbones on the Bandcamp player below before you invest your hard earned in this great wee release)

You can catch Crock Of Bones playing very soon live for London Celtic Punks on Friday 22nd November with local lads The Disinclined at The Oak in Kingston-Upon-Thames. as usual our man GREENFORD BHOY will be spinning the discs and getting the mood in order playing all yer favourite Irish-Celtic-Folk-Punk-Rock’n’Rebel in between the bands and till the landlord kicks us out! The venue is only twenty minutes on the train out of London and just five minutes from Kingston station. The gig is **FREE** so expect a Friday night of hot Irish jigs, reels, foot stompers and lyrical folk. Not an opportunity to miss I tells you! 

Buy Celtic Crossbones  FromTheBand

Contact Crock Of Bones  Facebook  Soundcloud  YouTube  Bandcamp

ALBUM REVIEW: THE DISINCLINED- ‘Sing’ (2019)

The debut album from South-West Londoners The Disinclined, ageing purveyors of folky, punky, gypsy tales.

The debut album from The Disinclined comes hot on the heels of their debut single, Sing And Create, which we gave the thumbs up to last December on these pages. Both the tracks from then are re-recorded here and if anything have been improved upon with a much better production. The Disinclined were formed in 2014 after being recruited to do a few covers at a friends’ wedding. Drummer Dave recruited Tim, who could actually write and sing original material, so along with Dave’s lyrics and the occasional riff from Shea and Matt, they started gigging around South-West London especially Kingston. They’ve all been in many diverse sounding bands since the mid/late 80’s with Dave and Tim playing together in This Wind Thing and Vicious Hippy till they went their separate ways in the early 90’s – with neither picking up their instruments again until the Disinclined came calling. Matt replaced Shea on bass when he was sacked from 80’s Kingston punk band NMBD, so he took up guitar, learnt bar chords and ignored bassists until he joined Riot/Clone and Refuse All in the noughties. These days they all play in other bands including Refuse/All, Lost Cherrees and Mooshwa Pooshwa. So with a wealth of experience in both playing and songwriting it was only to be expected that The Disinclined know their way round a good tune or two and here on Sing they have delivered an album that is chock-a-block full of them.

The Disinclined from left to right: Shea- Guitar * Tim – Vocals, Guitar, Melodica, Uke * Dave – Drums * Matt – Bass

The album begins with ‘Death Is Just A Consequence’ and the unusual sound of the melodica starts a mournful dirge that is soon livened up with a ska beat and chugging guitars and a nice fast pace. It’s a wind instrument with a small keyboard on top that when blown into that makes a sound pitched half where between harmonica and clarinet. Next up is ‘We Have To Pretend To Be Zombies’ with a cool 60’s vibe to it and The Disinclined show that lyrically they can write both clever and tongue in cheek.

“Management is the source of our ills / Compulsory fun. And we have to look thrilled / Idiotic and dumb, they’ve forgotten to think / And the theory they have has started to stink / She turned to me and said / “Have you seen ‘Sean of the Dead’? / We have to pretend to be Zombies” \ Zombies….”

Next is one of their signature tunes ‘For The Good Of Us All’ and its at this point that you realise that even though they may flit from genre to genre they somehow manage to still make it sound like The Disinclined. Quite a feat for a band that manages to avoid any sort of pigeonholing.

( an early version of ‘For The Good Of It All’ recorded at The Cricketers, Kingston)

Rocky and punky in parts and a real toe-tapper as the song morphs into ‘Urban Hermit’ and the first appearance of trumpet and fiddle gives the song a real bite. In fact they are looking to introduce a full time fiddle player into their sound so if you’re interested then get in touch with them. The song is played at a slowish pace with touches of Eastern Europe and the sound is layered upon sound making this my favourite track from the album. A real slow burner of a song that builds and builds into something grand before slowing right down again. Next up is a re-recorded version of ‘Create’ from the 7″. This song has appeared in several forms but every time they take it away and fiddle with it it comes back better than before. The ska beat is back but not of the happy, giddy sort that gets on your wick! ‘No Thanks’ has a certain Anarcho-Punk influence and the, as ever, interesting lyrics speak of the selfishness of man I think.

The Anarcho influence appears again on ‘Just Us’ and the song has some outstanding guitar

“Take your chance and count the cost / Roll the dice, your fingers crossed / See who’s won and see who’s lost / Who’s left standing when the music stops / Who’s left standing when the music stops \ Just Us! Just Us! Just Us! Just Us!”

Time now for the other song from the 7″ to get a re-working and ‘Sing’ again adds something so much more to the original version. Beginning with drums and some crunching bass lines from Matt before Tim joins in with the melodica again and one of the catchiest songs here that I was hoping would explode a bit more but just keeps itself in check. ‘Sing’ is pretty damn catchy and Tim’s laid back vocals fit perfectly (they are The Disinclined after all) as the song builds and builds while the lads still manage to sound super laid back about it all. We are coming towards the end and ‘Jack’ is another great song telling of a ‘lothario’ and what happens when the looks and the charm inevitably fade. This brings us onto what could be called their signature tune and as you can imagine from a band that manages to squeeze the line

“we are disinclined to acquiesce to your request“

into one of their songs ‘Disinclined To Acquiesce’ is clever and intelligent music and Sing takes in a multitude of influences from far and wide, from punk to gypsy folk and thrash metal to prog rock, moulding them into some very catchy pop music.

Sing was released just a couple of weeks ago and was recorded at Gravity Shack in London with Jess Corcoran as engineer and producer. The vinyl album is a joy to behold and looks absolutely beautiful with some stunning artwork from good friend of the band Keith Slote. It’s a great album that will appeal to people, and not just fans of the band, on many levels. The different styles and influences loaded onto Sing take nothing away from the band who still manage to make everything sound so natural. For those fans of the band they will be extremely pleased that the songs they recognise from live sets are not just replicated but even bettered but I think Sing is well worth taking a punt on for anyone and sit back and enjoy!

(you can stream Sing on the Bandcamp player below before you buy it!)

Buy Sing  FromTheBand

Contact The Disinclined  Facebook  Bandcamp

The official record release gig for Sing is next Thursday at The Fighting Cocks. One of London’s best venues if you have never been before you in for a treat! The Fighting Cocks is at 56 Old London Road, Kingston KT2 6QA. Trains from Waterloo, Clapham and Vauxhall and only a short walk from Kingston station. Admission is a paltry £3 and the evening kicks off at 8pm. Support is from SUCKIN’ DIESEL a new traditional Irish music group headed by Brendan the lead singer from local Celtic-Punk favourites The Lagan. Featuring yer man himself and anyone else he can round up in the meantime. Kicking off the night will be Kingsley Beat. Made in Madchester. Raised in Acton. Generated by Beats. Mad for Melody, Melody Mad. Facebook event here.

SINGLE REVIEW: THE DISINCLINED- ‘Sing And Create’ (2018)

The Disinclined are from south west London but sometimes they wish they were elsewhere.

The debut release from a band well known to me and also from my neck of the woods as well in South-West London. They may not be your archetypal Celtic-Punk or Folk-Punk band hat much I can admit but as I find them almost impossible to pigeonhole then it seems OK I reckon to just label them as Folk(y)-Punk and be done with it!

The Disinclined came together in 2014 when they mistakenly carried on playing together after doing a few covers at their friends’ wedding. Drummer Dave recruited Tim, who could actually write and sing original material, so along with Dave’s lyrics and the occasional riff from Shea and Matt, they started gigging in 2015 and have been playing ever since. I always describe them as being able to play for Ireland being 50% second generation Irish but this also means their influences are far and wide, from punk to gypsy folk and thrash metal to prog rock. They’ve all been in different bands since the mid/late 80’s. Dave and Tim played together in This Wind Thing and Vicious Hippy but went their separate ways in the early 90’s – with neither picking up their instruments again until the Disinclined came calling. Matt replaced Shea on bass when he was sacked from 80’s Kingston punk band NMBD, so he took up guitar, learnt bar chords and ignored bassists until he joined Riot/Clone and Refuse All in the noughties. They all play in other bands including Refuse/All, Lost Cherrees and Mooshwa Pooshwa. So with a wealth of experience in both playing and songwriting it was only to be expected that The Disinclined know their way round a good tune or two and on Song And Create they pass two such songs onto us.

The Disinclined from left to right: Shea- Guitar * Tim – Vocals, Guitar, Melodica, Uke * Dave – Drums * Matt – Bass

Sing And Create begins appropriately with ‘Sing’ the longest of the two tracks and nicely transfers their accomplished live sound onto disc. It begins with drums and some crunching bass lines from Matt before Tim joins in with an instrument you may not know until you hear it, the melodica. It’s a wind instrument with a small keyboard on top that you blow into that makes a sound pitched somewhere between a harmonica and a clarinet. The song itself is pretty damn catchy and Tim’s laid back vocals fit perfectly (they are The Disinclined after all) as the song builds while the lads still manage to sound super laid back about it all. On the other song, ‘Create’, two versions have appeared with this one re-mixed with fiddle and is far superior. Beginning with a ska beat but not of the happy, giddy sort that can get on your wick, or mine anyway! As you can imagine from a band that manages to squeeze the line

“we are disinclined to acquiesce to your request“

into one of their songs this is clever and intelligent music and ‘Create’ takes in all those influences moulding them into, again, some very catchy pop music. First and foremost a live band The Disinclined are on the lookout to make even more changes to their sound and so if you play accordion or fiddle then please give them a shout. Only two songs here but a welcome taster for a band that must have an album on it’s way soon surely?

The two songs clock in at just under eight minutes and considering they have generously made it available as a free download it won’t cost you a penny, or a cent, to get your hands and feast your ears on this slab of funky folkish punky rock. The single only came out a few days ago and is available at gigs on CD and for download at the link given below.

(you can check out and listen to Sing And Create on the Bandcamp player below)

Download Sing And Create  FromTheBand

Contact The Disinclined  Facebook  Bandcamp