Sleaford Mods hit Oxford for 'a pop at the privileged few'

Lincolnshire lads Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn are not only creating relevant new music, referencing social ills, economic decline and the modern malaise, they are doing it with bile, profanity but also a keen intelligence and plenty of humour.

One of the most important, and certainly most political, bands around, the Nottingham-based duo are spokesmen for what is left of the working class and are making their voices heard with an engagingly minimal twist on spoken electro- punk.

On Saturday the band, who take their name from the market town close to where Jason grew up, hit the O2 Academy Oxford for one of the most highly-anticipated shows of the year.

They bring with them new album Eton Alive.

“It’s a bit of a pop at the privileged few responsible for the austerity policies that have murdered the land,” he says in flat East Midlands tones.

His spiel about the record tells you everything you need to know: “It speaks for itself, really. Here we are once again in the middle of another elitist plan being digested slowly as we wait to be turned into faeces once more. Some already are, some are dead and the rest of us erode in the belly of prehistoric ideology which depending on our abilities and willingness, assigns to each of us varying levels of comfort that range from horrible to reasonably acceptable, based on contribution.

“So after the digestive system of the nobles rejects our inedible bones, we exit the a**e of rule, we fall into the toilet again and at the mercy of whatever policies are holding order in the s**t pipe of this tatty civilisation.

“It is here our flesh regenerates as we rattle into another form, ready, and ripe for order.”

He admits they are one of the few truly political acts out there. Indeed, the band found themselves drawn into a spirited feud with ‘fellow’ punks IDLES, accusing the middle class Bristol band of “class appropriation”.

Jason says: “There are a few bands trying to do it and not doing it very well, and that annoys me. I imagine that postBrexit there’ll be something very interesting coming up, but at the moment it’s pretty dire.

“Though people will probably want more than two 50 year-olds with a laptop,” he says in cheerful self-mockery.

“People want escapism with their entertainment, and there’s not much of that.”

And why does he feel compelled to shout about the problems he sees around him? “Because it’s what’s going on,” he answers.

“And it annoys me and that’s what I want to talk about.

“If I wanted to talk about love, I’d do that. But I don’t.

“It’s annoying and in your face and I hate to ignore it.”

So does he consider himself the voice of the working class? “No.

I’m working class and come from that background, and so does Andrew, but we are not out to represent the working class.

When I lived in that environment against the machine I hated most of them anyway!

“It’s just not entirely fair what’s happening to the lower echelons of society though, and I know about the working class experience because I existed within that environment for a long time.”

Enormously prolific, Sleaford Mods have 11 albums to their name, including gig LP, Live at SO36. Andrew stepped into the musician role previously occupied by founder member Simon ‘Parf ’ Parfrement.

They also star in a pair of films, Sleaford Mods: Invisible Britain, and 2017’s Bunch of Kunst.

So does he identify with the long list of protest bands who came before?

“I don’t think so,” he says. “I know what we are doing is brilliant but will it be remembered.

“In five years’ time will people know what we were doing? I don’t want to cover myself in glory as that makes me feel uncomfortable, as a lot of the time I think I’m a t**t. I can’t sit down and listen to anything I’ve done,” he says.

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“It’s not like putting on a Marvin Gaye record. It’s punk, street and grungy, but I’m proud of it, and it’s good. Of course it’s good; we are a big band for a reason – and it’s alright being confident – a lot of bands aren’t confident at all.”

And the album? “It’s going well,” he says. “It’s been well received by those who have listened to it.”

Their first album since splitting with Rough Trade Records, it was recorded in Nottingham on their own newly formed label Extreme Eating. But, says Jason, it has not all been plain sailing.

“We went independent, which proved quite tense,” he says. “There was a suggestion we didn’t need Rough Trade but there was a whole infrastructure there that we married ourselves too, so to go back to being independent without that was hard. We were a bit jaded and felt we were in a machine. And we were in a machine, but that gave us a chance to promote ourselves across the world.”

Though, he says, they are happy to be out of London. “It’s changing by gentrification. London is all very nice and pretty but that’s also what’s happening to people’s identities and personalities.”

So what next? “Who knows,” he says. “Definitely not writing love songs though!”

• Sleaford Mods play the O2 Academy Oxford on Saturday. Tickets from ticketmaster.co.uk
• Eton Alive is out now