The King Blues
London, Koko
08/04/2011

In the sanitised world of the 21st century, there’s supposedly no place for polemic in music. The likes of Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye and Joe Strummer – mere musicians who believed (with good reason) that they could change the world – are a distant memory. These days the vested interests are too great, the corporate sponsorship deals too valuable, to risk it all for anything so contentious as an opinion.

If this is the case, then clearly nobody has told The King Blues. Walking into Koko tonight is like being transported back to 1981, to a time when soaring unemployment and the swingeing cuts of a newly-elected Conservative government caused the nation’s youth to react in the only way they knew how – by taking to the streets and rioting (sound familiar?). Without the liberating power of the internet, music was the obvious outlet for the ire of this disenfranchised generation, and politically-charged ska, punk and reggae were the musical genres of choice. It is this spirit of resistance which lives on in The King Blues.

Not that they’re about politics alone. Frontman Jonny ‘Itch’ Fox has the packed crowd eating out of the palm of his hand – they’re dancing like loons and singing every word as if their lives depend on it – and the anthemic songs bring to mind such as The Clash, The Specials and Dexys Midnight Runners. The result is rousing, uplifting, and proof positive that politics and music really can co-exist.

Henry Wilkins