Levellers have announced the release of ‘Greatest Hits’ on 29th September 2014 via their own On The Fiddle Recordings label. Released three formats (CD/DVD/DIGITAL), all versions include every Levellers singles & video released over the last 25 years (of which 20 were chart hits), together for the first time.
From the folk punk roots of Carry Me, through the anthemic One Way, Fifteen Years, Hope Street, Just The One and smash hit Beautiful Day, to more recent tracks such as Truth Is and Cholera Well, after more than 25 years together as band, the Levellers’ mix of scathing political comment and positive DIY attitude to life hasn’t dissipated with age.
Collaborations
Most exciting of all, the Greatest Hits album also features 4 brand new recordings of the Levellers collaborating with contemporary artists to rework some of their classic material. Imelda May is the queen of all time on ‘Beautiful Day’ (which will be formally released as a single). Bellowhead take on ‘Just The One’ and the legendary Billy Bragg performs ‘Hope Street’. Finally, Frank Turner breathes new life into ‘Julie’, one of his very favourite songs whilst growing up, bringing us back full circle for another generation of the disenfranchised to discover the Levellers for the first time.
Documentary Film
As well as the Greatest Hits release and huge tour this year for Levellers, a film about their rise to fame in the 1990’s ‘A Curious Life‘ had its premiere in June 2014. Told through the unique perspective of Jeremy Cunningham, the bands bass player and artist, and directed by former Chumbawamba frontman Dunstan Bruce, the film focuses on the Levellers phenomenal success between 1988 and 1998 before they disappeared for a time in a train wreck of drink, drugs and creative drought. However, despite reaching their lowest ebb, the band never split up and after a few years in the wilderness they re-invented themselves as a self-managing collective with their own studio, label and Beautiful Days festival and in the process became unexpected survivors of the UK’s famously fickle music industry.
Levellers Greatest Hits – UK Tour (with Support from The Selecter)
To celebrate the release of Greatest Hits, Levellers will embark on a European wide Greatest Hits tour in October and November performing some of these songs for the first time in many years with special guests The Selecter on all UK dates plus solo multi-instrumentalist Laura Kidd aka She Makes War.
Influential and platinum-selling 2-Tone veterans The Selecter returned in 2011 fronted by the original singing duo of the female icon of the 2-tone era Pauline Black and Arthur ‘Gaps’ Hendrickson. The dynamic and impeccable duo take centre stage in what is arguably the bands best line-up since the original one. Their debut album Too Much Pressure, featuring the hit ‘On My Radio’, remains a classic touchstone for a generation of ska lovers and they will perform it in its entirety at the shows.
29 Oct FOLKESTONE Leas Cliff Hall
11 Nov NOTTINGHAM Rock City
12 Nov BRISTOL o2 Academy
13 Nov LONDON o2 Shepherds Bush Empire
14 Nov BIRMINGHAM o2 Academy
15 Nov NORWICH UEA
16 Nov PORTSMOUTH Guildhall
18 Nov WREXHAM William Aston Hall
19 Nov NEWCASTLE o2 Academy
20 Nov SHEFFIELD o2 Academy
21 Nov GLASGOW o2 ABC
22 Nov MANCHESTER Academy
On sale Friday 04 July 2014 via gigsandtours.com
Tracklisting
CD1
01. 15 Years
02. Hope Street
03. What A Beautiful Day
04. Dog Train
05. Belarus
06. The Cholera Well
07. Last Man Alive
08. Truth Is
09. Fantasy
10. Just The One
11. Burn America Burn
12. Before The End
13. Celebrate
14. Bozos
15. Too Real
16. Liberty
17. Beautiful Day (Feat. Imelda May)
18. Julie (Feat. Frank Turner)
CD2
1. One Way
2. Make You Happy
3. This Garden
4. Julie
5. Wild As Angels
6. Come On
7. The Devil Went Down To Georgia
8. Far From Home
9. Together All The Way
10. Exodus (Live)
11. Happy Birthday Revolution
12. Carry Me
13. Outside/Inside
14. World Freak Show
15. The Recruiting Sergeant (War Child Explicit)
16. Just The One (Feat. Bellowhead)
17. Hope Street (Feat. Billy Bragg)
DVD
1. One Way
2. 15 Years*
3. Far From Home*
4. Julie* 5. Belaruse*
6. This Garden*
7. Hope Street*
8. Fantasy*
9. Just The One*
10. Exodus (Live)
11. What A Beautiful Day*
12. Celebrate*
13. Dog Train*
14. Too Real*
15. Bozos*
16. One Way (1998)
17. Happy Birthday Revolution
18. Come On
19. Wild As Angels
20. Liberty (Live)
21. Burn America Burn
22. Before The End
23. Truth Is
24. The Recruiting Sergeant
25. Julie (Feat. Frank Turner)
26. Hope Street (Feat. Billy Bragg)
27. Just The One (Feat. Bellowhead)
28. Beautiful Day (Feat. Imelda May)
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