Thursday 23 October 2014

Who put the Ku in Jenga?


8 Days 17 Hours 58 minutes…

I haven’t got any news regarding my ku Jenga Society album, apart from perhaps explaining the story behind the additional ‘ku’ in the title. Kujenga is the Swahili ‘to build’, which is relevant to the concept of the title song of the album but the title song is just called Jenga Society.
The reason for this is to make it plain that I am using the Swahili words for the concept and not using the word Jenga on its own which could be claimed, that I was trying to trick people who love the game, into buying the album thinking it was connected. (I know, who would? But that is the sort of thing that can be claimed in copyright infringement).
So while I wait for the manufacturing to take place, I have been trying to come up with a visual concept for my new website which is going to appear at steve-drewett.com (don’t do stevedrewett.com, you’ll get a stamp dealer). With this I hope to connect the different strands of my career, from solo, the Newtown Neurotics and the Indestructible Beat. I want the Steve Drewett area to be ready for the Jenga release date; the Neurotics section is already live as it has always been but later I am going to redesign it. The Indestructible Beat section will come later.
Other big news today? Earlier I text ‘luv u 2’ to my daughter only to receive a text from Neurotics bass man Adam Smith saying I love you too. Whoops, wrong person, but I’m too long in the tooth for embarrassment. 

Life in Their Hands

I wanted to write something with a lot of power but I also wanted it to be a different approach to punk from what was the norm at the time. It is the rhythm of this track that is different to most of the rest of the ‘Beggars Can Be Choosers’ album (there was also of-course the reggae rhythms of ‘Newtown People’) and for this I used the influence of Bo Diddley and the type of approach he gave to his songs.
I am more than happy to be inspired by American artists but I’m not overly impressed by the fawning over of Americana in the way the Clash did. So the subject matter of the song was based in England and sung in our usual way.
It was about unlicensed bouncers (many of which were just plain thugs with violent criminal records), one of which had, around 1983 had beaten up and killed an innocent gig goer Henry Bowles. It was big news in the music press at the time and also inspired Action Pact to write ‘London Bouncers’. 

I hope I had a bit of influence at the time.

Take a listen below…



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