The Levellers are an English folk rock and Anarcho-punk band formed in Brighton in 1988, with Mark Chadwick on guitar and lead vocals, Jeremy Cunningham on bass guitar, and Charlie Heather on drums. Jon Sevink, the brother of Chadwick’s girlfriend, was brought in to play the fiddle. Their first EP, Carry Me, was released in 1989 and contained the songs “Carry Me” and “England My Home”, which received Radio 2 airplay. At that time the band recruited Alan Miles to play harmonica, guitar, and mandolin and to perform backing vocals. This lineup produced the EP Outside/Inside and toured throughout 1989 and most of 1990. After re-releasing two EPs on their own Hag label, in 1989, the Levellers signed a contract with French record label Musidisc. Their first album A Weapon Called the Word was released in 1990 and went platinum. The first single from the album was “World Freak Show”.
1991 saw the release of the Levellers’ second album, Levelling the Land, which entered the charts at number 14. The anthemic single “One Way”, despite not reaching the Top 40, became a popular song and live favourite for years to come among the travelling and indie music community, as well as “The Boatman” and the telling of the story of “Battle of the Beanfield”. 1994 saw the Levellers reach the peak of their popularity with a headlining appearance at Glastonbury Festival and a record breaking set on the main stage when they performed to around 300,000 people, speculated to be the largest ever at the festival. They also became involved in the campaign against the Criminal Justice Act.
Also in 1994 the band purchased a derelict factory in Brighton, named the “Metway” after the factory’s original owners, and created a self-contained headquarters. “Hope Street”, the lead single from the Zeitgeist album, was the first recording to come out of Metway. The album was released in September 1995 and charted at No. 2 in the week of its release. Buoyed by the initial success, manager Phil Nelson persuaded China Records to advertise the album on television and, unusually, the album reached No. 1 in its second week on the chart. The third single released from this album took the Levellers to their first TOTP appearance, playing the tongue-in-cheek drinking anthem “Just the One” whilst dressed in tuxedos. “Just the One” was specially re-recorded for the single release, with Joe Strummer guesting on honky tonk piano. It reached No. 12.
The band returned to the studio through late 1996 and early 1997 when the album Mouth to Mouth was recorded. Their first gigs in several months coincided with the Labour Party’s landslide general election victory in May 1997. These gigs previewed several new songs including “What a Beautiful Day”, which became the first single release from Mouth to Mouth and reached No. 13 on the UK chart. Summer 1997 saw the band return to Glastonbury Festival, playing an afternoon slot on the Pyramid Stage. The album was finally released in August 1997 and entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 5. The album spawned several more singles, “Celebrate”, “Dog Train” and “Too Real”, the last of which had an accompanying video directed by cult film director Alex Cox.
The Levellers played only a handful of live dates in 1999. Work eventually began on a new studio album, Hello Pig. The band drafted in Mark Wallis, who had worked with Oasis amongst others, to produce the record. This was an obvious change in direction, and the resulting complex production coloured the album. “Happy Birthday Revolution” was released as a single, reaching No. 57 in the charts. Hello Pig was released in September 2000, and went to No. 28. It received possibly the best critical acclaim the band had yet received, but was less popular with existing fans. With the relative commercial failure of the album, the band and the record company severed their relationship by mutual agreement.
In 2003 the Levellers founded their own festival – Beautiful Days. The festival is now an annual event, taking place each August at Escot Park, near Fairmile in Devon. In May 2005 the Levellers’ seventh studio album Truth and Lies was released. Mark Wallis returned as producer, with Dave Ruffy – drummer with UK punk band The Ruts – also producing. The album, released on Eagle Records, was generally upbeat – typified by the track “Make You Happy” – and a second single, “Last Man Alive”. The band continue to record and tour.
