Ken Bonsall – Ferocious Canine – New Album Kleptocracy

The Ferocious Canine frontman talks concerning the social and political points that new album Kleptocracy offers with.

Ferocious Canine launched their follow-up to 2021’s The Hope on seventeenth Might and, true to type, it’s a rumbustious and raucous orgy of political punch that lifts the veil on the uncomfortable social realities of a broken and divided Britain. Really feel-good tunes with really feel indignant lyrics, it’s set to go down a storm with the band’s loyal fan-base and properly past.

I spoke to Ken Bonsall, the ever-present, ever-cheery, and ever so barely Left Wing in his political outlook front-man, to get the story behind the songs on Kleptocracy.

LTW: So, you’re releasing the comply with as much as The Hope with Kleptocracy. How was it getting the album collectively?

Ken: Being a folks punk band and a political band on the similar time isn’t simple as a result of a variety of bands of that style attempt to imitate Dropkick Murphys, and Flogging Molly, with singing songs about being Irish and getting drunk. Yeah, we’ve nonetheless received the Irish aspect however I’m very political, a socialist, so it’s an odd one to steadiness for me.

I had 4 weeks to write down 13 songs, however I didn’t in a method, as a result of I knew the subject material that I wished to write down about. I don’t write for a very long time; I’ll simply write when it’s time to do the album. When the band have gotten the tunes prepared, I’ll begin writing and I’ll write for that tune, after which one for that one and so forth. They’re simply bits of music that we’ve jammed after which I say, proper, that’s the album there, Kleptocracy. A variety of occasions you’re making an attempt to make folks conscious of issues, social points or vital occasions, and with Ferocious Canine we’re usually wanting again into historical past, so that you’ve received to know what you’re writing about. 

Kleptocracy is an attention-grabbing title, why did you select to name it that?

Ken: Like lots of people, I had by no means heard of the phrase kleptocracy; there’s autocracies and democracies, however what we now have now in Britain is a kleptocracy. I noticed it on a t-shirt and I assumed, “wow, that’s precisely what we now have received with this authorities”. They’re granting cash to associates and stealing taxpayer’s cash after which simply laughing it off. And now they’re not even making an attempt to cover it, it’s blatant however folks don’t appear to find out about it, or perhaps they don’t care. We have been singing and clapping for the NHS throughout COVID and so they have been simply slicing billions off for one another, for his or her family and friends. Their associates make one other firm, there’s cash to be awarded for providers, in order that they carve thousands and thousands off and don’t truly present any profit.

All they’re doing is taking care of themselves, and it’s now so blatant that I assumed I’ve received to sing about it – we’re dwelling in a kleptocracy and they’re simply robbing us working class folks and getting away with it. A kleptocracy is outlined as a state with corrupt political leaders who misappropriate the wealth of the folks and take it for themselves on the expense of the inhabitants.

I at all times attempt to write a track the place you’re not truly pointing the finger and saying “you’re unsuitable”; I simply attempt to level out what they’re doing and folks could make up their very own minds. I’m not saying they’re unsuitable in what they’re doing, it’s their lifestyle, that’s why most of them are so wealthy. So, by writing Kleptocracy, I’m simply declaring what they’re doing, taking all the cash and taking care of the 1% membership, and letting folks determine for themselves in the event that they agree with it.

Is it neo-Thatcherism in your view, or a stage past even that?

Ken: Thatcher privatised the NHS – the one factor that’s not personal is that badge that claims NHS, and so they’ll at all times hold that badge because it provides them cowl for what’s actually taking place. It’s not nationwide, they’re all personal corporations. They wrote it as a method method again then to privatise the NHS with out us figuring out, and so they have accomplished it.

We noticed Tories sporting these badges saying Nationwide Well being Service and clapping throughout COVID and it’s simply garbage, however what are you able to do? There isn’t any stopping them as a result of the political tradition has shifted to date to the precise that each one that is seen as virtually regular.  

You’ve written concerning the SUS legal guidelines that have been so hated within the’80s.

Ken: Properly, it’s all come full circle hasn’t it, they’re doing all of it once more and so they’ve received the rights to do it. I witnessed it with my very own eyes within the Miner’s Strike in 1984, when it was unlawful however the police nonetheless received away with it. No one stopped them as a result of Thatcher had mentioned “I would like you to do that”. The police went to coaching camps in Northern Eire and so they got here again over to the mainland to completely smash the working lessons.

The poem, Sonny’s Lettah by Linton Kwesi Johnson, which you’ve mentioned impressed the track, is a superb piece of labor however not simple studying or listening

Ken: It’s an incredible piece of labor, very hard-hitting. Listening to that, you get an actual perception into the SUS Legal guidelines, nearly as good an outline of being black in Brixton within the Seventies and early ‘80s as you’re going to get. I’ve simply seen a drama on the BBC, This City set within the Midlands round that point, and that simply exhibits you the police brutality. There was a picket line, and a striker who was black received arrested – he wasn’t doing something unsuitable, simply on the picket line. They took him in, however earlier than they let him go they gave him a great beating within the cells.  That’s why I wrote SUS Legal guidelines, as a result of it was a depraved regulation that noticed harmless black guys being crushed within the cells and no one may hear their screams. The police would simply say “oh, he fell over” or “he attacked one among our officers” and so they received away with it. However, to return to your query, sure the poem by Linton Johnson may be very shifting and really efficient in what it units out to do.

The album Kleptocracy suggests that you simply see extra parallels with these occasions in Britain immediately.

Ken: In the event you take a look at the extent of discrimination within the ’60s and ’70s in the direction of immigrants who had come over to do the roles nobody right here wished to, I positively really feel it’s the case, sure. We had the Windrush folks coming to work on the trains and buses. The Irish had accomplished the railways, and 100 years later the motorways, and virtually constructed fashionable Britain, however they confronted resorts and pubs with indicators saying “No Blacks, No Canines, No Irish”. That they had come to do the roles we didn’t wish to and confronted large discrimination. So, they will’t win both method, these folks, and now it’s gone full circle. The people who find themselves coming over to take up undesirable jobs, like within the Care sector, or in kitchens, are being criticised by the very people who find themselves bringing them in to do it.

Plainly the focusing on of minorities, race and social class, is a default political technique by the present Authorities?

Ken: Yeah, racist overtones have gotten an increasing number of widespread within the language of some politicians. There’s additionally a development the place they demonise folks such because the homeless. These persons are all-time low, , regardless of how they received there, there isn’t any decrease they will fall, and but they’re demonised. They attempt to clear them out of the town centres as a result of they don’t need them to be so seen, however these persons are in disaster and hiding the issue – calling it a “way of life selection” will not be actually serving to.

We at all times do the Ferocious Meals Drops wherever we play on each tour and I at all times say I hate having to do it. what? The eighth largest economic system on the earth, and we’ve received a disaster on our streets. It’s in all places you look now. Many of those persons are susceptible – they don’t have any selection in present society. They don’t aspire to dwelling in tents in metropolis centres, who would? And if it’s not dangerous sufficient for them dwelling on the streets, they’re demonised by politicians and fairly often picked on or attacked by gangs. These are sometimes folks with extreme psychological well being points, and I simply discover it stunning that the scenario exists. Individuals say they’re proud to reside in Britain and I’m considering there’s nothing to be happy with on this nation in the meanwhile.

It’s all going again to “Victorian Values”, that pet phrase of Thatcher. So a few years of Tory rule and that is what we’ve received. The institution are to date in cost now, and while you’ve received billionaires operating the nation, they don’t know something about actual folks. They don’t care about you, why would they? They’re not concerned about someone who’s leaving faculty and making an attempt to make his personal method, struggling to purchase his first flat or home as a result of he’s on zero hour contracting. You can’t count on a billionaire to know that or care about it.

Individuals are by no means going to get out of that poverty cycle. Children are born into baby poverty, that’s all they’ve ever recognized; they’ll wrestle in class, they’ll wrestle to entry well being providers and so they might find yourself homeless. I can’t hearken to billionaires saying they perceive that and their plan is working.

I’m working class and introduced up in a village. We didn’t have something once we have been rising up, however we had meals and we had love. So, fortunately. I’ve by no means needed to reside on streets, however I’ve labored with folks on the streets and I helped them as a lot as I may. I’ve at all times mentioned there’s two kinds of folks; individuals who care and individuals who don’t and that merely means there’s good individuals who will exit of their method to assist folks, fairly than demonise them. These are the folks we needs to be happy with on this nation.

This brings me to the track on the brand new album, a phenomenal duet known as A Place We Name Residence. That’s impressed by this topic isn’t it?

Ken: It’s with Lizzey Pleasure Ross, my vocal coach – she has an incredible voice and I simply thought it could be good. to get her on the following album doing a duet with us. So, Sam, our great multi-instrumentalist, got here up with the guitar riff that had this nice really feel about it. Then I wrote the lyrics and what I wished to convey was, the place’s the very best place or the worst place you could be for 2 lovers? However one factor that shines by way of, regardless of how exhausting issues are, is that you simply nonetheless received love and nothing can break that that bond.

I’ve by no means been homeless like I mentioned, however I did the track concerning the worst place to reside and that’s on the streets while you’ve received nothing. It’s about two folks being evicted, the influence of austerity, they’ve misplaced every little thing and ended up being on the streets. However the one factor that shines by way of is their timeless love for one another. They’ll get by way of it collectively and so they’ll nonetheless have that very same love regardless of the place they reside.. I’m making an attempt to show a horrible scenario right into a optimistic, it’s that form of track.

Merthyr Rising, additionally on the brand new album is a track meaning rather a lot to you?

Ken: Taking part in Merthyr Rising Pageant is an enormous honour for me. In a sq. in the course of Merthyr. To me, that was the identical as enjoying the Toll Puddle Pageant and the Left Discipline Stage at Glastonbury. That’s precisely the place Ferocious Canine, as a Left-leaning band needs to be enjoying, I wrote the track which is on the kleptocracy album and I’ve even put some Welsh in there.  I’ve received a buddy who lives in Mildew and he or she speaks fluent Welsh so she helped me with the phrases and tips on how to pronounce them correctly.

Blood Soaked Shores has an actual distinction between the vibe and the precise lyrics? 

Ken: It’s a kind of songs I at all times envisaged being performed in a pub on Paddies Day, with folks leaping on the bar, chucking shorts down their neck and passing out with a giant grin on their face. An actual goodtime tune, however what we’re truly singing about is the exhausting, merciless actuality of warfare. It’s a blatant anti-war track known as Blood Soaked Shores, however it’s not about some faraway place, It’s about England. We’ve received blood on our arms all through historical past however we make these folks into heroes, like Nelson and Cromwell. The variety of atrocities dedicated within the identify of Britain have to be phenomenal however, if you may get folks to bounce alongside to such lyrics set to a great tune, then that’s a masterpiece.

I didn’t know the story of Iron Mike Malloy till I heard the track, however it’s fairly a story, and all true?

Ken: It’s sensible. isn’t it? And sure, all a real story. Mike Malloy was a homeless Irish man in New York within the early Twentieth Century and this gang of crooks stored making an attempt to kill him, and a few of the methods they went about it are unbelievable. Mainly, they knew he was an alcoholic so took out life insurance coverage insurance policies on him after which set about making an attempt to kill him, however the subsequent day he could be again on the bar regardless of what they did, so he received this status of being invincible. Johnny Edwards our outdated accordion participant labored on it with me however we by no means received it completed however it’s such a fantastic story, I felt I needed to share it.

I point out that the track Iron Mike Malloy places me in thoughts of the nice, however sadly now late, Shane MacGowan and immediately it’s simple to see what meaning to the Ferocious entrance man. Nevertheless, the comparability stands for me, Ferocious Canine, and their rabid band of Hell Hounds are protecting the spirit of The Pogues properly and really alive. Good time, infectious music is the velvet glove, concealing the iron fist of lyrics that spare nothing of their description of the realities of poverty and corruption.

Is Britain 2024 a Kleptocracy? Everybody should determine for themselves however Ferocious Canine have made a blistering contribution to the talk with their newest album.

Ferocious Canine web site  | Fb 

Kleptocracy is out now, and you will discover tour dates right here

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All phrases by Dave Jennings. Extra from Dave could be discovered at his Louder Than Struggle Writer Archive. He’s additionally on Twitter