The Peace & Freedom Band

The Peace & Freedom Band were a British group, formed in 1986, by two underground poets - Luton-born Paul Rance, and Hartlepool's Andy Bruce.

Basically coming out of "Peace & Freedom magazine" - which was then a music/poetry fanzine edited by Rance, and later photocopied by Bruce - The Peace & Freedom Band, often called the P&F Band, were to produce seven albums of varying quality. Their last album being the mp3.com CD, "Earth", in 2000.

Early, underground days

The Peace & Freedom Band were a group who were underground in the truest sense of the word, as they were often too poor to afford decent recording equipment, but they were steeped in the punk ethos of not letting a little thing like that get in the way.

Their first proper album, "Life", came out in 1988, and was helped by ex-APF Brigade member Andi Xport joining as an auxiliary member, contributing quality tunes to Rance's poems, 'Nature' and '30th Century', and doing a lot of the production - overseen by a reputedly drunken Rance, one summer afternoon in Xport's house in Peterborough.

Burnley poet Andrew Savage joined later in 1988, and had gained some national fame by posing nude in a jacuzzi, reciting poetry (with some other poets), which "The Daily Mirror" gleefully published a picture of. Savage inspired the band's next album, 'Carry On Taping', which was partially produced by Xport later in '88. It was a particularly strange album - even by Peace & Freedom Band standards - with tracks about World War I, Steve Biko, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, My Lai, ghosts, orchids, giraffes, whales, dreams, anti-drugs, and the Martian mountain, Olympus Mons.

"Secret Joinery", released in 1989, was an album, which was a collection of old and new P&F Band songs, including 'Hayley's Tum', 'Chicken Liberation Song', 'Find Myself A Girl', and 'Psycho Somatic Song'. This album cemented the verb most used to describe the band, and in Factsheet Five - namely, "quirky".

"Is God A Dropout?" followed the next year, with the gritty rock 'n' roll sound of 'She's Getting It', and the ultra-raucous, 'War-r-r-r-r-r!' - a delicious send-up of thrash metal, which was produced by Xport, and was his last work with the band. Andrew Savage's inspired tribute to a legendary grumpy DJ, 'The James Whale Show', remains one of the best Savage/P&F Band songs.

A poor man's "Tommy"

"The Poll Tax" was to inspire the band's next album in 1991. Rance, Bruce, and Savage were fierce critics of this, with Rance being given a summons, and threatened with arrest. Savage, always one for good ideas, suggested a concept album about the poll tax, and so 'Cedric' was born. Andrew Bruce's guitar playing and songwriting really blossomed on this album, on tracks such as 'War Pigs', 'Learn From Your Mistakes', and 'Clockwork Soldiers'. Savage wrote some hilarious, hard-edged material, such as 'Poll Tax Collectors' and 'Several Things Need Sorting Out', and the moving 'Don't Worry Cedric'. Rance contributed possibly his best-ever song, the sparse, acoustic guitar/vocal composition, 'Ain't Gonna Pay The Poll Tax', which, he said, "was induced by a feeling of rage, injustice, and victimisation."

Not much happened for the next few years, regarding the P&F Band. Savage was busy with publishing his tape magazine, "Super Trouper", which featured music and poetry, and Rance and Bruce continued to work on the "Peace & Freedom" magazine, including launching another title, 'Eastern Rainbow', and publishing paperback anthologies of poetry. In the mid-1990s Rance dabbled briefly with comedy writing, when dating a writer for "The News Huddlines" and "Week Ending", Fay Dickinson, and later he had some jokey material aired on the Danny Baker-hosted soccer show on Talk Radio, claiming to be an anti-Radiohead, pro-Jefferson Airplane fan.

1997's "Universal Love" was an album of two parts - the environment, broken relationships, selfishness, and death on the first side, and, on the second, humorous songs about silverfish, tea, and uplifting tracks about love, the Earth, and alien worlds.

Around this time Andrew Savage married Tracey, and became a father twice over in 1998 and 1999. He even turned up on the anarchic Channel 4 sports show Under The Moon, with a jokey song about the World Cup.

mp3 wannabees

The group began to discover new areas to promote their music, and embraced the internet, releasing a CD album through mp3.com, entitled "Earth", in 2000. This was an album with an environmental bent, with such songs as 'Concrete Countryside', 'Blue And Green Planet?', and 'This World Is Sleeping'. The humour was still there though, on tracks such as 'Alien Abduction' and the old Andrew Savage song, 'Ill Jill & The Power Pill'. It was the P&F Band's most sophisticated production yet. Rance with his The Warden Hills Walkers, and Savage with his Space Dentists, also produced solo CDs through mp3.com.

Not quite deceased

The band have been quiet for a few years, with Paul Rance (now sometimes known as Sticky Banana) coming to terms with the sudden death of his father, the photographer Peter Rance, and Andrew Savage becoming a teacher, and changing his name to Angelo Gravity. Andy Bruce continues to explore spirituality, and Andi Xport (now Andy Xport) is writing new songs again.

Discography

* "Life" (1988)
* "Carry On Taping" (1988)
* "Secret Joinery" (1989)
* "Is God A Dropout?" (1990)
* "Cedric" (1991)
* "Universal Love" (1997)
* "Earth" (2000)

External links

* [http://www.garageband.com/artist/paulapollo The Peace & Freedom Band on GarageBand]
* [http://www.myspace.com/manshate Andy Xport on MySpace]
* [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=95349899 Paul Rance/Sticky Banana on MySpace]
* [http://www.myspace.com/angelogravity Andy Savage/Angelo Gravity on MySpace]
* [http://uk.youtube.com/user/AngeloGravity Andy Savage/Angelo Gravity music and poetry videos on YouTube]