The Levellers are set to release their 'Greatest Hits' on 29 September via their own On The Fiddle Recordings label. Spread over three formats; the 2CD/DVD set includes all the Levellers' singles and videos - together on one album for the first time, spanning the bands' 25 year career.
From the folk punk roots of Carry Me, through the anthemic One Way, Fifteen Years and the chart topping Hope Street, Just The One and Beautiful Day - more recent tracks such as Truth Is, Burn America Burn and The Cholera Well show the Levellers' mix of scathing political comment and positive DIY attitude to life hasn't dissipated with age.
Most exciting of all, there are 4 brand new recordings of the Levellers collaborating with contemporary artists re-working some of their classic material. Imelda May is the queen of all time on Beautiful Day. While Bellowhead take on Just The One and the legendary Billy Bragg performs Hope Street. Finally, Frank Turner breathes new life into Julie - bringing us back full circle for another generation of the disenfranchised to discover the Levellers for the first time.
In October and November this year, Levellers will embark on a European wide Greatest Hits tour to promote the album; 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 band’s 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.
As well as the Greatest Hits release and huge tour this year for Levellers, afilm 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 band’s 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 2014
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
Tickets are £22.50 (£25 London) and go onsale this Friday at 9am
