Plague Songs
2020-2021
Three video-albums containing fifty-two furious, bleakly funny and often offensive poems and songs
about Covid, Brexit and a bewildered Britain written during lockdown.
about Covid, Brexit and a bewildered Britain written during lockdown.
Plague Songs Double CD
37 tracks compiled from the 3 Plague Songs albums
Released April 1st 2021
£12 + postage
Order online by clicking the pic above
Words & Images - Martin Rowson
Music & Production - Jon Tregenna
Cast listed under the videos below
Martin Rowson (whose work the Daily Mail once denounced in a full-page editorial as, ‘disgusting, deranged... sick and offensive’) has written extremely challenging lyrics in response to the political and social climate surrounding the pandemic and Brexit. These were set to music by Welsh musician and playwright Jon Tregenna and performed by a cast of actors and singers.
Music & Production - Jon Tregenna
Cast listed under the videos below
Martin Rowson (whose work the Daily Mail once denounced in a full-page editorial as, ‘disgusting, deranged... sick and offensive’) has written extremely challenging lyrics in response to the political and social climate surrounding the pandemic and Brexit. These were set to music by Welsh musician and playwright Jon Tregenna and performed by a cast of actors and singers.
‘Powerful stuff. Words and music as angry and disturbing as these present times.’
Ken Loach
'‘This is art as public enquiry… It’s a troubling watch but then this is weapons-grade artistic material designed to shock and unsettle and castigate. And shock it does, like licking your finger twice before inserting it into the National Grid. That grade of shocking. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.’'
Jon Gower - Nation Cymru
'It’s not an easy listen, nor is it meant to be: unlike much pandemic-induced creativity, it hammers home the reality of the pickle into which we have been summarily purloined by a cabal of crooks, liars and thieves.'
Tom King, Morning Star
‘Another repellent, ghastly and entirely necessary piece of work from Martin Rowson.’
Robin Ince
'Wow… it was brilliant.’
Kate North, BBC Radio Wales
‘Eerily reminiscent of Christopher Logue’s jazz poetry of the 60s “Redbird”
Jonathan Pryce
‘Epically subversive, new-age War of the Worlds.’
Dan Llywelyn Hall
‘…prolific, far out and beautifully performed’
Gillies Mackinnon
‘Another repellent, ghastly and entirely necessary piece of work from Martin Rowson. Who needs to bother creating their own nightmares when Martin is so eager to draw them for us’
Robin Ince
‘There’s been some great things in and around lockdown, and this is up there. Give it a listen. Well done Martin Rowson & Jon Tregenna’
Keith Allen
‘Angry, absurd, witty and strangely sad, these songs capture the highs and lows of the Covid crisis: the personal tragedies and the public farce. Tregenna provides a rich, diverse and often haunting soundscape; while Rowson’s dexterous verse
proves once again that he really can do this poetry lark.
Not bad for a bloke who colours in for a living’
Luke Wright
'...brilliant, scurrilous, angry, eclectic musical howl at our current situation and the bastards responsible for it. Big talent behind the mike with @MartinRowson and @jontreg creating magic.'
Neil Brand
'This is crying out to be a West End musical!'
Glenn Marshall
‘I love this stuff, x.’
Mark Thomas
'Well worth a listen.'
Nick Revell
Ken Loach
'‘This is art as public enquiry… It’s a troubling watch but then this is weapons-grade artistic material designed to shock and unsettle and castigate. And shock it does, like licking your finger twice before inserting it into the National Grid. That grade of shocking. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.’'
Jon Gower - Nation Cymru
'It’s not an easy listen, nor is it meant to be: unlike much pandemic-induced creativity, it hammers home the reality of the pickle into which we have been summarily purloined by a cabal of crooks, liars and thieves.'
Tom King, Morning Star
‘Another repellent, ghastly and entirely necessary piece of work from Martin Rowson.’
Robin Ince
'Wow… it was brilliant.’
Kate North, BBC Radio Wales
‘Eerily reminiscent of Christopher Logue’s jazz poetry of the 60s “Redbird”
Jonathan Pryce
‘Epically subversive, new-age War of the Worlds.’
Dan Llywelyn Hall
‘…prolific, far out and beautifully performed’
Gillies Mackinnon
‘Another repellent, ghastly and entirely necessary piece of work from Martin Rowson. Who needs to bother creating their own nightmares when Martin is so eager to draw them for us’
Robin Ince
‘There’s been some great things in and around lockdown, and this is up there. Give it a listen. Well done Martin Rowson & Jon Tregenna’
Keith Allen
‘Angry, absurd, witty and strangely sad, these songs capture the highs and lows of the Covid crisis: the personal tragedies and the public farce. Tregenna provides a rich, diverse and often haunting soundscape; while Rowson’s dexterous verse
proves once again that he really can do this poetry lark.
Not bad for a bloke who colours in for a living’
Luke Wright
'...brilliant, scurrilous, angry, eclectic musical howl at our current situation and the bastards responsible for it. Big talent behind the mike with @MartinRowson and @jontreg creating magic.'
Neil Brand
'This is crying out to be a West End musical!'
Glenn Marshall
‘I love this stuff, x.’
Mark Thomas
'Well worth a listen.'
Nick Revell
Access/Press/Radio
WATCH - PRESS - RADIO
Watch Plague Songs on our Youtube channel here
Download Plague Songs from Bandcamp by clicking here
Listen on Spotify by clicking here
PRESS
Wales Arts Review 17th Feb 2021
Nation Cymru 6th Feb 2021
Morning Star 18th November 2020
Buzz Magazine 30th October 2020
Culture Matters 16th August 2020
Nation Cymru 19th July 2020
Beyond The Joke 12th July 2020
Morning Star 10th July 2020
RADIO
The Review Show (BBC Radio Wales) 5th March 2021 (begins at 10:15)
The Soho Hour with Clare Lynch 15th November 2020
The Soho Hour with Clare Lynch 17th October 2020
The Newsagents on Resonance FM 17th October 2020
The Soho Hour with Clare Lynch 24th July 2020
The News Agents on Resonance FM 18th July 2020
WATCH - PRESS - RADIO
Watch Plague Songs on our Youtube channel here
Download Plague Songs from Bandcamp by clicking here
Listen on Spotify by clicking here
PRESS
Wales Arts Review 17th Feb 2021
Nation Cymru 6th Feb 2021
Morning Star 18th November 2020
Buzz Magazine 30th October 2020
Culture Matters 16th August 2020
Nation Cymru 19th July 2020
Beyond The Joke 12th July 2020
Morning Star 10th July 2020
RADIO
The Review Show (BBC Radio Wales) 5th March 2021 (begins at 10:15)
The Soho Hour with Clare Lynch 15th November 2020
The Soho Hour with Clare Lynch 17th October 2020
The Newsagents on Resonance FM 17th October 2020
The Soho Hour with Clare Lynch 24th July 2020
The News Agents on Resonance FM 18th July 2020
Plague Songs - Vol 3: The New Museum of Shit
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Plague Songs - Vol 2: The Second Wave
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Plague Songs - Vol1
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Reviews
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Pallbearers
Released 9th June 2020 Performed by Jane Williams |
Killer Matt
Released 30th June 2020 Performed by Bobby Bluff Killer Matt '...is the best Murder Ballad since Nick Cave'
John Le Brocq |
Let's All Go Dunkirking
Released 16th August 2020 Performed by Jane Williams 'Martin Rowson and Jon Tregenna have come up with brilliant Plague Songs for our times. Particularly like Dunkinrking - angry, witty, funny and sums up these desperate times well.'
Neil Brand |
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Shame In Britain Day
Released 11th October 2020 Performed by Steve Furst and Jane Williams |
Count Your Blessings (You Are Not Tory Scum)
Released 13th January 2021 Performed by Bobby Bluff 'Chas and Dave meet full-on howls of righteous anger!! Get in!!'
Neil Brand |
Hokey Covid
Released 12th November 2021 Performed by Michael J Sheehy |
Biogs
Martin Rowson is multi-award winning cartoonist, illustrator, writer, graphic novelist, broadcaster, ranter and poet. He has also authored, illustrated or contributed in one way or another to 60 books, from Lower Than Vermin: An Anatomy of Thatcher’s Britain (1986), via comic book versions of The Waste Land, Tristram Shady & The Communist Manifesto, to Stuff (2006), his memoir about clearing out his dead parents’ house which was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. His six thin illustrated volumes of verse include Pastrami Faced Racist & Other Verse (2018) and The Dance of Death (2019).
Jon Tregenna is a playwright and musician and wrote National Theatre Wales’ musical Hail Cremation! (about the Welsh radical druid Dr William Price), which was postponed four days before opening due to Covid. He authored the BBC ebook on Dylan Thomas, and his 2014 National Theatre Wales play (co-created with artist Marc Rees) Raw Material: Llareggub Revisted, made a Guardian ‘Top 10 Theatre’ list. He writes the music for Bobby Bluff, and was in London-based 90s cult fop-rockers Fur-lined, who were once described in the NME as ‘Aarrgghhh!!! Baffling and oddly enjoyable.'
If you’d like any more information, please contact:
[email protected], or ring 07702 088 298
Martin Rowson is multi-award winning cartoonist, illustrator, writer, graphic novelist, broadcaster, ranter and poet. He has also authored, illustrated or contributed in one way or another to 60 books, from Lower Than Vermin: An Anatomy of Thatcher’s Britain (1986), via comic book versions of The Waste Land, Tristram Shady & The Communist Manifesto, to Stuff (2006), his memoir about clearing out his dead parents’ house which was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. His six thin illustrated volumes of verse include Pastrami Faced Racist & Other Verse (2018) and The Dance of Death (2019).
Jon Tregenna is a playwright and musician and wrote National Theatre Wales’ musical Hail Cremation! (about the Welsh radical druid Dr William Price), which was postponed four days before opening due to Covid. He authored the BBC ebook on Dylan Thomas, and his 2014 National Theatre Wales play (co-created with artist Marc Rees) Raw Material: Llareggub Revisted, made a Guardian ‘Top 10 Theatre’ list. He writes the music for Bobby Bluff, and was in London-based 90s cult fop-rockers Fur-lined, who were once described in the NME as ‘Aarrgghhh!!! Baffling and oddly enjoyable.'
If you’d like any more information, please contact:
[email protected], or ring 07702 088 298
Plague Songs - Tee-Shirts & Vests
Brighten up these dark times with an offensive #PlagueSongs tee-shirt or vest. 9 to choose from.
Designs by Martin Rowson.
Clothing and ink are ethically sourced by Sam at Skull Print.
£20, range of sizes and colours.
Buy by clicking the image, or here.
Designs by Martin Rowson.
Clothing and ink are ethically sourced by Sam at Skull Print.
£20, range of sizes and colours.
Buy by clicking the image, or here.
