President Reagan, the great manipulator, has done it again. in spite of persistent majorities in the opinion polls against the arming of the Nicaraguan contras, he has persuaded more than half the United States Congress to go along with the plan.
That takes me back, as does the picture on the back of the LP, taken from inside a coil of razorwire on the perimeter of a Cruise Missile Base — the same view Abigail and I had one cold Sunday in February 1985. But that's another story. Back to the review, by David Ward:
Just when you thought it was safe to be smug and complacent[!?], along comes latter-day Puritan Leon Rosselson to deliver his latest series of short, sharp literary and musical shocks. Rosselson, you may have noticed, nearly always manages to insinuate himself towards the top of these reviews [the column in question reviews 10 folk releases]. Partly this is because he writes so well, stretching forms and hassling words, and makes optimum use of a fairly limited voice; but mainly it's because he makes me feel guilty… Rosselson… is the conscience of us all, a man obsessed with the need for change, both moral and political. And just when you fear he's turning into a smug and sanctimonious dreamer, he produces one of his biting numbers to convince you otherwise. On Bringing the News from Nowhere, there is, as you would expect with a title like that, a tribute to William Morris (a Rosselson hero) and new swipes at those who seek to preserve only the status quo… And so Rosselson produces one of his best albums so far and wins more nice words from the Guardian. I can't help it. He deserves every one.
William Morris, eh? Who gave his name to Magdalene's first leftist student society, because Nick Hopwood recognised that the college wouldn't support a political grouping, but would support a cultural one. I can't remember how many meetings I attended — one that Matt Seaton spoke at, and perhaps a couple of others — and I suspect it expired soon after Nick graduated and headed off to Kings. I listened to this record quite a lot after I first got it, and the trubute to William Morris was my favourite track then. Still is.
So critics get what Rosselson's doing. Performers of folk songs and chansons get it (the list of contributors to this tribute album
I've seen him a couple of times: first with Roy Bailey at the Crucible Studio Theatre just a few months after I got this record — I remember that being stirring stuff, probably honed in the years before playing miners' benefits across North Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire — and then again five years ago at the Islington Folk Club.
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