Darren Hayman is one of this nations unsung heroes, agreed he has throughout his career opted to take a (to quote directly from said PR summation) ‘..singular and erratic route through England’s tired and heartbroken underbelly’. I’ll also add that the sense you get from Hayman is that often his perspective on / of loss, love and loyalty in his portrayals of the fallen, the forgotten or simply the forlorn is crafted out of personal experience often making him an unwitting player perhaps even victim rather than merely a casual observer.
Come February ‘Chants for Socialists’ perhaps sees his most ambitious release to date through WIAIWYA. Inspired by a leaflet he found entitled ‘Chants for Socialists’ by William Morris it stirred the political machinations within Hayman whose left wing politics had never strayed far throughout a back catalogue stretching back to the Hefner days though arguably had been afforded a subtle treatment that buried them just beneath the surface of obviousness. And so Hayman was hit with a vision – what if and more importantly – you could really bring 19th C ideals, chants and political rhetoric into the arena of a supposedly modernist age of polished ideologies and of a less romantic tolerance of the old ways. As said the album is out in February for now take a seat, kick back a little and sample the delights of Hayman’s extraordinary handiwork in this ‘Making of Chants for Socialists’ video, Billy and Woody eat your hearts out……
