Somerset, UK · folk punk · anarcho-punk

Blyth Power

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Anarcho-punk about English history and cricket, sung by a drummer, and far better than that sounds — four decades of literate, galloping folk-punk devotion.

Blyth Power took its name from a railway locomotive when Joseph Porter, born Gary Hatcher in Templecombe, Somerset, formed the band in 1983 with Curtis Youé, another former member of the anarcho-punk group the Mob. Their first release was a cassette, A Little Touch of Harry in the Night, put out in 1984 ahead of the studio records that followed.

Fronted from behind the drum kit by Porter, the band pairs fast, driving punk rhythms with melodic, folk-inflected songwriting; guitarist Jamie Hince, later of the Kills, played lead guitar on the 1990 album Alnwick and Tyne during one of the group's many lineup changes.

Porter's lyrics range across episodes from the Trojan War to the Cod Wars, alongside recurring English preoccupations of cricket, village life and trains, usually treated through allegory rather than direct comment. An avowed trainspotter, he once appeared on the religious-affairs programme Holy Smoke! naming trainspotting as his religion.

Since 1993 the band has released its records on its own label, Downwarde Spiral, building a catalogue of more than a dozen studio albums. Touring slowed after 2000 as members took on other commitments, but the band still runs an annual mini-festival, the Blyth Power Ashes, combining live music with a cricket match between band members and their associates each August.

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folk punkanarcho-punk