EP REVIEW: Booze & Glory: Raising The Roof (Pirates Press Records)
Most bands have had it tough in the last couple of years, but Booze & Glory seem to have had a little tougher than others.
As well as having their touring plans and earning potential scuppered by Covid-19, they’ve also pissed off a chunk of their fanbase with a change in direction.
Formed in London in 2009, they made their name singing traditional British oi, with songs about being working class, going to football (particularly West Ham United) and drinking beer.
Changes in personnel meant they lost that Britishness, and their last two albums, 2017’s Chapter IV and 2020’s Hurricane (reviewed HERE) received a lukewarm reception in some quarters.
Now consisting of Mark on guitar and vocals, with Kahan on lead guitar, Chema on bass and Frank on drums, they remain a very entertaining live band (see this review).
Mark revealed just before lockdown that he is fighting cancer for the second time. Undeterred, they’re back with a new four-track EP, and despite all the bad news, it’s full of positivity.
It kicks off with the title track Raising The Roof, which says a big ‘fuck you’ to the shitstorm of the last couple of years. You can’t fail to be swept along as Mark urges: “Always live your life like there’s no tomorrow/Brace yourself and let the good times roll!”
Betrayed is a defiant middle-fingered salute to lying politicians, while C’est La Vie is another upbeat slice of anthemic streetpunk, about making the most of the lives we’ve got.
Things are rounded off with the track which, for me, is the best on the EP, The Streets I Call My Own, which reflects on returning to the place you’re from, and finding how much it’s changed.
It’s a song which most people of a certain age will identify with, and as a bridging point until the next Booze & Glory full-length this EP will do nicely.
Booze & Glory still have plenty to say, and they show again here, if there was ever any doubt, that there’s a lot more to them than Swinging Fuckin’ Hammers.
- Raising The Roof is available on 12in oxblood or mustard vinyl from Pirates Press Records HERE, and you can catch Booze & Glory at a bunch of summer festivals, including Rebellion in Blackpool on August 4.
