THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (17): The Redskins – Keep On Keepin’ On

Yet another repost, but one I will make no apologies for.  Besides, it dates from November 2013 and may well be of interest to some of the more new TVV regulars.

Released in November 1984 in the midst of what was the most bitter and confrontational industrial action in my lifetime, the Miners’ Strike.

My most abiding memory of the song, aside from dancing to it in the student union, was when The Redskins gave a live rendition one Friday tea-time on ‘The Tube’ . This was some eight months into the strike, and the positions on both sides were entrenched to the point of deadlock.  The UK media was, without any question, very much on the side of the government and the coal industry management, and it was rare for anyone actually on strike to be given any sort of platform to put their case across.

Having just crashed their way through Hold On, lead singer Chris Dean (who also at the time wrote for the NME under the name of X Moore) introduced a temporary member of the band for Keep On Keepin On. A miner from Durham (which was the closest mining area to the Newcastle studios where The Tube was recorded) took to the stage and explain why he was on strike and to thank the public for their continued support. His words were met with applause from the studio audience, but they didn’t reach the ears of those of use sitting in our living rooms, as his words weren’t coming through.

There was uproar afterwards as Channel 4 was accused of deliberately sabotaging the performance. The TV station claimed it didn’t know in advance that the striking miner would take to the stage and had no idea that he would take to that particular mic, which they claimed had malfunctioned during the performance. I’ve got this footage on VHS tape, and I’ve watched it loads of time, and it cannot be denied that when Martin Hewes was singing backing vocals on Hold On he couldn’t be heard….but it really does seem to have been all too convenient and too much of a coincidence.

The resultant fall-out from the row helped get the single some publicity, and some radio airtime, which helped take Keep On Keepin On into the Top 50, but sadly not enough to ever lead to a Top of The Pops appearance.

Keep On Keepin On is a cracking record, as indeed is the LP Neither Washington Nor Moscow with its heady mix of pop, soul, blues, folk, punk and left-wing politics, and it’s very obvious that The Redskins were a hugely talented band who could have made and sold records for many years to come. But they didn’t…..

Where others such as Bragg and Weller could accept that there was more to the life of a musician than writing and recording agit-pop songs, it really was all-or-nothing for Chris Dean & co. They painted themselves into a corner with the interviews they gave to the music and mainstream press, and in due course the sad defeat for the miners and the ever-increasing shift to the right in UK politics meant they had nowhere to go and nothing meaningful to say. For a while The Redskins had stood firm, held tight and fought. But in the end they chose to die on their feet than to live on their knees. The break-up was swift and inevitable. But they left a fine legacy:-

mp3 : The Redskins – Keep On Keepin’ On (Die on Your Feet Mix)
mp3 : The Redskins – 16 Tons (Coal Not Dole)
mp3 : The Redskins – Reds Strike The Blues!

Enjoy.

JC