PISTON
Here we have a non-Christmas Christmas song, in the form of Piston’s yuletide cover of Slade’s 1972 hit, ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now’. Yuletide in the sense it’s being released at Christmas, and they’re wearing Santa hats on the cover, which is a festive pastiche of Slade’s ‘Slayed?’ album, from where the song’s been lifted. And distinctly non-Christmas in the sense they’ve eschewed the overtly obvious, by opting not to cover ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’. Instead, their reasoning behind covering ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now’ is to reflect our currently tumultuous times in what is an inescapably fucked up political climate. With a pre-Xmas general election looming, and Boris’ buffoonery and bluster in full flow, it’s a timely tonic to counter the man’s deranged ramblings.
Bottom-line, the track’s great fun. It’s faithful to the original, but with a modern sheen, where the guitars, bass and drums rock harder and vocalist Rob Angelico sings on his own terms, rather than attempting to ape the inimitable Noddy Holder. There’s also an accompanying (home) video that features cameos from a number of their peers from the retro rock resurgence scene, which has been racking up thousands of views via Facebook and YouTube. I doubt this single will feature on many Christmas playlists peripheral to the hard rock scene, but it makes a fuck of a good soundtrack to the general election!
Bottom-line, the track’s great fun. It’s faithful to the original, but with a modern sheen, where the guitars, bass and drums rock harder and vocalist Rob Angelico sings on his own terms, rather than attempting to ape the inimitable Noddy Holder. There’s also an accompanying (home) video that features cameos from a number of their peers from the retro rock resurgence scene, which has been racking up thousands of views via Facebook and YouTube. I doubt this single will feature on many Christmas playlists peripheral to the hard rock scene, but it makes a fuck of a good soundtrack to the general election!
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Self-released
Single
MAMA WEER ALL CRAZEE NOW
Review by Mark Holmes
RUNNING TIME:
3:38
RELEASE DATE:
29th Nov 2019
TRACK LISTING
1) Mama Weer All Crazee Now
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
UK
"With a pre-Xmas general election looming, and Boris’ buffoonery and bluster in full flow, it’s a timely tonic to counter the man’s deranged ramblings."
