By Nick Mabey.
It was a Night to Remember*
The Men They Couldn’t Hang are, in my (not so) humble opinion, probably the best band ever to not get really famous. So it was a joy to see them at the Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea as part of their 40th anniversary tour. It’s not often a band of this age still seems so relevant.
I first saw TMTCH (as fans refer to them, which let’s be honest is not the greatest acronym but does save time) while queuing for a burger at Glastonbury 1985. They were playing on a side stage in front of about 30 people in abysmal weather. Something about the way they showed up that day led me to finish my lunch to the tune of Greenback Dollar (first song of the encore tonight). I was hooked.
I discovered they were a Southampton band and was lucky to see them perform many times in those early years. I learned they had something to say about Thatcher’s 80s, that reflected my own views. But not in a ranting way. The songs from their early albums told stories from hundreds of years ago that seemed relevant to the England I was growing up in. Tonight, those same songs seemed strangely contemporary.
The Ghosts of Cable Street told of us of the popular resistance to fascism within our midst – sound familiar? The Green Fields of France broke my heart for the hundredth time on the futility and utter horror of war – mmm why might that ring a bell today? And Shirt of Blue screamed at the desperation and agony of strike action for all involved, and the toxicity of power – need I say more?
The band mixed up these aging classics with anthemic ballads, reflective folk tunes and plenty of dance-along cowpunk. Everyone there was a proper fan, singing along with gusto and (in at least my case) a happy tunelessness. It was a celebration of the fact that popular music still has something to say politically and culturally.
Something was missing, and it was easy to see what. Stefan Cush, joint lead singer and iconic frontman sadly left us two years ago and his absence was keenly felt in the vocal gravel and general menace. This was the first time I had seen them live since then and noticed the band still seem to be mourning his passing as they paid their respects.
This was only the fourth gig of the tour, there are still another 25 chances to see them live before the end of 2024. I’ve seen a lot of bands from my youth still going decades later, but they don’t all matter in the way The Men They Couldn’t Hang do.
*Track three, side one of their debut album The Night of a Thousand Candles, and second encore song tonight.
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