My first meeting with Levellers frontman Mark Chadwick took place backstage after a gig by friend and fellow musician Nick Harper a few years ago. Lads being lads (and a little the worse for wear), both had been fooling around with a bunch of bananas in a somewhat provocative manner, when he was enlightened to the fact that a journalist was in their midst. A momentary look of horror flashed across his face as he registered that his antics could have just landed him a centre spread in the News of the World. Although the 41-year-old Brighton-based vocalist/guitarist of the folk/punk group that has to date, totalled record sales in excess of 6 million worldwide, and this year celebrate a union that has lasted some 20 years, professes to never reading his press.
"No, I don’t!" he laughs, settling down with an already lit Marlboro (he lights another four during the 40-minute interview), at the band's Metway Studios where they are working on their 12th album, Letters From The Underground (released on August 18). He never reads anything that is written about him? “No, never!” I say I don’t believe him and we carry on for a few more seconds in this way, batting back and forth, before he relents. “Wel...possibly…okay then, yes! Everybody does. But it depends. I haven’t really been seriously interviewed for a long time, not for something worth reading anyway. I can’t really remember the last broadsheet or music magazine interview I gave, to be honest with you. [possibly Daily Telegraph, April 2005; Rock ‘n’ Reel, March/April 2007?] I prefer the more off-beat things, like this [Alternative Nation] because it’s actually a bit more interesting to do.”
Reading through some of their early interviews, it is apparent that there is little love lost between band and press. One NME journo who had the temerity to give them a bad review some years ago was duly rewarded for this transgression by being sent a small gift from the boys: a box full of excrement. "Yeah, but he thinks it's quite amusing now!” jokes the culprit. “But things haven't really changed between us and the press,” he goes on. “It probably never will, Initially it was just antagonism with the NME, but that spread so as far as the papers went we couldn't even get a look in. They just didn't want to know". After word spread the band were obliterated from the NME's pages for several years, thus effectively ignoring their debut album Weapon Called The Word released in 1990, the second, Levelling The Land (which went platinum), headlining appearances at the Glastonbury Festival and a raft of Top 20 singles.
It is Chadwick himself, it has to be said, who tends to garner the most adverse criticism – and not just from the media. Even if one puts aside the complaint - “those are two of the most foul-mouthed oiks I have ever had the misfortune to see on my television set” - made by a disgruntled viewer to C4’s coverage of Glastonbury where Mark and bassist Jeremy Cunningham were interviewed live, their own fans tend to agree that he is not perhaps the best spokesman for the band.
One post on the Levellers messageboard runs as follows: “You can usually rely on Jon [Sevink, violin] to be funny, Simon [Friend, guitar] to be sincere, Jeremy to be friendly, but Mark does tend to give interviews consisting of half-drunk, slurred, non-committal half-sentences…” As I read this to him, a grin slowly spreads across his face, before he erupts in laughter. “Ha, ha! That’s true – probably because I usually am half-drunk.”
On this occasion he isn’t. Having now interviewed the man twice, I find him a very likeable and easy-going character, and one whom I’ve never personally found to be anything other than perfectly amiable and open. He does, however, present a curious paradox: on one hand there is cavalier I-don’t-care-what-is said-about-me-to hell-with-it stance; on the other, is someone whom I suspect is actually more sensitive to criticism and affected by what is said than he cares to admit. During a recent private conversation where we had discussed the same subject of how he was seen by others, he remarked that he felt he was often ‘misunderstood’. I return to this again, wondering if he intentionally draws a protective mantle around the real Mark Chadwick, not wishing to expose that side to public scrutiny?
“Yeah, exactly,” he agrees. “That’s exactly right. It’s important to be that way. I’m quite a private person. A lot of musicians are the same: we put ourselves out in the music. But how this comes across, well, if you look on our messageboard pages where it comes up about who the fans’ favourite Leveller is, I’m always last, the least favourite.” Does he have an idea why? “Probably because I don’t…”, he pauses, giving thought to what he is about to say, “…well, if you meet me – the person, not the Leveller – one-to-one, it’s absolutely fine, as you know. But if you meet the other side of me, coming off-stage, say, well, because I don’t tend to indulge them [fans], they think I’m arrogant.” When you’re not. “No.”
Regardless of how the Levellers (who also include Charlie Heather on drums and Matt Savage on keyboards) may be perceived as individuals, they have still built up a strong and loyal fan following, garnering themselves the epithet of a ‘people’s band’ through their energy and commitment. Their brand of folk/punk/rock with what has become their trademark sound of pounding drums and distorted guitars, coupled with Chadwick’s own distinctive vocals and Sevink’s deft work on violin lending a certain Celtic grace to the mix, nestles comfortably alongside lyrics crafted around themes of liberty and pacifism.
Formed in Brighton in 1988, the Levellers’ [the name taken from the 17th-century puritans who espoused republicanism and the abolition of social distinctions.] modus operandi, Mark explains, was always to be “different from the bands that were around at the end of the Eighties – who we thought were all a bit glam, pretty pompous and egotistical. The way forward, as we saw it, was to be a bit more political, more angry and address issues that were going on at the time. We were behind removing the Crown and church from decision-making, certainly, but we didn’t really sit down with a manifesto or anything. All we wanted was to write songs that actually meant something, that addressed social issues and were about things that the people out there were experiencing in their lives. In the late Eighties this country was a bit broken. We were expressing that hopelessness that a lot of kids coming out of school with few job prospects were feeling.”
Friends as well as business partners (the Levellers employ an equal status regime in crediting the band on all recordings and sharing out all profits equally amongst themselves), they have remained steadfast as a unit. If one had to single out a blip on the radar, it would have to be 1992-3. With the success of Levelling The Land (now regarded as an all-time classic Levs album and which produced their anthemic One Way) behind them and three Top 20 singles during an 18-month period (15 Years, Belaruse, This Garden), to the outside world things may have appeared buoyant. But behind the scenes pressure to maintain their popularity and a gruelling tour schedule was taking its toll. At the same time Jeremy’s growing addiction to heroin was casting an even deeper shadow.
For the first time in this interview there’s hesitation in replying when I touch on this period in the band’s history. “It wasn’t an easy time,” he reflects, sombrely. “With Jeremy’s thing, yeah, we did have to face that head on and deal with it. We had to say, look, either you get better or we’re all damned finished. He got into a clinic, and he did get over it.” Was it a route that the rest of them were following? “With drugs? He was the most extreme. I think everyone else was okay, really. I was taking a hell of a lot of ecstacy, but that was about it…the drink came later,” he adds, with a wry laugh.
Pushing further, I pose the question whether during that time they had ever considered calling it a day. There’s another lengthy pause – long enough to hazard a guess that more lies beneath his answer when it does come than he elucidates on. “Mmm…maybe…maybe….yeah, there was one point that it got quite close to that. But I think how we managed to stay together was by ignoring a lot of what was going on in the background, and hoping it would get better by itself [laughs], which it did, and it does. That’s the best thing to do sometimes.”
This year the Levellers embark on what stands to be their busiest year ever. A double A-side single comes out on March 3 (available as a free download), followed by their three ‘Beautiful Nights’ 20th anniversary shows in Wolverhampton, Manchester and culminating with a grand finale at London’s Brixton Academy on March 8. With the new album (their first since 2005’s Truth & Lies), tours across Europe, a date at Glastonbury, a series of National Trust Forest gigs in the summer and headlining at the Royal Albert Hall in September, the publicity machine will undoubtedly be going into overdrive.
At the time of this interview, the band are still putting the finishing touches to Letters From The Underground. The mood, certainly from Mark’s side, is one of enthusiasm. “It’s going good. The tracks are all pretty much decided – in fact, I don’t think we’ve ever worked so hard on a record!” An important factor on this album has been bringing in Sean Lakeman (musician brother of Seth, and producer of the latter’s Mercury Prize - nominated Kitty Jay album) in as producer. Having toured with the Levellers and being familiar with their work and what they are about, he can, says Mark, “look at us objectively as well. He knows what a good Levellers moment is, and what’s not, and has been able to guide us as to what we should be doing.”
Jeremy was quoted last year as saying the next album would herald a return to the feel of earlier albums: back to the political scene, more acoustic, more folk-rock? “This one is really getting back to our roots, yes, definitely. We say that every time, I know, but somehow still miss it. But this time – we’ve got it!” Does the rumour about the ten acoustic, ten electric tracks have any truth in it? “Erm…no! That’s a misconception.” The single, A Life Less Ordinary / The Cholera Well (which after receiving its radio airplay debut on Chris Evans’ Radio 2 show recently, was voted a resounding ‘hit’ by listeners) taken from the album is an early indication that Letters From The Underground is a return not just to their roots, but once more highlights an unweathered continuation of their strong stance politically.
Whilst the band make a point of not naming individual writers of the tracks, the main body of work on LFTU comes from Jeremy, says Mark. “He’s written more of the lyrics on this one than he’s ever done before, which has meant a lot less pressure on me. I have been able to concentrate more on melody and things like that, which is as important to me anyhow. Jeremy wrote the verses and all The Cholera Well, and verses to A Life Less Ordinary; I did the choruses and music on A Life…Jeremy’s lyrics are also on Burn America Burn – which will probably be the next single – which is about Columbine, the high school shootings and the absolute black despair that hit America. Another track on the album that I’m particularly pleased with is Duty, which was written by me and Jeremy. The theme on this one is taxation and where the money goes. How it punishes everybody: as soon as they make any money, they have to give it all away and without the money going where you want it to go.”
Speaking of which, could the Levellers not have made more money if they’d taken another route - played the corporate game - to the one they chose? “Oh God, yeah, we could have made a fortune. But that was never our motivating force. We don’t want vast sums of money, that’s not what we’re in this business for. We’re in it to make a living, yes, but not cash in. That’s never really been our dream. We’ve always made enough money to survive. We’ve walked a very fine line for 20 years, but while we’ve never been loaded, we’ve never been truly skint either.”
1988 – 2008: 20 years of, as their publicity describes it, “anarchy, passion, disorder, folk, dancing, drinking, singing, politics, punk, rabble-rousing, hedonism and free spirit”. Does he see the Levellers still creating mayhem as 60-something rebels in 2028? “Yeah, I don’t see why not. The last 20 years have seemed like five minutes. And as long as we still have something worthwhile to offer, there’s no reason not to.”
www.levellers.co.uk www.myspace.com/levellers
total suffrajet 
