Reverend Jon McClure: Sound of steel crucial to Sheffield jobs and music heritage
Sheffield rock band Reverend and the Makers have pledged their support to Unite the union’s campaign for a just transition for the steel industry and a boost to jobs.
Band frontman Jon McClure called on the public to join the campaign, saying it was particularly important for Sheffield.
He said: “I think we've got to do everything we can to safeguard the industry because it provides so many jobs and is also literally Sheffield’s heritage. It's the thing Sheffield was founded upon and influences in so many ways the music that has come from the city.
“Jarvis Cocker has got a great theory: He says the bass is louder in Sheffield music because we all practice right next to the steelworks. Martyn Ware from Heaven 17 and Human League talks about music concrète. It is this idea that the early synthesiser music, the birth of British electronica, come to sort of sound like the drop forges in the steelworks that we heard growing up.”
Band frontman Jon McClure called on the public to join the campaign, saying it was particularly important for Sheffield.
He said: “I think we've got to do everything we can to safeguard the industry because it provides so many jobs and is also literally Sheffield’s heritage. It's the thing Sheffield was founded upon and influences in so many ways the music that has come from the city.
“Jarvis Cocker has got a great theory: He says the bass is louder in Sheffield music because we all practice right next to the steelworks. Martyn Ware from Heaven 17 and Human League talks about music concrète. It is this idea that the early synthesiser music, the birth of British electronica, come to sort of sound like the drop forges in the steelworks that we heard growing up.”
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Hi, I'm John from Reverend & The Makers and I'm here to tell you about Unite's Workers' Plan for Steel.
00:04 I think Unite's campaign to save British Steel is very important, obviously, especially here in Sheffield.
00:10 It would obviously be a tragedy if Sheffield lost its steel industry.
00:14 It's obviously the thing that the city was founded upon and influences us in so many ways.
00:19 The music that we make, Jarvis Cocker's got a great theory that the bass is louder in Sheffield music
00:25 because we all practice right next to steelworks.
00:28 I think the main issues are firstly procurement.
00:31 I mean, I can't understand why we're not using British Steel for everything that we build in this country.
00:36 It seems logical to me.
00:38 The second issue is to tackle energy prices, which I think are obviously soaring out of control.
00:45 For me, things like public ownership is a solution to this and I can't understand why we've not looked into that.
00:52 Martin Ware from Evan Sedley and Newman League talked about music concrete,
00:56 idea that the early synthesizer music the birth of British electronic