Joe Solo – Otley Labour Rooms “TOO many protest singers, not enough protest songs” – thus spake Edwin Collins. He can’t have been referring to our Joe. There is only one of him for a start and whilst he straps a tambourine to a thigh and a harmonica round his neck to go a bit ‘one-man band’ he can’t be accused of overcrowding the stage.

Most importantly he knows how to craft a protest song. These are songs that cry out against injustice and call for compassion. He forgoes polemic and draws us into the little stories that illustrate the impact of ‘austerity’ on the least powerful in our society.

One tells the tale of a couple managing a relationship asking how they ‘manage hope when all hope is gone’. Another takes us back to the Spanish Civil War seen through the eyes of two partisans playing backgammon in Barcelona.

He plays sparse guitar to quietly accompany compact lyrics. Not a word wasted – every word in place. Joe suggests that he doesn’t believe ‘actions speak louder than words’. I was happy to go along with him.

This evening the words counted for everything. Songs left to make their own tentative way into the world with Joe occasionally allowing both legs to pump with full volume harmonica to set a a song on its way to a coda. The climax to this evening saw the audience join in a chorus of Daddy was a Bankrobber utilising homemade shakers. We used our punk rock voices and believed that a quiet revolution was possible.

Bill Shankly said: “The socialism I believe in is everyone working for each other, everyone having a share of the rewards. It’s the way I see football, the way I see life.” Joe would share this sentiment and I am sure the crowd at the Labour Rooms felt that way too. This was the latest in a series of gigs raising funds for the Otley Food Bank. The next is in two weeks. Great cause – great music – get yourselves down to the next one.

by Ant Cotton