This is a band with a Father Ted joke held in high standing on their myspace profile. They also hold the mighty accolade of being one of the “best [top four - see flyer] Irish indie bands in London”. I recently saw frontman Conor Fahy perform a solo set at an acoustic night in Archway. He sits down with acoustic guitar and leather jacket and says “this is a song about East London”. GGRROOAANN!!! this is gonna be a barrel of laughs…
As expected, it wasn’t. It was very good though. He spoke over the music, instantly reminding me of a dub poet called Linton Kwesi Johnson. Despite his accent and accompaniment being so different, Conor had a very similar rhythm and intonation to LKJ and does an updated job of describing London with refreshing honesty.
Even though the Small Horses’ songs are not as politically powerful or outwardly frustrated as those of LKJ, in both cases there is a political note to the observations of life in London. Where Johnson saw historic riots and police brutality, Conor sees empty vanity and meaningless celebrity. Both poets refer to the BNP, despite being separated by over 30 years (Johnson’s “Independent Intavenshan”, 1979; Small Horses’ “Newspaper Boats”, 2010). Conor uses the line “No Dogs, No Blacks, No Irish”, a ban now lifted in the vast majority of London pubs.
Anyway, I really like this stuff, and they are playing the Dublin Castle on St. Patrick’s Day (17th March, people. 17th March.) They were giving their CD away free at the gig, so I don’t feel bad about putting a track here to download. Listen, it’s great, and they are lovely guys.
On another note, none of Small Horses have ever heard of Linton Kwesi Johnson. music journo influence fail
—click here to download the Small Horses’ track—
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