Bio, discography, gigs and blogs from singer-songwriter Leon Rosselson
Leon Rosselson is an acclaimed singer and songwriter with more than 50 years of performing under his belt and the author of 17 children’s books. Here you can find more information, a complete bibliography and musicography of Leon’s works as well as an up to date list of upcoming gigs.
You can also get in touch if you’d like more information or to purchase a book or record.
“It’s the life work of of one of Britain’s finest contemporary writers – not just songwriters but writers in any form…. The World Turned Upside Down concludes with ‘The Power of Song’, to which this magnificent retrospective is a living testament.” – review in Songlines January 2012
“Sitting here with a four-CD boxed set, including an extensive booklet offering valuable insights into the whys and wherefores of it all…. you not only get the full benefit of his stinging satire , you get a sharp sense of the times for which they were written. This is a remarkable achievement for any songwriter, whether it’s the 17th century stories recounted in The World Turned Upside Down and Abiezer Coppe – sung so powerfully by Roy Bailey – to the modern follies depicted by the likes of They’re Going to Build a Motorway, Ballad of a Spycatcher and The Wall that Stands Between.
…a well-rounded picture of a remarkable artist who’s never taken his eyes off the ball even – or especially – when that ball is bouncing in a determinedly anti-popular direction.” – fRoots May 2012
” …to my mind, one of the best songs ever written is Song of the Olive Tree, about the fate of a tree and the people of Palestine. It’s a song that is at once beautiful, depressing, anger-inducing and, finally, hopeful and inspiring.” – Taplas January 2012
“I’ve sung his children’s songs to my children (and other people’s children) and his grown-up’s songs to my grown-ups (and, more than likely, to other people’s grown-ups) and in the process of singing, have never ceased to marvel at the skill and care of Leon’s writing. We’ll not see his like again, even if we wait for fifty years…” – Tykes News Winter 2011/2012
“And along with the 4 CDs (the first three covering the best of his output in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and the fourth the 90s/noughties) we have a quite magnificent liner booklet with nearly 80 pages of text and photos. Really informative text on the writing of each song, as there was no need to waste space filling it with song lyrics; if there is a better enunciator of song lyrics than Leon, then I’d like to know where that person is. Every word he sings is crystal clear. “ – The Living Tradition May 2012
“An anarchist Noel Coward” – Irish Left Review (see full text)
My local Labour controlled council has just voted, like other councils, as well as universities and the UK government, to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. This consists of a rather loose basic definition, followed by a rambling discourse around the subject that twice mentions Israel and then 11 examples, 7 of which refer to the state of Israel. Anyone with a functioning brain might suspect that this definition has less to do with protecting Jews from antisemitism than with shielding Israel from criticism.
When the European Parliament were due to vote on whether to adopt this definition, I wrote to my MEPs urging them to reject it. Two replied in identical terms, pointing out that the definition makes it clear that ‘criticism of Israel cannot be regarded as antisemitic’. Except that it doesn’t. They lied. Why would they do that? What it actually says is that ‘criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic’.
The italicised phrase changes everything. Why is it there? Obviously to muddy the waters. Who is to decide whether criticism of Israel goes beyond that levelled against any other country? In any case, Israel is not like any other country. It is a settler colonial state, founded on massacres and ethnic cleansing. It is, by any definition, a criminal state. Transferring Israeli settlers into the occupied territory is illegal, as is transferring Palestinian prisoners into Israeli jails. The Wall, built largely on Palestinian land was judged illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004. The collective punishment inflicted on the people of Gaza is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel itself is a racist state where ‘Arabs’ are viewed as a demographic threat. Unlike other countries (Myanmar is an exception), it is not a state for all its citizens but for all the Jews in the world, who are given the ‘Right of Return’, a right denied to the indigenous people.
PALACES OF GOLD by LEON ROSSELSON
If the sons of company directors and judges’ private daughters
Had to go to school in a slum school
Dumped by some joker in a damp back alley
Had to herd into classrooms cramped with worry
With a view onto slagheaps and stagnant pools
Had to file through corridors grey with age
And play in a crackpot concrete cage.
Buttons would be pressed
Rules would be broken
Strings would be pulled
And magic words spoken
Invisible fingers would mould
Palaces of gold.
If prime-ministers and advertising executives
Royal personages and bank managers’ wives
Had to live out their lives in dank rooms
Blinded by smoke and the foul air of sewers
Rot on the walls and rats in the cellars
In rows of dumb houses like mouldering tombs
Had to bring up their children and watch them grow
In a waste land of dead streets where nothing will grow.
Buttons would be pressed
Rules would be broken
Strings would be pulled
And magic words spoken
Invisible fingers would mould
Palaces of gold.
I’m not suggesting any sort of a plot
Everyone knows there’s not
But you unborn millions might like to be warned
That if you don’t want to be buried alive by slagheaps
Pitfalls and damp walls and rat-traps and dead streets
Arrange to be democratically born
The son of a company director
Or a judge’s fine and private daughter.
Buttons will be pressed
Rules will be broken
Strings will be pulled
And magic words spoken
Invisible fingers will mould
Palaces of gold.
“The lesson of Aberfan is never put your faith in experts or authority….Unless ordinary people take notice there will be another Aberfan, another Chernobyl and much worse.” – Cyril Vaughan, Vice-Chairman of the Aberfan Disaster Fund 18 October 1986, 20 years after Aberfan.
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know. MY OWN MIND IS MY OWN CHURCH.
“When the rich plunder the poor of his rights, it becomes an example to the poor to plunder the rich of his property.”
There’s lots to comment on in these turbulent times so Leon has launched a new blog on Medium.com. There you’ll find provocative musings on songwriting, politics and life’s little ironies. Leon’s first musing asks if Zionism is inherently antisemitic and comes after the suspension of Ken Livingstone and the furore over supposed antisemitism in the Labour Party.
The only London performance this year!
Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Road, London NW1 7AY.
Box office: 020 7485 2206 or book online here.
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know. MY OWN MIND IS MY OWN CHURCH.
“When the rich plunder the poor of his rights, it becomes an example to the poor to plunder the rich of his property.”
Leon Rosselson’s early vinyl recordings are now available as downloads on all major digital retail outlets, including iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Napster.
You can see a list of early vinyl records on the records page.
Now available from Five Leaves Bookshop Occasional Papers
Leon Rosselson has been at the forefront of songwriting in Britain for over 5 decades. His latest collection (and final recording) features some of his finest songs, ranging from the humorous to the poignant and from the lyrical to the satirical. Stories for our times, musically varied and not a word out of place
Track List: 1. FULL MARKS FOR CHARLIE 2. WHERE ARE THE BARRICADES? 3. LOOTERS 4. BENEFITS 5. SIXTY QUID A WEEK 6. I’M GOING WHERE THE SUITS WILL SHINE MY SHOES 7. LET’S GIVE THANKS 9. REJOICE 8. MARITAL DIARIES 10. FAIR’S FAIR 11. ACTIVE AGEING 12. PARIS IN THE RAIN 13. THE BALLAD OF RIVKA & MOHAMMED 14. FOUR DEGREES CELSIUS 15. AT DAWN
With Roy Bailey, Robb Johnson, John Kirkpatrick, Liz Mansfield, Janet Russell and Fiz Shapur.
NOW AVAILABLE!
Leon Rosselson has been at the forefront of songwriting in Britain for over 5 decades. His latest collection (and final recording) features some of his finest songs, ranging from the humorous to the poignant and from the lyrical to the satirical. Stories for our times, musically varied and not a word out of place
Track List: 1. FULL MARKS FOR CHARLIE 2. WHERE ARE THE BARRICADES? 3. LOOTERS 4. BENEFITS 5. SIXTY QUID A WEEK 6. I’M GOING WHERE THE SUITS WILL SHINE MY SHOES 7. LET’S GIVE THANKS 9. REJOICE 8. MARITAL DIARIES 10. FAIR’S FAIR 11. ACTIVE AGEING 12. PARIS IN THE RAIN 13. THE BALLAD OF RIVKA & MOHAMMED 14. FOUR DEGREES CELSIUS 15. AT DAWN
With Roy Bailey, Robb Johnson, John Kirkpatrick, Liz Mansfield, Janet Russell and Fiz Shapur.
They walked to the wall in their thousands
They came like a surge of the sea
They crossed the hard and barren earth
Where their olive groves used to be
They flew flags in freedom’s colours
Sang songs of victory
The Wall carved through the landscape
For as far as the eye can see.
The Wall towered over them
The Wall barred their way
Above them an Apache
Hovered like a bird of prey
Some of them picked up stones and rocks
And hurled them against the Wall
And stood and watched in silence
As if waiting for it to fall.
Uneasy in their watchtowers
Uncertain what to do
The soldiers looked down on the swelling crowds
And their nervousness grew
The Brigadier phoned the General
Who arrived in his APC
‘There’s trouble here,’ said the Brigadier
Said the General, ‘Leave it to me.’
He climbed up into the watchtower
He spoke through a megaphone
‘Go back now where you came from
This is a military zone.’
‘We want justice, we want freedom,’
They chanted in reply.
‘You won’t find them here,’ said the General.
‘Don’t you know they’re in short supply?’
‘We want bread, justice, freedom,’
They sang out with one voice.
‘We are the third intifada
You give us no other choice.
You turn our lives to rubble
You turn our hopes to dust
But you cannot break our resistance
For we know our cause is just.’
Said the General, ‘You’ve had your last warning.’
‘This is our land,’ they said.
The soldiers’ hands gripped their rifles
The gunship buzzed overhead.
They said, ‘Do you think you can kill us all?’
The General said, ‘Why not?’
A woman screamed out to the heavens
When they fired the first shot.
The Minister of Propaganda
Alerted the BBC
‘Terrorists tried to breach the fence
And attack our troops,’ said he.
A hostile mob assembled
Where civilians aren’t allowed
And gangs of armed militants
Hid themselves in the crowd.
Of course any civilian casualties
Are a matter of great regret
But we have the right to defend ourselves
When our soldiers are under threat.’
The white flag the boy was waving
Was a white scarf stained blood red
And the vow he made was a promise
That one day their blood would be shed.
They gathered up their wounded
They gathered up their dead.
‘We will come again tomorrow.’
‘Your choice,’ the General said.
(From A Proper State Fuse CFCD 024 released 2008.)
On 22nd June 2014, Leon turned 80!
Friends and family joined him for a day of singing and merry-making
Leon’s life in records was served up for dessert, in flavours of ginger, date and lemon. Yum!
One day before his 80th birthday, Leon joined forces with Owen Jones, Russell Brand and fifty thousand people to protest against austerity at a rally organised by the People’s Assembly
We spotted this video of Leon in action on the web.
Credit: Garlic Toothpaste on YouTube
Visit the People’s Assembly website to find an event near you and keep an eye on our Gigs page for Leon’s next performance!
2 DVD Live Set Now Available!
In this glorious 2 DVD set, Britain’s finest living songwriters are captured
live (on tour in Berkeley, CA), presenting two nights of their original songs,
words, and inimitable performance.
Turning Silence into Song (Disc One) showcases a pair of career-spanning
“greatest hits,” with a suitable sprinkling of new and previously unreleased
material. All introduced and contextualized with a large helping of trade-
mark wit and dry irony.
The Liberty Tree (Disc Two) tells the story of Tom Paine’s extraordinary life,
interweaving Paine’s own words, from his letters and the pamphlets which
made him one of the most influential and dangerous writers of his age, with
extracts from newspaper reports, diaries, letters, and other documents of
the times. The songs of Robb Johnson and Leon Rosselson add another di-
mension to the story, reflecting Paine’s radical ideas and evaluating them
in the context of the 21st century. This unique blend of words and music
challenges received opinion in the same way Paine’s writings did.
Together, herein you’ll find over four hours of the finest contemporary songs,
stories, humor, and observation from the greatest practitioners of the craft.
In the U.S.A. & Canada, this CD can be bought via the PM Press website
Leon Rosselson has been at the forefront of songwriting in England for 50
years. His songs range from the lyrical to the satirical, from the personal
to the political, from the humorous to the poignant. His best known song,
“The World Turned Upside Down,” has been recorded by, amongst oth-
ers, Dick Gaughan, John McCutcheon, and Billy Bragg (who took it into
the pop charts in 1985) and has been sung on numerous demonstrations
in Britain and the U.S.
Robb Johnson is now widely recognized as one of the finest songwriters
working in the UK today. His songs feature in the repertoires of a wide va-
riety of musicians, from folk legend Roy Bailey to acclaimed cabaret diva
Barb Jungr, and he enjoys a similarly diverse spectrum of critical acclaim.
“. . . some of the most literate and well-made topical songs now being
written” —The New York Times [on Leon Rosselson]
“Britain’s finest songwriter since Richard Thompson.” —Venue [on Robb Johnson]
“A highly subversive pairing of two of the left’s most eloquent songwriters.” —Daily Telegraph