Fans of Rochdale songstress Lisa Stansfield will be pleased to hear that her latest release, the eighth album from the evergreen pop sensation, is out on Monday on Polydor Records.
‘Flogging A Dead Horse’ is an affectionate musical reworking of the life and times of Rochdale’s most famous son, John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889), prominent Quaker and British radical and liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies.
Bright is probably most famous for battling the Corn Laws; in partnership with Richard Cobden, he founded the Anti-Corn Law League, aimed at abolishing the Corn Laws, which raised food prices and protected landowners’ interests by levying taxes on imported wheat, which ultimately concluded in the Corn Laws being repealed in 1846. Bright also worked with Cobden in another free trade initiative, the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty of 1860, which promoted closer interdependence between Britain and France. This campaign was conducted in collaboration with French economist Michel Chevalier, and succeeded despite Parliament’s endemic mistrust of the French.
Bright sat in the House of Commons from 1843 to 1889, promoting free trade, electoral reform and religious freedom. He was almost a lone voice in opposing the Crimean War; he also opposed Gladstone’s proposed Home Rule for Ireland. He was a spokesman for the middle class, and strongly opposed to the privileges of the landed aristocracy. In terms of Ireland, he sought to end the political privileges of Anglicans, disestablished the Church of Ireland, and began land reform that would turn land over to the Catholic peasants. He is also credited with coining the phrases “Mother of Parliaments” and “Flogging a dead horse”, from which the album affectionately takes its title.
Released just three days before the vote on whether we stay in or leave Europe, some may say this is either a well timed piece, or a cynical attempt to sway voters by urging them to recall a less halcyon time when our European counterparts weren’t trusted and the aristocracy rode roughshod over the rest of society.
This is the first album by Stansfield since her well received 2014 offering ‘Seven’, a musical reworking of the seminal 1995 psychological thriller starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. Produced by Pliers out of Chaka Demus and Pliers, Flogging A Dead Horse contains some excellent cameo appearances, including a solo by Sting on the lute on the track ‘Big Up Abraham Paulton All Y’all’, as well as a rap by Ringo Starr on the track ‘Rochdale Juvenile Temperance Band’, which has unmistakeable shades of Sgt Pepper. There is also a sample of the late Brian Epstein playing spoons on the outro track ‘Being For The Benefit Of Mrs Duffy’. In all, a stirring tribute to, and from, two of Rotherham’s finest exports.
Flogging A Dead Horse is out on Monday on Ploydor, and available to download on iTunes.
