There are few better ways to make a worthy cause heard than to put a powerful message to music. Port Talbot indie-folk singer/songwriter/all-round person who makes things happen (see Shiny Vinyl) Jackson Lucitt has joined a long tradition that runs from the most poignant of protest songs to political punk rock in order to bring attention to the proposed closure of large parts of his home town’s crucial steelworks and the devastating impact dealt to his local community.
‘Save Our Steel’ opens and ends with humble but earnest spoken pleas direct from the mouths of proud steel workers, Lucitt crafting a poetic love letter to his own community, deftly communicating the symbiotic reliance of surrounding industry on the town’s historic metallurgy and his overwhelming fondness for individuals he calls friends and family who pour their hearts into their work, over simple but wildly affecting acoustic strums.
‘Save Our Steel’ was released on 28th November 2023 via Shiny Vinyl Presents and supports an effort by workers and trade unions to reverse the proposal to shut down large parts of the Port Talbot steel works, costing the loss of jobs for thousands of people in the town and other cities across the UK threatened with the same. There’s a petition you can sign right now to help the cause.
You can take a listen to ‘Save Our Steel’ on the Spotify link below:
Edge of Arcady 