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American Band’s New Song Aims to Help Save Crewe War Memorial

Miami, Florida. March 20, 2005

An American band featuring two former Cheshire residents has just released a new song called “Brother Judas” criticising the Crewe town council’s attempts to move the town’s war memorial out of the town centre. The song is available free on the Internet. Ade Peever, a Crewe native who has lived in the U.S. for the last eighteen years, and Henk Milne, formerly of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, have teamed up with Henk’s band The Volunteers to form Rebel Crewe, in response to what they see as the council’s attempts to steamroller overwhelming local opposition to the proposed move.

Having learned of the conflict through Crewe press coverage via the World Wide Web in America, the band’s founders have been following the progress of the conflict with interest from the U.S. Initially, input was restricted to letters written to Crewe press, but when it became clear that the council back home was intent on ignoring the clear wishes of the majority of its constituency, Rebel Crewe was formed and recorded their song at SBRS in South Beach, Miami, Florida.

Band members have already discussed the memorial controversy and aired a clip from their song on U.S. radio. On Friday March 11, Henk and Ade chatted with the host Ed Bell on "Arts Beat" on WLRN 91.3. FM (NPR) having alerted fans in the UK to listen in over the Internet at www.wlrn.org. The band is scheduled to feature the song again on Sunday March 27, this time on Michael Stock’s show “Folk and Acoustic Music”, a show which also streams over the Internet. The band is in the process of contacting UK media in order to publicise the memorial affair in the hope that more people will raise their voices against the move.

“Brother Judas” includes a reference to the controversial Remembrance Day 2004 march in Crewe, during which some marchers declined to march past the Municipal buildings as a sign of disgust with the council. The song also mentions the petition and a representative selection of names from the memorial itself. It also includes snatches of popular WWI marching songs.

Rebel Crewe includes all members of South Florida Celtic rockers The Volunteers: Henk Milne; Americans Diane Ward, Jack Shawde, Homer Wills, Jack Stamates, Mitch Mestel, and Debbie Spring; plus Ade Peever and, from Belfast, Ireland, singer-songwriter Mark Kane. Of the Volunteers, Sean Piccoli of the Miami Sun-Sentinel says: “The Volunteers are the most up-to-date of medieval rock bands. Led by singer-guitarist Henk Milne, the Miami group takes music of the ages - centuries-old drinking songs, battle cries and ballads about unattainable maidens - and makes them shake, rattle and roll. The sound falls somewhere between the Celtic thunder of the Chieftains and the rumbling of the Clash. If, say, the Pogues had devoted themselves entirely to songs in the public domain, they might have sounded a bit like The Volunteers”.

Several of Rebel Crewe’s members are also solo artists in their own right. The band debuted the song live last night, Saturday, March 19, at Sunrise Civic Center Theater in Florida to a large and enthusiastic audience, as part of the Volunteers’ live show.

Background

A petition signed by more than 10,000 Crewe residents is currently on the desk of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, along with the Council’s request to move the memorial in spite of its newly acquired status as a listed monument. The petition was raised by an ad hoc action group called M.A.T. (Memorial Action Team). The band is not affiliated with M.A.T.’s campaign but supports its goal of keeping the memorial in situ in Crewe’s town square, where it has stood since 1924.

Council leader Peter Kent vetoed a request for a local referendum on the proposed memorial move, when M.A.T.’s original petition, containing 4,600 signatures, was presented by councillor Brian Silvester, claiming that a public vote would cost £90,000

M.A.T. founder Frank Jones, who took M.A.T.’s petition to Downing Street in November, has said that M.A.T. members will contest seats in local elections as a result of the controversy The cost of the move is included a redevelopment scheme for the town centre which is currently estimated to cost £3,000,000.

In a council press release, councillor Kent is reported to have said “I cannot understand why people such as the protest leaders, who clearly take an interest in these matters, failed to respond or protest until it was too late.” Needless, to say, Rebel Crewe don’t think it’s too late, and have made their song available as a free audio download at www.rebelcrewe.com. Band members insist that the song will remain free. “Rebel Crewe is absolutely not a commercial proposition and we’ve written and recorded this song purely as an expression of civic activism” say members.

Recap: Original song “Brother Judas” opposing the proposed Crewe war memorial move has just been released as a free audio file by U.S. band Rebel Crewe. ......