Ian Prowse brings songs of hope plus old faves from Pele and Amsterdam on his 30th anniversary return to The Wedgewood Rooms

Back in June Ian Prowse was on the road, supporting his good friend Elvis Costello, and due to play Portsmouth Guildhall where he would also be able to plug his own forthcoming Wedgewood Rooms date.

Unfortunately Costello’s drummer caught Covid and the Portsmouth date was one of those cancelled as a result.

As Ian explains: ‘We put The Wedgewood Rooms date in to capitalise on the fact that we would have just played Portsmouth with Elvis, but it didn’t happen and I was really gutted about it. It messed my plans up!

‘Everywhere else we'd been and we’d played – Brighton, Manchester, Birmingham – ticket sales in those places went through the roof after we played there with Elvis because we were going down a storm on the tour, so we didn't get that little pay-off we were hoping for.’

‘But you know what? It's Portsmouth, it's The Wedgewood Rooms and it's the 30th anniversary of my first ever show there, so nothing will stop us from getting back down there.’

Portsmouth is special

Ah yes, Ian has a longstanding love affair with Portsmouth – he has played at The Wedgewood Rooms since its opening year and played there more than any other touring act.

Since the early ’90s he has flirted with mainstream success, playing his soulful brand of celtic-tinged indie-rock, first with his band Pele, then with the band Amsterdam and for the past decade or so as a solo act.

And now this Saturday he returns there for the first time in three years in support of his latest album, One Hand on The Starry Plough.

‘It probably is my longest break from playing there – I've been there once every year/18 months or so for 30 years. I can't wait to get back there and we've got all these new songs which people have reacted wonderfully too like Holy, Holy River and Battle – the most fabulous reaction, and of course, all of our Pele songs.’

Outside of his home turf of Merseyside, Portsmouth was one of the first places to embrace Ian’s music.

‘It’s where it all first really took off for us – in Portsmouth. It's a night of joy, a few tears, and a bit of fun. I can't come to The Wedgewood Rooms, one of the first cities to get on to my music and not hit them with the old Pele classics, I'll always do that.’

Ian was actually on tour supporting Elvis Costello when the pandemic hit, with his then-new album Here I Lie.

‘We got to the Hammersmith Apollo and he came in the dressing room and said: “We've got to close down the tour – this is the last show left standing in London”.’

That was March 13, 2020.

Facebook Live success

‘I had a whole acoustic tour booked for the second the Elvis one finished, so that all went out the window. I went home with loads of merch, unsold vinyl and CDs, and the first thing I looked at was how am I going to pay the rent here if I can't go out and sing?’

Ian was an early-adopter of regular Facebook Live ‘gigs’, performing every Friday evening via the social media platform for 40 weeks.

‘We had an entire community going – and it kept me going too. We had 1,000 people watching every single Friday night and it became a thing. People were lost and stuck for something to do – and a bit scared – at the very start of the pandemic it was all a bit weird wasn't it? Don't even go out of the house, you're going to catch this disease and die...

‘So we were just providing a point of contact for a lot of people. I had a little PayPal link up, if you want to throw us a few bob, and people were so generous it was outrageous.

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‘Then I’d spend all week answering emails with people saying things like: “You're the only thing getting me through this.”

‘It became the one highlight in a lot of people's week – eight o'clock on a Friday night, come and join Prowsey on Facebook – we'll all have a drink together. It wasn't just me singing my songs at an iPhone, it became much more than that, it was like a variety show.’

Ian would share stories of meeting Bruce Springsteen and Joe Strummer, his partner Melanie would read out the comments watchers were leaving – and it also revealed another talent in the household, his daughter Rosie, now 10.

‘I didn't even know she could sing! But I heard her singing one of my songs around the house, and it was: “Right, will you get up and sing on Friday night for us?” And she goes: “Yeah, okay”.

‘It just became this community which kept everyone connected and was a huge success, not so much in financial terms but in helping people out.’

One Hand on The Starry Plough

From there though, the next step was a new album.

‘Myself and (former Blow Monkey and producer) Tony Kiley went and made a whole new record, One Hand on The Starry Plough, a lot of which reflects on what happened in that time, a lot of the songs were born out of that era – but they're songs of hope, they weren't songs of “Oh my god!” this dystopian thing about the world falling apart, it was: “We can get through this”.

‘I had the reaction of, come on, these are tough times, but being defiant and we can get through this with community and helping each other.’

One of the album’s more rocking tracks is called Swine, a swipe at our so-called ruling class. Ian has always worn his political heart on his sleeve – Pele’s debut single was called Raid The Palace.

Describing Swine he says: ‘It's that thing where we've just lived through an English nationalist revolution with Brexit and the whole thing of seeing the Union Jack on bags of ice or when you buy some carrots – it's a road we've travelled down as a country and it feels backwards-looking and toxic.

‘Absolutely, be proud of where you're from and your people – I've been all over this country in the past year playing again, and the people in this country are fantastic, they're funny, they're committed, they're passionate, and they're a bit mad – they've all got a story. But that song is about the fact that our leaders, whether it be Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg or Nigel Farrage, you just can't trust them. They're using that flag and this idea of Englishness for their own gains – they don't care about us.’

He has also recently played benefit shows for the RMT in support of striking rail workers and for Enough is Enough, an organisation set up by unions and community groups to campaign against the cost of living crisis.

‘In the vacuum left by where the Labour party should be – that is representing an alternative view of what the Tories are giving us and not trying to give us an watered-down version like Starmer is – that vacuum has been filled by the likes of the Enough is Enough campaign and the strikes that are going on.’

In some quarters RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has become something of a star for his no-nonsense takedowns of and responses to patronising and ill-informed TV interviewers – and is well admired by Ian.

‘It's wonderful to see Mick Lynch on the telly and he takes the mickey out of them. Ordinary people see Mick Lynch up against any of these TV celebrity commentators and he wins hands down every time. He's just trying to get the best for his working class members and all of the smears and the lies that get thrown at him, he just bats them away. Some of them he hits right out of the ground, and I found that really inspirational.’

Dan

One of the album’s most uplifting songs, despite a worrying start to its story, is Dan – a tribute to his friend Dan Donnelly.

‘Miles Hunt from The Wonder Stuff introduced me to Dan about 12 years ago, we met on the side of a mountain in Shropshire. Miles said: “Go and hang out! Get to know each other,” we were all doing a gig together that night. As soon as we got out of the car, Dan starts foraging for berries on the floor and I was like: “What are you doing?” And he's going: “I'm hungry, I haven't eaten for three or four days. I live in a car and I drive around from town to town, singing and then spending my money on ale and eating berries”.

‘I thought, Jesus, he's mad. But we had a good time, and he said, look: “I’ll book us a tour of Ireland”. He knew I was a Hibernophile and I love everything about Ireland, so he booked us a six-date tour and it was an absolute disaster – we had about 30 people come to all the shows put together, but it was a great laugh as well.

‘He was falling apart he was drinking so much, but now he's pulled his life around, and that's what the last verse is about – he's in the Levellers, he runs his own venue up in Sunderland (The Peacock), he's got two children and he got married and he got himself out of that hole.

‘Again it's a song about hope, how you can be right on the edge of disappearing, but you can always pull yourself back. The whole song's a true story.’

Full circle

And it was his old pal Elvis who helped bring things full circle.

‘When it (live shows) started to come back and we realised we could put this record out, Elvis got in touch, he was back in Liverpool and said: “Let's go out and have something to eat”. While we're out having a meal, he said: “We've got unfinished business haven't we? Come and open up for me on this new tour”, which was just a massive relief.

‘I never bothered him with it while everyone was under the cosh of the pandemic because he's got his own things to deal with. I always hoped he'd have us again on his next tour, so he did, and it was amazing.’

Just a shame about the Portsmouth date!

Ian Prowse and Amsterdam plus special guests Nick Parker and Ben Wain play at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea on Saturday, September 10. Doors 7.30pm. Tickets £16. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.