Man The Lifeboats
Man The Lifeboats began life in a shanty-punk folk moshpit in 2016. Skinny Lister and Holy Moly & the Crackers were the two bands that ignited the fire, lit the spark, and blew the roof of the Garage that night. Proof that live music can indeed be life-changing.
Fast forward 6 years, several line-ups, 80 gigs and counting, an EP, a live album and a studio album later, and Man The Lifeboats are an established band ploughing their folky furrow on the festival circuit, winning over audiences and drawing comparisons to Bellowhead, Waterboys, Oysterband, the Levellers, and of course, those folk-punk heroes the Pogues.
The songs are raucous, upbeat, lyrical, driving. Traditional tunes are dragged kicking and screaming into the modern age, songs are crafted with big choruses that tell stories. Songs with straight-up lyrics, pounding bass lines, furious banjo and fiddle melodies and stomping beats, Man The Lifeboats have cultivated a sound that would not be out of place at a party at the end of the world.
2022 saw the launch of MTL’s second album, Soul Of Albion. Recorded over the pandemic at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, it’s nothing short of epic. Alongside the full-throttle folk tunes and singalong disco choruses, there are darker and more ambient moments, finely honed by the band and producer Jamie Evans. It sounds like Led Zeppelin arm-wrestling Shane McGowan in a Birmingham brewery, like Jimbob and Fruitbat fronting Fairport Convention, like The Albion Band turned up to 11 with their fiddles on fire. Tonic for these troubled times.
Man The Lifeboats are:
Rich Quarterman – Vocals, Guitars & Songwriting
Aaron Horlock – Banjo, Accordion, Guitar and Vocals
Sam Barker – Bass
Dan Gilroy – Fiddle, Whistle, Vocals
David Vaughan – Drums, Percussion & Piano
