Thee Faction

Thee Faction's debut album At Ebbw Vale was released in 2010.[7] Dubbed 'rhythm and booze' and 'timely'[8] by Simon Price in The Independent it was rated 8/10 in Vive Le Rock.[9] Is This Music? praised the record, comparing the band to Dr. Feelgood.[10]

Second album Up The Workers! or, Capitalism is Good For Corporations That's Why You've Been Told Socialism is Bad All Your Life[11] was described by the Daily Mirror as "Power-packed garage rock 'n' soul underlined by a defiantly political edge."[6] The title track featured Ivan Chandler (The Echoes) on piano.[11] The album was rated 7/10 by Drowned in Sound who praised it as "a lot of fun, undeniably stirring.. Thee Faction write showstoppers" but also criticised the music as "entertaining in a very conventional way".[12]

The band's third album Singing Down The Government, or, The War of Position and How We're Winning It,[13] was released in 2012, and introduced all-female horn section Brass Kapital.[14] The album was promoted by headlining appearances at the Marxism Festival[15] and Tolpuddle Martyrs festival and included contributions by Richard Archer from Hard-Fi and rapper Clencha.[13][16] Free download-only singles for tracks 'Soapbox'[17] and 'Sausage Machine'[18] were accompanied by promotional videos.[19] Q Magazine praised the album as "a critique of societal hegemony on the back of a grimy blues'n’b twang, rife with the contagious energy of people who know they're right",[20] and it was rated 7/10 by Mick Farren in Classic Rock Blues magazine.[21]

Thee Faction released fourth album Good Politics: Your Role As An Active Citizen Within Civil Society[20][22] in 2013, preceded by single 'Better Than Wages',[23] remixed from the album by Andy Lewis. The album featured (on one track each) guest vocals from writer Francis Wheen[24] and saxophone from Crayola Lectern, and was rated 8/10 in Classic Rock[25] and 4/5 in The Independent[26] and Mojo[27] who called it "wildly galvanising, blisteringly angry, insanely entertaining blue-collar rock'n'roll".

Flyer for a Thee Faction-curated gig in aid of the Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign.

Thee Faction released fifth album Reading Writing Revolution: The Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall in June 2015,[28] preceded by a track on double-CD fundraising album Orgreave Justice[29][30] and free download single "Choose Your Enemy", released on 29 March with accompanying video.[31][32] A second free download single "(You've Got The) Numbers (Why Don't You Use It)" accompanied the release. The album received 5/5 in the Morning Star,[33] 9/10 at MaximumVolumeMusic,[34] and a positive review in Socialist Standard,[35] while R*E*P*E*A*T zine called it "highly enjoyable, dangerously tuneful, subversively catchy and dialectically danceable, as well as being (as the title implies) properly educational - thought provoking and agitational."[36] The band announced a number of summer festival dates, including Glastonbury,[37] and a return to Tolpuddle[38] and the Matchwomens Festival.[39]

Thee Faction guitarist Babyface, under cadre name "Chris Fox", won the Beard Liberation Front's 'St David's Day Beard of Wales' title in 2015, 2017 and 2018.[40][41] He was runner-up in 2016.[42]

Thee Faction's most recent gig to date was a 2017 benefit show for the anti-Haringey Development Vehicle campaign.[43] The band has not officially confirmed a hiatus, although a slogan on one of their web-pages, "R&B sui generis",[44] may indicate that, like other left-wing groups, they have gone into the Labour Party.

The band have performed with, and for, various artists and organisations of the broad Left including Attila the Stockbroker, Robb Johnson, Chris T-T, Grace Petrie, Colour Me Wednesday, The Tuts, Billy Bragg, TV Smith, The Hurriers, Mark Steel, Josie Long, the SWP, the Welsh Communist Party and the Jeremy Corbyn Labour Party leadership campaign.[45][46][47]

The band appear to be unaligned with any particular organisation or tradition but are noted for promoting ideas associated with guild socialism, democratic socialism, classical Marxism and left communism, while supporting a range of left-wing and trade union causes.[48][49][50] Notwithstanding the band's use of Ostalgic tropes and apparent (possibly parodic) anti-revisionism, in a 2013 interview they declared themselves "libertarian socialists of one kind or another".[51] Thee Faction have however attracted criticism for their political views; notably, a 2012 gig review by Ruth Dudley Edwards for The Daily Telegraph angered the newspaper's Conservative readership.[52]

Current members

• Billy Brentford – vocals (2010–present)
• Dai Nasty – drums (2010–present)
• Nylons – face-melting guitar (2010–present)
• Babyface – guitar, polemic (2010–present)
• Kassandra Krossing – vocals, organ of truth (2010–present)
• Thee Citizen – bass and superstructure (2012–present)[53]
• Red Scare – trumpet (2011–present)[54]
• Nineteen Nineteen – the 'bone of contention (2011–present)[54]
• The Ol' One Hand – saxophone (2015–present)[55]

Former members

• Horace Hardman – bass (2010–2011)[53]
• The G.A. – saxophone (2011–2015)[54][55]

Live members

• Bert 'iggins – Welsh harp
• Charley Marx – auxiliary guitar
• Jenny Marx – auxiliary drums

• Thee Faction website
• Thee Faction bandcamp