The Payroll Union are yet another band from the current thriving Yorkshire scene, but unlike the other Yorkshire bands I've heard, these guys have decided to make a rock opera/concept album about Philadelphia in the 1830's and 40's. They are apparently very serious enough about it too. In fact, the liner notes come with annotated footnotes and you don't see that very often.
The LP opens with the ruminative The Ballad Of George Shiffler whose short life wasn't a bundle of laughs as a Philadelphian papist and the first Catholic victim of the Protestants who were rioting to be allowed to use their version of the bible in the local schools. Who will win out, St Michael or St Augustine as they light the sky? It's a bloody mess, but a good start to the album.
Bull has some massive drums over which as the sound swoops in and across the speakers, we get the tale of Bull who was otherwise known as William McMullen and what happened in the 4th ward. The song is full of the fear and dread of the times and the fighting between the Catholics and Protestants. The song has the feel of one of Nick Cave's darker ballads as Bull sets about destroying the Protestants and blacks who he apparently hates equally.
The Winter Of '41 tells of a fiercely cold winter during which several of the banks failed which obviously has some modern relevance. The slow careful music draws you in to this tale of despair.
White Slave Of the North is about John Campbell, the Manchester Chartist who arrived in Philly in 1842 determined to help abolish slavery. This song tells part of that tale through obviously carefully written lyrics as his views change and he wants to run all the blacks out of town.
The Mission Field is a dark, violent tale about evangelicals battling to drive the heathens out of the fourth ward. Some would say this stirring tune could be a call to arms to help bring about revolution and abstinence for all while avoiding getting pelted with dead cats by the angry local Catholics.
Woe Unto Sodom is not only a great song title and a pretty strange phrase to hear repeated over and over as the tale of the last days of the Quaker city is told. It's powerful and enveloping and based on George Lippiard's book The Quaker City which is stirring a very dark pot.
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Blood Or Bread increases the sense of dread at what's happening while the workers fight for the right to earn a decent crust and the factory owners just try to squeeze the blood out of the workers. Will it become a new Manchester or just an apocalyptic vision of hell, this town of Philadelphia?
Will You Still remember Me is the sorry tale of a hand-loom weaver fallen on hard times and hard liquor and his bible. Will he find his way out of his despair or will he be stuck looking for a way out? It is a chilling song about trying to survive the Great Panic of 1837.
The album closes with The 6th: the only song that isn't included in the liner notes. It's a piano-led song about the 6th battalion going into a bloody battle and the consequences of the battle for the Union and the loyal soldiers involved. It feels like an elegy forma Philadelphia that no longer exists and it provides nice poignant end to a most thought provoking album.
Just for the scope and vision behind it this album is well worth listening to over and over to get inside the twisted history. It also works well because these historical battles often chime with elements of our current struggles in modern society.
Find out more at The Payroll Union online. If you are near Sheffield, the album will be launched at a special show at Club 60 on Friday 27th June.
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