Rounding out Friday night with a set by The Men They Couldn’t Hang, recorded at Montmarte in Copenhagen on April 4, 1987 and preserved for posterity by DK.
The Men They Couldn’t Hang came together in 1984 to perform at the alternative music festival in Camden Town alongside The Pogues and the Boothill Foot Tappers. Paul Simmonds, Philip ‘Swill’ Odgers and his brother Jon, veterans of the Southampton-based pop-punk band Catch 22, met Pogues roadie Stefan Cush whilst busking in Shepherd’s Bush in London. Their early line-up was Stefan Cush, Philip Odgers, Paul Simmonds, Jon Odgers and Shanne Bradley. The band’s name is inspired by “The Man They Couldn’t Hang”, and was originally coined by Shane MacGowan – with whom Bradley previously played in The Nipple Erectors – as a potential name for his own band, who eventually became The Pogues.
Their first single, a cover version of “The Green Fields of France”, was released in 1984. Written by Eric Bogle (of “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” fame), the song’s protagonist imagined having a conversation with one of the fallen soldiers of World War I whilst sitting by his graveside. It received airplay on the John Peel show on BBC Radio 1, and finished at Number 3 in Peel’s Festive 50 for that year. It became a No.1 hit in the UK Indie Chart.
The band recorded two albums for Silvertone, the first being Silver Town. Highlights of Silver Town included “Rain, Steam and Speed”, “A Place in the Sun” and “Rosettes”. Silver Town was the only TMTCH album to reach the Top 40 of the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 39. They followed this up in 1990 with The Domino Club, which had a more conventional rock sound dispensing with much of the folk element. In August 1990, the band supported David Bowie in his concerts at the Milton Keynes Bowl, as part of his Sound+Vision Tour.
The band split in 1991 after releasing the live album Alive, Alive-O, a performance recorded at London’s Town & Country Club that was later released as a DVD, The Shooting, by Cherry Red Records. Paul Simmonds and “Swill” Odgers then formed Liberty Cage who released an album, Sleep of the Just, in 1994 and an EP, I’ll Keep It With Mine, in 1995.
The band reformed in 1996, but minus drummer Jon Odgers who had become Therapy?’s drum technician. He was replaced by Kenny Harris of The Screaming Blue Messiahs. Their new album was Never Born To Follow, released on the Demon label in 1996. The following year the band released the mini-album Big Six Pack. Two “Best Of” collections followed, Majestic Grill and The Mud, The Blood and the Beer, both in 1998.
In 2019, the band won Best Live Band in Folking.com’s annual awards, voted for by 10,000 registered subscribers to the folk website.
Co-lead singer Stefan Cush died on 5 February 2021, after suffering a heart attack.
Now you know – dive in and get ready for the weekend (and thanks Wikipedia – you’re the reason I contribute).
