Old No 7, Barnsley

THIS was Barnsley at its brilliant best, a punk-folk double bill organised by The Hurriers packed out with punters eager for political culture and a pint as good as it gets.

The Acorn breweries own Minstrel ale is appropriate for these two raconteurs and wordsmiths.

Like oral historians, but with their own unique style, they both chronicle our times with passion, humour and fiercely biting polemic.  Seeing Joe Solo perform should be on everyone's bucket list.

Like a force of nature, this one-man band opens with A Revolution in an Empty Room, a manic punk Dylanesque song which bristles with feeling and emotion.

When he's joined by Attila the Stockbroker on fiddle for The Long March Back you hear the full beauty in his compositions but, stripped bare on Summer Fields and Riot Shields, his anger has him twisting and contorted with emotion. 

The moving No Pasaran has the whole room singing but this is just a warm-up for his “shecker” finale which has everyone playing percussion and joining in with gusto. Attila knows he is among friends and, buoyed by a late winner at Leeds for his beloved Seagulls, he relishes a night off promoting his book and doing what he does best — ranting rebel poetry.

”I love words and I love ‘em in the red and raw,” he declares in what is something of a greatest hits set. Never Forget, Bob Crow’ and UK Gin Dependence Party rattle off his tongue as openers.

He bashes banks while playing his cherished mandola: “Grab those goldmen by their sacks,” ridicules the Sun on Prince Harry’s Knob and remembers with affection Joe Strummer and the night at the Rainbow when “you wrote a soundtrack to my life.” He's doing more personal stuff these days and you can hear the love in his voice as he does Poppy’s Song and Never too Late before the beer-soaked, rousing finales of Farageland and Corbyn Supporters from Hell.

In a world of bland sanitised mush masquerading as music these are articulate, intelligent words and song delivered with warmth, humour and an intensity that feeds the soul.  The first of many great nights to come in Barnsley.

BOB ORAM