Words by Rene Rosierse
Last week we travelled to Belfast to celebrate 35 years of ‘Levelling The Land’ together with The Levellers at the Mandela Hall. It’s an album we usually celebrate at their shows anyway, as it is by far their best album and contains the greatest songs and all of their audience’s favourites!
So suffice to say that at Mandela Hall, we couldn’t wait to hear all the songs from the album, spoiler alert; we weren’t disappointed. Britpunk duo The Meffs were there to open the night. Lily Hopkins and Lewis Copsey knows what it take to put on a good opening set. Alle you need is a lot of energy, anger, a guitar and a drum kit. But let’s not forget their enthusiasm. The majority of the songs is from their second album ‘Business’. Halfway through the set we were treated with exciting covers of X-Ray Spex (‘Identity’) and The Prodigy (‘Breathe’), their energetic set worked incredibly well in the venue and suited the crowd!
After a 45-minute set of The Meffs and a quick changeover of the stage, it’s time for the Levellers. Opener ‘One Way’ instantly sets the tone and from there on out it’s ‘Levelling The Land’ in its entirety. When it’s time for ‘The Boatman Jig’, Dan Donnelly entered the stage to do the didge part. Stephen Boakes, the most colourful didge player, is enjoying his holiday. Lucky for Dan there wasn’t time in the set to get him all dressed up and colour his face and hair like Mr. Boakes always does. After ‘Battle of the Beanfield’, the closing track of ‘Levelling The Land’ we’re treated with more bangers like ‘July’ and ‘Carry Me’.
When it’s time for the encores The Meffs joined the stage to sing and play along to ‘This Garden’. After that John Sevink showed his skills on the violin during the classic Charlie Daniels band cover ‘The Devil Went Down To Georgia’ as if he was playing for the devil himself. The night came to an end with ‘Beautiful Day’ which brought back happy memories of their festival of the same name earlier this year. We had a smashing time at Mandela Hall.
When passing the always crowded merch stand we noticed that The Meffs were doing big business and selling probably as much merch as The Levellers; well done and well deserved. The Levellers proved once again that ‘Levelling The Land’ will easily stand the test of time for at least another 35 years.
