FUSE RECORDS CFCD 077
The 4 CDs in this box set contain 72 songs, covering 5 decades of songwriting, from the sparky sixties to the curdled present, and encompass a wide variety of song subjects and song forms. They have been written out of hope, anger, love, scorn, laughter and despair. And because they have something to say about the times in which they were written, there is an 80 page booklet containing copious notes on the political and personal environments that formed them, along with some pointed observations on the craft of songwriting.
Frankie Armstrong, Roy Bailey, Mark Bassey, Steve Berry, Billy Bragg, Martin Carthy, Howard Evans, Clare Lintott, Chris Foster, Sue Harris, Paul Jayasinha, John Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth Mansfield, Janet Russell, Ruth Rosselson, Fiz Shapur, Dave Swarbrick, Miranda Sykes, Roger Williams, The 3 City 4, The Oyster Band, and The Sheffield Socialist Choir all contribute.
Released on 3rd October 2011. Distributed by Proper Music Distribution.
Available in good record shops or by mail order:
Send a cheque for £30 to Fuse Records, 28 Park Chase, Wembley, Middlesex HA9 8EH.
In the USA, you can purchase it from
PM Press.
Reviews for The World Turned Upside Down
***** review in Songlines January 2012
"It's the life work of of one of Britain's finest contemporary writers - not just songwriters but writers in any form.... The World Turned Upside Down concludes with 'The Power of Song', to which this magnificent retrospective is a living testament."
Taplas January 2012
" ...to my mind, one of the best songs ever written is Song of the Olive Tree, about the fate of a tree and the people of Palestine. It's a song that is at once beautiful, depressing, anger-inducing and, finally, hopeful and inspiring."
Tykes News Winter 2011/2012
"I've sung his children's songs to my children (and other people's children) and his grown-up's songs to my grown-ups (and, more than likely, to other people's grown-ups) and in the process of singing, have never ceased to marvel at the skill and care of Leon's writing. We'll not see his like again, even if we wait for fifty years..."
