The Hobo Manifesto

A Memory of Streatham.

You can take the boy out of south London, but you can't take south London out of the boy. The songs on this album, 'The Hobo Manifesto', were inspired by growing up in London and the music that influenced me as a singer/songwriter.

The opening line to the opening track, 'Graduation Day', on 'The Hobo Manifesto' refers to 1984, the year of the Miners' Strike and the pits closing down. It was the birth of a new generation having to make new career choices.

As a musician, 1984 was the best year of my musical career. I was the bass player in 'The Balham Alligators', a band that played a mix of Cajun, Rock and Country music with a punk rock attitude. The gigs never ended. That year we playd the Tondor Folk and Blues Festival in Denmark and were the backing group for folk legend Odetta and many other top folk performers in a tribute concert to the music of Woody Guthrie. For me, as a bass player, it felt like being a quarterback in te Superbowl. If I could have nailed a date that I became hooked on the music of Woody Guthrie, that would have been it. This album, 'The Hobo Manifest', is my own personal dedication to his life and music.

The journey to the making of this album started where I grew up on the banks of the river Graveney in the Streatham Vale estate, south London, an area romantically described by Dave Kelly of 'The Blues Band' on BBC as the South Thames Delta, which has been home to many a folk and blues musician including Rock and Roll legend Wee Willie Harris. From the start of gazing at F hole cello backed guitars in Ally's owl shop next to Streatham bus garage and albums of Blind Lemon Jefferons, the first album I ever bought from the swing shop up the road, my love of folk music developed into a burning passion.

I did my first ever solo performance at the Thurlow Arms Folk Club in west London when the band I was booked to play with failed to show up. That first set included sea shanties like 'Bonnie Ship the Diamond' and my favourite Joan Baez song, 'Lily of the West'.

Nine of the songs on this new album were written over the last 6 months, sitting in my tower block council flat gazing across the Thames estuaryt. The only song that wasn't is 'The Ballad of Derek Bentley', about a teenager also from the South Thames Delta who was executed at Wandsworth Prison on January 28th 1953 for a crime committed by his partner, Chris Craig.

The album was recorded live at Mark Hewin's recording studio in Margate, Kent. I turned up with my Faith guitar and pocket full of harmonicas. All ten songs were recorded on first or second takes. 'The Hobo Manifesto'. I give it to you.

Arthur Kitchener