25/09/2026
On 25 September we release the next installment from Bring Your Own Hammer, a brilliant new collection, The Black Maria, O EP. Streaming in all the usual places.
This follows the fantastic single, The Black Maria, O from Luke Haines and Mike Smalle last week with three amazing new tracks Saucy Dogs by Jah Wobble, Mike Smalle and the Hammerettes; Arcadian Shores by Stalked by Story featuring Theodine I and In Between the Bars by Dave Clarkson and Alan Hempsall.
The Songs
Arcadian Shores by Stalked by Story featuring Theodine I is rooted in the story of Bernard Young who was moved from Belfast gaol to Glencree reformatory school in the early 1870s. He died in a snowstorm in the mountains after travelling from Belfast ‘without shoes or stockings’. The prison officer, who travelled with him, ‘carried Bernard on his back through the snow and wind, and refused to leave him while help was sought. Bernard died in the officer’s arms’. We are grateful to Dr. Geraldine Curtin for sharing the source upon which this song is based.
In Between the Bars evokes the history of the old Manchester assize court building, which was built in 1859 and later largely destroyed during the bombing of the city in 1941 and 1942. It was later demolished in 1957.
Saucy Dogs by Jah Wobble, Mike Smalle and the Hammerettes takes a verse composed by Walter Plunkett as he left the court of petty sessions in Loughrea, Co. Galway in April 1842 after being fined for not logging his dog with the authorities: 'The polis are saucy dogs / Who loiter up and down, sir / And if you say but Muck-a-mogh/ They fine you half-a-crown, sir'. Wobble & Co. bring Plunkett’s verse back to life almost two hundred years after he muttered it under his breath while leaving the courthouse.
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