Stitches In The Flag

Trace the history of rock’n’roll and it becomes clear that, on a very basic level, there’s a simple, traceable lineage – band after band after band influencing each other, directly or tangentially, to create some vague progression of musical ideas and ideologies. Without the blues, there would be no Led Zeppelin; without Elvis Presley, no Bruce Springsteen. It goes on and on. Of course, there’s a difference between building on influences and plagiarising them, between imitating and, to para- phrase an old Hugo Boss advertisement, innovating Crowns are stuck somewhere in between those two methodologies. The self-styled ‘fish punks’ – formed in Cornwall but residing in London – were born in 2010, and owe the majority of their sound to an odd, and slightly jarring mixture of traditional Cornish folk songs, Pogues-esque jubilation, Joe Strummer-like vocals and some Billy Braggish social awareness. In other words, they’re a bit like Levellers, just with deeper, gruffer vocals