London based Sleaze seem to capture a lot of peoples attention whenever they pop their heads above the parapet. Daffodils was a 6-music favourite back in 2023 and Keith Goldhanger came away from Glastonbury 2024 proclaiming them one of his weekend’s highlights. Now they’re back with a new recording to remind us of their existence and prepare us for a forthcoming debut album.
This doesn’t happen a lot nowadays but for those of us who cut our teeth collecting music by recording music off John Peel we got used to hearing two versions of the same song by the same band over the course of a year or two. Version one from the plush BBC studios, recorded in just one day along with three or four other songs and version two recorded with the bands own budget in the studio of their choice once they’d been playing the song a few hundred times inside the buildings that kept us entertained (and still do) during the evenings. Debating which version was better was never really a huge issue amongst those interested enough to even discuss such matters but some of us had our favourites and would revert to the version we loved more for many years that followed until we simply lost interest and moved onto our next favourite song.
This is the new tune from South London rascals Sleaze and there’s more than one story to be told about this. The People Have The Strength (To Turn The Tide) is a pub anthem, a fist in the air, arm around a mate, beer held aloft at head height during a closing time sing-a -long. It’s a simple, rousing, a call to arms that will no doubt stay in our consciousness for a few years as a reminder of those messy evenings when we said we’d pop out for one and….well, we all know what happened next.
The band had a different version of the same track on their Bandcamp page three years ago which was then called ‘British Beef’. A stadium anthem, a fist in the air, friend on your shoulders, pyro held above head height long after our bedtimes in a big field and quite possibly a track to remind us all of those festival moments that can happen half a dozen times during a long weekend in the summertime. At least one of us got giddy with excitement during Glastonbury 2024 and didn’t hold back in proclaiming this song the highlight of the weekend despite everything else going on in Sommerset that weekend.
A packed Strummerville Stage on the Thursday night, hundreds rammed into this tiny corner a hour or so before Fat Dog were about to make their first of many appearances that weekend. We were still only half way through this Sleaze performance when this song grabbed our attention like no other tune managed all weekend. Well, at least until a couple of nights later when half an hour after Fontaines DC had ripped apart the Park stage (about a minute walk away) which of course if anyone needs reminding followed Fat Boy Slim, Idles and LCD Soundsystem in neighbouring fields that day (what a day!).
“Click, copy, do whatever you need to hear this marvellous three-and-a-half-minute tune….” was written in the review a few days later. Just above a link to the song a message now reads; “Sorry, this track or album is not available”.
The original recording of British Beef is no more then, unless you were prepared to spend the best pound of your lives when this was available two years ago and still have it on your hard drive. The People Have The Strength (To Turn The Tide) is all that’s left now. Its a different beast. Polished, slightly slower, bereft of any electronics and that ‘Heart of Glass’ disco feel that some of us fell in love with back then but still worthy of inclusion in our listening habits during 2026. No doubt once the debut album Sleaze Please (Via Agent Anonyme Recordings) arrives in June this will sit snugly with everything else the band have recorded recently. It’s a long awaited album for some of us from a band that are now seemingly settled and the term ‘Fluctuating line up’ is no longer part of the bands’ vocabulary. An album in the pipeline is certainly distracting enough to no longer want to ask how we got to where we are now. One day it would be nice to have both versions on a 7″ so everyone can spend evenings comparing the two and arguing with no one about which one is better than the other. The original still gets the nod from the East London jury but that’s not to dismiss what we have here.
Frontman Dave Ashby has remained busy since our paths last crossed. As well as cementing the line-up, recording the album, the single follows the band’s previous releases including the never to be forgotten Push Tuck & Daffodils, both of which featured in the Netflix series Too Much, where the band also appear on screen, alongside the subsequent single Universal Adaptor.
Emerging from the same unruly South London scene that gave us Fat White Family, Warmduscher and Fat Dog, Dave Ashby – a Penge born artist (son of a cab driver and bingo caller naturally) has also provided lyrics on two tracks from Evan Dando’s album Love Chant, and is a co-writer with Saul Adamczewski on the Insecure Men’s recent single Time Is A Healer. Away from music, he’s a prolific visual artist: last year’s residency at Dublin’s Horse Gallery showcased 40 Indian-ink paintings on chip-shop paper.
“Can’t have music without the art,” he says,
Alongside Ashby at the front, the band are filmmaker Laurie Yule on guitar, Bede Trillo on bass, Percy Mackay on drums, and Al Grumble on synths.
The People Have The Strength (To Turn The Tide) is a great place to start if you are yet to come across Sleaze. No doubt there’ll be some more live shows forthcoming that we can all catch up on….and then that album to come in the summer. Keep ’em peeled as the saying goes.
Read what we’ve already been saying about Sleaze :
Daffodils review
Live review
Glastonbury 2024
Contact the band via their Instagram page here
Words by Keith Goldhanger. More writing by Keith on Louder Than War can be found at his author’s archive. You can also find Keith on Facebook Instagram and Bluesky
A Plea From Louder Than War
Louder Than War is run by a small but dedicated independent team, and we rely on the small amount of money we generate to keep the site running smoothly. Any money we do get is not lining the pockets of oligarchs or mad-cap billionaires dictating what our journalists are allowed to think and write, or hungry shareholders. We know times are tough, and we want to continue bringing you news on the most interesting releases, the latest gigs and anything else that tickles our fancy. We are not driven by profit, just pure enthusiasm for a scene that each and every one of us is passionate about.
To us, music and culture are eveything, without them, our very souls shrivel and die. We do not charge artists for the exposure we give them and to many, what we do is absolutely vital. Subscribing to one of our paid tiers takes just a minute, and each sign-up makes a huge impact, helping to keep the flame of independent music burning! Please click the button below to help.
John Robb – Editor in Chief
