Liverpool music icons The Farm reflect on musical journey as they release a new single

They’ve been making music since the 1980s and enjoyed a number one album in 1991 but The Farm still get excited about hearing their songs on the radio.

When the new single Let The Music (Take Control) debuted on Jo Whiley’s Radio 2 show last week, lead Singer of The Farm, Peter Hooton, felt he had been transported back decades.

“We were all at my dad’s house waiting for it to get the first play. It was like a real moment in time,” he said. “It’s exciting releasing new stuff. We didn’t realise how exciting it would be.”

The single, out today, is the second new track from the band in five months. Feel The Love came out last September and took the Liverpool band by surprise with its success.

Radio play was accompanied by rave reviews. The Farm were back, although they hadn’t really been that far away after a few summers on the festival circuit, performing their big singalong tunes and catchy old favourites. But this was their first recording in years and had been some time in the making.

Guitarist Keith Mullin said:

“We have been messing round with new tunes for a while, but certain things got in the way like Covid lockdowns, work, and other stuff. I thought the songs were great and we thought ‘let’s put them online and see what happens’. There was no major campaign, but that’s what you can do now with streaming.

“The first new single just kicked in and people liked it, and we are getting a similar reaction to this one. It’s humbling really that you can put out new music after all this time and get these reactions and get played on the radio. It is testament to all the hard work you put in.”

Peter added:

“Feel The Love came out and was play listed for a few weeks by Radio 2. We didn’t even have a radio plugger really, but we got it sent in and were excited by the reaction. Keith was determined to get the song released. I thought they were good songs and we’ve had so much positivity, introducing new music to Farm fans.”

The music business operates in a drastically different landscape from the 1990s when The Farm enjoyed huge success with All Together Now and Groovy Train. Their melding of dance music and guitar sounds was perfect for the era, but they admit they were a gang of naïve mates from Liverpool enjoying the ride, creating quality tunes and making friends with more established names like Madness frontman Suggs, who produced some of their early work.

Peter said:

“We didn’t fully understand the industry. We didn’t realise you needed a press officer to get reviews in the music press, then get radio interested and have pluggers getting your records played. Today you can put stuff online and it can go viral. I suppose we are using both methods now.

“It used to be that you put a single out and if it wasn’t a hit, it was all doom and gloom but now with streaming it’s so different. Feel The Love came out in September, and it’s still being streamed. We’ve got fans in Buenos Aires and Lima. Who’s sitting in Argentina and Peru listening to the Farm?”

Embracing new technology while sticking to their musical and political roots, as well as rubbing shoulders with pop royalty, has led them to their latest single.

Keith said:

“Nile Rodgers came into LIPA (the Paul McCartney founded performing arts school where Keith is a lecturer). He was doing a masterclass for students. It was so good to hear him play his Fender Stratocaster guitar, his Strat. He calls it his hit maker. I love how he can make such simple sounds sound so good. It was inspiring.”

Back in the day the band would kick ideas around in a studio and Peter would capture their work on a tape recorder. That technique led to number one album Spartacus. These days he uses his phone to record their work.

Keith’s Niles Rodgers inspired tunes on his own Strat were put together with music from the rest of the band, some inspiring lyrics from Peter, a heavy dose of electronica and Let The Music (Take Control) was born.

A line from the song says: “Can you feel the music in your soul, can you feel the music take control?”

Peter said:

“The idea was that instead of politicians coming out with vacuous statements we wanted to say: ‘let the music take control’. It’s two fingers to the dogma of ‘take back control’.

“There was also inspiration from the Black Lives Matters movement and the idea of music breaking down barriers and uniting people.”

It’s clear that they’re quite rightly proud of their latest work and have other tracks in the bag. So, is there an album on the way?

Some other pop royalty might be able to help with that.

Peter said:

“Paul Weller heard Feel the Love and Let the Music (Take Control) and said they were banging. He said we can record an album in his studio.”

You can download Let The Music (Take Control) here.

You can see The Farm live this year for more info click HERE.