Thee Faction are a garage rock/garage punk band from Surrey, England, noted for their explicit Socialist agenda. They refer to their music, which incorporates elements of garage rock, pop and rhythm and blues as "Socialist RnB". Their album Up The Workers! was rated one of the Daily Mirror's top twenty albums of 2011.
Biography
Thee Faction's debut albumAt Ebbw Vale was released in 2010. Dubbed 'rhythm and booze' and 'timely' by Simon Price in The Independent it was rated 8/10 in Vive Le Rock. Is This Music? praised the record, comparing the band to Dr. Feelgood. Second album Up The Workers! or, Capitalism is Good For Corporations That's Why You've Been Told Socialism is Bad All Your Life was described by the Daily Mirror as "Power-packed garage rock 'n' soul underlined by a defiantly political edge." The title track featured Ivan Chandler on piano. The album was rated 7/10 by Drowned in Sound who praised it as "a lot of fun, undeniably stirring.. Thee Faction write showstoppers" but also criticised the music as "entertaining in a very conventional way". The band's third albumSinging Down The Government, or, The War of Position and How We're Winning It, was released in 2012, and introduced all-female horn section Brass Kapital. The album was promoted by headlining appearances at the Marxism Festival and Tolpuddle Martyrs festival and included contributions by Richard Archer from Hard-Fi and rapper Clencha. Free download-only singles for tracks 'Soapbox' and 'Sausage Machine' were accompanied by promotional videos. Q Magazine praised the album as "a critique of societal hegemony on the back of a grimy blues'n’b twang, rife with the contagious energy of people who know they're right", and it was rated 7/10 by Mick Farren in Classic Rock Blues magazine. Thee Faction released fourth album Good Politics: Your Role As An Active Citizen Within Civil Society in 2013, preceded by single 'Better Than Wages', remixed from the album by Andy Lewis. The album featured guest vocals from writer Francis Wheen and saxophone from Crayola Lectern, and was rated 8/10 in Classic Rock and 4/5 in The Independent and Mojo who called it "wildly galvanising, blisteringly angry, insanely entertaining blue-collar rock'n'roll". Thee Faction released fifth album Reading Writing Revolution: The Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall in June 2015, preceded by a track on double-CD fundraising album Orgreave Justice and free download single "Choose Your Enemy", released on 29 March with accompanying video. A second free download single " Numbers " accompanied the release. The album received 5/5 in the Morning Star, 9/10 at MaximumVolumeMusic, and a positive review in Socialist Standard, while R*E*P*E*A*T zine called it "highly enjoyable, dangerously tuneful, subversively catchy and dialectically danceable, as well as being properly educational - thought provoking and agitational." The band announced a number of summer festival dates, including Glastonbury, and a return to Tolpuddle and the Matchwomens Festival. Thee Faction guitarist Babyface, under cadre name "Chris Fox", won the Beard Liberation Front's 'St David's Day Beard of Wales' title in 2015, 2017 and 2018. He was runner-up in 2016. Thee Faction's most recent gig to date was a 2017 benefit show for the anti-Haringey Development Vehicle campaign. The band has not officially confirmed a hiatus, although a slogan on one of their web-pages, "R&B sui generis", may indicate that, like other left-wing groups, they have gone into the Labour Party.
