Mark Chadwick, vocals\/guitar\/songwriter<\/p>\n
John Lennon once said that everything he wrote was two songs in one. I\u2019ve always stood by that. So you can take What a Beautiful Day at face value, like: \u201cOh, he\u2019s having a lovely day.\u201d But the song is essentially about revolution and bringing down the government.<\/p>\n
When I wrote it in late 1996, it was a time of change politically. It was pretty much the end of the Tories. Tony Blair hadn\u2019t quite got in, but you knew he was going to. I wasn\u2019t a Blair supporter, but he was better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. There was a tangible optimism. Apartheid had ended. The cold war was no longer an issue, so you didn\u2019t feel like you were about to be nuked.<\/p>\n
double quotation markI wrote it in five minutes. It was almost too easy \u2013 I like fighting for songs<\/p>\n
What a Beautiful Day has some subversive lyrics. The song was written around Bonfire Night, so the first verse\u2019s opening line came straight to me: \u201cIt was on the fifth of November \u2026\u201d I live in Lewes, where we have one of the country\u2019s last fire festivals, and every year we burn political effigies<\/a>. It\u2019s very controversial and the police hate it. The references to Audrey Hepburn and Errol Flynn came from my love of old movies, and I\u2019d just been on holiday to Cuba \u2013 that\u2019s how Che Guevara got in there.<\/p>\n I\u2019d often go to our Brighton studio, the Metway, set up a couple of monitors in an empty room and just bash away on an acoustic guitar. But for this, I probably wrote the music and lyrics in five minutes. I thought it was too easy \u2013 I like fighting for songs a bit \u2013 and almost too catchy. I didn\u2019t think there was anyone else in the building, but then a head popped round the door and it was a guy who worked in our office upstairs. \u201cThat\u2019s a hit,\u201d he said, but I told him: \u201cNo it\u2019s not. It can\u2019t be. I\u2019ve written it too quickly. And I don\u2019t like it that much. It\u2019s a bit too obvious for me.\u201d These days I don\u2019t dislike the song at all \u2013 we named our festival after it, for goodness sakes.<\/p>\n \u2018We make one noise together\u2019 \u2026 Mark Chadwick. Photograph: Mick Hutson\/Redferns<\/p>\n When we recorded What a Beautiful Day, the biggest challenge was trying not to make it sound too glib or throwaway. We did it live in the room, because we\u2019re a band, and we make one noise together, so it\u2019s about capturing that energy. We play the song even faster now live.<\/p>\n When I wrote it, it was a better time. Definitely better than now \u2013 I\u2019ve never lived through such dark times. When I talk to people my age, we\u2019re like: \u201cWe weren\u2019t prepared for this. We thought things would improve.\u201d Not: \u201cOh my God, the world is run by Satan\u2019s occult members.\u201d Everything we thought in our stoned paranoia turned out to be true.<\/p>\n Jeremy Cunningham, bass<\/p>\n Mark brought in What a Beautiful Day pretty much fully formed. All I did was to say: \u201cPut the chorus at the start.\u201d Which was a good suggestion. When we came back to it later in the album sessions, he said: \u201cNah, it sounds like a shit Oasis B-side to me \u2013 I\u2019m not that interested.\u201d But he did it anyway.<\/p>\n Charlie Heather, our drummer, played a kind of 70s stomp-style beat, so I knew I had to do a walking bassline. Jon Sevink\u2019s violin part sounds like a call to arms. I always loved his playing, from the first time we ever got in a rehearsal room. Back then, he had a shit fiddle with a pickup cannibalised from an old Fender Strat we had knocking about in a squat \u2013 but by the time of What a Beautiful Day, he had a much better instrument.<\/p>\n A lot of Levellers songs are reacting against horrible things that we\u2019re angry about, but this one is really life-affirming and full of positivity. My favourite line is: \u201cNothing is impossible in my all-powerful mind.\u201d To me, it\u2019s all about actualising things and the endless possibilities that are out there.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n I thought What a Beautiful Day was a cheesy title. I wanted it to be called The King of All Time, which is a line from the song. That actually was the title, right until the last moment. We finished the album, I did all the artwork, then I went on holiday and when I came back, I saw it had come out as What a Beautiful Day. I was like: \u201cYou fuckers!\u201d But it was the right move.<\/p>\n The release started off as good timing, because the Tories had left office. But then Princess Diana died in that terrible car crash and What a Beautiful Day \u2013 along with every other cheerful-sounding song \u2013 was taken straight off the radio. It got to No 13, and it was going up, when suddenly, boom, all radio play was cut and it disappeared.<\/p>\n I still think What a Beautiful Day is relevant. But I don\u2019t think we need a revolution. We just need to be a bit nicer to each other. That would be a revolution in itself.<\/p>\n Levellers\u2019 Beautiful Days festival<\/a> is at Escot Park, Devon, 20-23 August. The band\u2019s UK tour celebrating 35 years of Levelling the Land starts on 20 October<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Chadwick, vocals\/guitar\/songwriter John Lennon once said that everything he wrote was two songs in one. 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