After a summer of gigs and festivals, Julian Gaskell & his Ragged Trousered Philanthropists return with a new recording ‘The Signalman’, a song familiar to audiences at ‘Broadside Bangers’. The lyrics are from two 19th century broadside ballads (Roud V15826 and V15682) telling a tale of disaster averted on a train line thanks to a supernatural intervention, they are full of the fear of uncontrolled technology and see a tired and frail old signalman as all that is standing between us and a world of carnage and death.

The music is an appropriately long and otherworldly journey; a half-asleep distorted accordion and granulated violin lead the way slowly but surely through field recordings from the paths, railways and coast of Cornwall before a late 19th century train recording crackles into life and we hear a beautifully intense performance from Julian Gaskell, Thomas Sharpe and Cally Gibson.  As this drifts away into the hills and the moors, we are rudely awakened after 11 minutes by a contemporary train recording from a pedestrian crossing in Falmouth, we hear birds and bells of a summer afternoon and might wonder whether the whole thing was just a weird dream while dozing on a train.

Here’s a video explaining the story behind this ballad…

The song is available on the usual streaming services now…

Taken from the forthcoming album “Broadside Bangers’, 11 ballads with wildly extravagant music, due for release through Croustpop Records in early 2025.