Broadside Hacks

Broadside Hacks means many different things. It is a sprawling collective of young musicians who meet regularly for casual, open-to-all jam sessions at a South London pub. It is their live iteration, a more fixed – but nevertheless still flexible – group of players who have been performing acclaimed shows across Britain for the last year, bringing in local musicians as they go. There is also the Broadside Hacks record label, which put out the compilation ‘Songs Without Authors Vol. 1’ last September: a diverse array of left field artists injecting fresh life into songs whose original authors have been lost in time. Beyond even that, there is the film ‘The Broadside Hack’, exploring a wider network of London musicians employing traditional folk influences in vastly different ways, from caroline’s multi-genre experimentalism to Shovel Dance Collective’s forthright politics, of which Broadside Hacks are just one crucial part. 
 “As generations have done before them, Broadside Hacks immerse themselves deep into the worlds of these old songs, with all their dramatic joys and sorrows, and find in them an endless relevance that makes them spill over with as much life as ever, centuries on.” - The Quietus 
 Photo: Holly Whitaker