Be Fair Release New Single “Roddy Piper”

On their latest single Be Fair showcases the band’s raw, punchy sound, heavily leaning into the group’s early influences from bands such as At the Drive In and Fugazi as much as it does Face to Face and Jawbreaker. Named Roddy Piper as a working title that stuck after the famed professional wrestler and actor, the song has nothing to do with wrestling or acting. Roddy Piper is one of the first songs Be Fair wrote as a band, it quickly became a fan favourite and a staple closing track at their live performances.

Penned by lead singer Phil Stevenson in 2020, the universal message of discontent and distrust around a never-changing political system is as relevant today as when it was written, as it sadly will be in years to come. Recorded at The Nave Studio with engineer Andy Hawkins, the single captures the raw energy and intensity of Be Fair‘s live performances.

It’s 2020. The political system in the UK is a complete joke, led by a clown of a prime minister and a ruling party treating us like characters in a collective Sims game controlled by the elite. Be Fair hadn’t been a band for very long, forced in and out of isolation like the rest of the world. We had written our first set of songs, including this one. This song captures how I felt at that time. I was infuriated by the broken promises, hypocrisy, and double standards of our government. While we isolated from loved ones and people died, Parliament partied. People tore down statues, we saw a frightening rise in right-wing politics, and an institutional denial of inconvenient historical truths. I was enraged by what I witnessed day in and day out, but even more so by the fact that it’s been this way for as long as I can remember, with no sign of change. Since then, I’ve sung this song countless times on stage to small audiences, usually at the end of our set when my untrained and unskilled vocals are nearly ripped from my throat. Yet, I still scream the last lines of this song with every last drop as hard as I did the first time, and I will continue to do so as long as I feel the same frustration. By some sort of serendipity, we finally decided to release this song, one we’ve had for years but never felt ready to share, just as a general election was announced in the UK.” (vocalist and guitarist Phil Stevenson)