Single/Video Review: Benefits – Flag

Now sit quietly and drink yer tea!

This is gonna be either a conformation or a kick up the ass that you deserve, depends which side of wrong you sit.

Benefits have just shared the video for their latest piece of North East realities, spoken word/music backed brilliance.  A sound that has so many roots in this area and beyond.

Made up of Kingsley Chapman (Guitar/Vocal), Jonny Snowball (Drums), Robbie Major (Synth/Noise) and Hugh Major (Bass) and only formed back in 2019, Benefits are a no nonsense shout it out and tell the truth band, hanging all the wrongs that dwell within the system out to dry, bringing a pure no nonsense sound to bear on any subject without leniency.

‘Flag’ is the latest of their tracks to see the light of day, remotely played and recorded during lockdown, a shot across the bow? Or more like a flash bang to the brain of those who have succumbed to the incessant call for patriotism, the leading of the lemmings to the cliff that is Brexit, the right wing agenda that hides behind the call to nationalism, or just those who fall in line and watch as the country fucks it self over.  

Spoken word delivered with every sinew of being by someone who feels every sad moment of  the current mess we are in, and who to blame too, draped in a soundscape that has its lighter moments, but never loses the focus..  

A video that has you transfixed from start to finish, simple stark images that capture the essence of distain that fills the veins, who needs soppy BBC drama’s that push around the notion of national problems, when you can feel the reality of it all, right here and now!!

The North East and beyond now have so many forces to be reckoned with when it comes to clashing with and stomping on the already crumbling relics that make up society.

Not only do Sleaford Mods, Bob Vylan, Cherry B & Peesh, Ettrick Scott and Ben Dawson-Punshon have a place in the rewriting of musical history, but so do Benefits.

Play this loud!!!

We asked Kingsley if there might be anything lined up for when the Covid madness lifts  (If  and when it happens )      “When restrictions lift, we’re hoping to finally practice again and (at the very least) do a streamed gig. We really want to show people what we can do as a live band, we’re determined to take this up a level. I never thought I’d miss going to gigs this much really. I don’t necessarily miss the chaotic busy rammed ones either, I miss standing watching a support band with my overpriced crap beer in a plastic glass with ten other people spread around the room”.

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And rap your ears, eyes around this below.