A free-spirited gang of underdogs who championed social causes and aligned themselves to the travelling community, Levellers were a fast-rising force come the mid-90s. The band’s heady brand of anarcho folk-punk hit its commercial peak with 1995’s Zeitgeist, their fourth album, due in no small part to the inclusion of open-hearted street anthems like Hope Street.
Released as a lead-off single that July, Hope Street is a song for the dispossessed and the forgotten, for all those struggling in the slipstream of economic progress. It’s peopled by outcasts, addicts, vagrants and gamblers.
