Comedian Stewart Lee & Asian Dub Foundation put fists in air and tongues in cheek for brand new music video and radio version of Comin’ Over Here, a riposte to former UKIP leader Paul Nuttal’s xenophobic rant on BBC Radio 4, released as the 1 month Brexit countdown begins.
Bloody poles coming over here, coming over here and mending everything…when I was a kid it was the Indians, coming over here, inventing us a national cuisine. And before then, in the 5th century it was the Anglo Saxons, with their shit burial traditions and miserable epic poetry…etc
1 month until Brexit. And still we don’t know what’s going on, not least what’s happening for musicians, comedians, performers of all and every slant. In anticipation of this giant leap into the unknown, UK comedian Stewart Lee has joined trailblazing activists, artists and rock n’ roll agitators Asian Dub Foundation for a brand new video of Comin’ Over Here, a song based on the sample of a classic Stewart Lee sketch, released on their album Access Denied back in September, and now, delightfully, in full video form with Stewart Lee making a very temporary appearance as a frontman for ADF.
Asian Dub Foundation are one of the most original and influential British bands of the last thirty years. Their album, Access Denied, released in September is an avalanche of wildstyle jungle punk, orchestral drum’n’bass, Indo-ragga dub and militant-lyrical soundclashing confronting themes surrounding Brexit, hostile border policies and the climate crisis. Featuring contributions from a quite formidable cast, it includes voice of a generation, Greta Thunberg, Palestinian shamstep warriors 47Soul, Chilean vocalist and voice of recent protests in Chile, Ana Tijoux, beatboxer and vocal extraordinaire Dub FX, as well as UK comedian Stewart Lee.
Following years of damaging public sector cuts and emboldened by nationalist politics and swathes of opposition to multiculturalism, the UK, many would argue, is in dire need for a global reset. Brexit is just a month away. The ADF crew have long forewarned the arrival of this day years before, the group’s 2003 track Fortress Europe coming to mind.
Asian Dub Foundation break new ground with devastating effect on Access Denied, a booming fourteen-track album and collision of seminal contemporary thought and daring sonic vision.
The origins of the sketch ‘Comin’ Over Here’ as told by Stewart Lee:
Some stand-up routines take years to work out. This one slipped out, as Kevin Eldon would say, like a newborn foal. I was driving my son to school on April 25th 2013. I heard Paul Nuttall, the then leader of the UKIP, on Radio 4 talking about immigration and it was so jumbled up it made me laugh. I went home, played back the interview, transcribed it, and exaggerated it until I had Paul taking a position against matter itself, and by lunchtime it was done.
The routine has had a massive half life, and seems to go viral whenever people are arguing about immigration. I am glad it has given some comedy comfort to people who feel like they don’t recognise the intolerant country we now seem to be in.