Merseyside firebrand Prowse marks Record Store Day with a non-royal celebration

The Pele and Amsterdam frontman, who has played South Yorkshire three times over the past year, has seen his stock rise with his Friday night lockdown shows and is more than happy to back next week’s celebration of what remains of the nation’s record shops.

Staying true to his promise to create passionate music for the right reasons, The Tranmere Rovers fan says lockdown made him realise the importance of the community that listens to his music and the messages he delivers.

Fans were treated to around 17 two hour Facebook Live shows which saw Prowse revisit the majority of his back catalogue while fans chatted in real-time, made requests and talked about what they were drinking — a bit like a gig in a real venue.

He said: “Lockdown started as a real low, but ended as a real high. I had no idea how it would go but the audience really responded. The journey people have taken with me and my songs over 25 years came together and it was heartwarming. It was one of my career highlights.

“It was almost like an old style musical vaudevillian show and it made a real star out of Rosie, my daughter. I had no idea she could sing or had any propensity to learn songs with quite complicated words. It got a bit difficult in the later shows, making her learn a song every week and I felt a bit like the Jackson 5’s dad.”

Prowse’s lineage of songs about the royals started with the first Pele release Raid The Palace, moving through Sport of Kings and continuing with All The Royal Houses on new album Here I Lie. He’s also added You Don’t Own Me to complete next Saturday’s Record Store Day EP.

“I didn’t know a lot about the day but my label Kitchen Disco Records said I should do something for it and I was more than happy to do so. The injustice of the royal family has always been one of my profound interests and it is very satisfying knowing something you were singing about 25 years ago you still have the same sentiments about. I feel I have been justified in talking and singing about this and the honours system in which a Brexit gob***** like Ian Botham is rewarded for his opinions.

“I came in as a conviction singer and whether it be about inequalities or being heartbroken I will sing it with passion.

“A lot of music is toothless now but look at how The Specials’ Free Nelson Mandela contributed to freeing Nelson Mandela and bringing people together to end apartheid and you realise the power music has.”

Ian is looking forward to getting back to live action and is about to start recording a new album. For now you can buy his EP at participating record stores, including  Bear Tree Records, Music Junkee, Wax at Moorgate, Spinning Discs and Record Collector in Sheffield.

As an added bit of fun Ian’s label are “auctioning off” some of her majesty’s possessions, including half of the UK’s shoreline, 150,000 works of art, a massive Faberge collection, two tortoises from the Seychelles. the British seabed. all of Scotland’s gold mines and millions of square feet of retail space.

Get your bids in now!