Alistair Hulett
Encyclopedia
Alistair Hulett, was a Scottish
acoustic
folk
singer and revolutionary socialist, best known as the singer of the folk punk
band, Roaring Jack
.
, Hulett discovered traditional music as an early teen and began playing the folk circuit in New Zealand
in 1968, after immigrating with his family. By 1971, he relocated to Australia
continuing to perform at festivals. In the early 1980s Hulett founded the folk punk five piece, Roaring Jack, and opened for international acts such as Billy Bragg
, The Pogues
and The Men They Couldn't Hang
. The band was nominated for two ARIA Music Awards
during their career.
. "Dance of the Underclass" established Hulett as a key contemporary Australian writer, with several of the songs now regarded as modern Australian standards. One of the CD's songs He Fades Away, concerns the death of an Australian blue asbestos miner, was covered by Roy Bailey
and June Tabor
, and later by Andy Irvine
. Both He Fades Away and Blue Murder were featured on the Niamh Parsons
album Old Simplicity.
A second album, In The Back Streets Of Paradise, was released in 1994, and was a collection of songs originally intended as the next Roaring Jack's release. This CD featured long-term collaborator, Jimmy Gregory, with whom Hulett played in a duo for many years on the Sydney folk circuit. The release of In The Back Streets of Paradise coincided with the formation of a new touring band Alistair Hulett and The Hooligans, featuring Lindsay Martin (fiddle), John Deery (uillean pipes), Jimmy Gregory (Bouzouki), James Fagan
(Bouzouki and clarinet) and Phil Murray (accordion).
of Fairport Convention
, producing three albums, and towards the end of his life, formed a new band, The Malkies, with whom he released one album.
after becoming radicalised by the Gulf War
. In 1995, Hulett co-founded the Australian Trotskyist organisation Socialist Alternative
, while often playing political benefits and rallies with Roaring Jack.
Hulett wrote songs in support of Indigenous Australians
, the Builders Labourers Federation
, the Maritime Union of Australia
, Scottish socialist John Maclean
, and songs attacking Stalinism
, Australian Imperialism
, former Australian Labor Party
Prime Ministers Bob Hawke
and Ben Chifley
, Postmodernists
and Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen
over his support for Israel
.
After returning to his native Glasgow in the late 1990s, Alistair was, until his death, an active member of the Socialist Workers Party
.
was later diagnosed and it was hoped that he could receive a liver transplant, but further investigation revealed a very aggressive metastatic cancer
which had already spread to his lungs and stomach. Hulett died on 28 January 2010 at the Southern General Hospital
in Glasgow, only days after the cancer was first detected.
He was survived by his second wife, Fatima Uygun, who issued the following statement on his official site to announce his passing:
Dear Friends,
It is with overwhelming sadness I write to report the death of Alistair Hulett – singer, songwriter, international socialist, revolutionary, ecologist, community activist and my partner and best friend of 17 years.
Alistair died on Thursday evening, January 28 at 6:30pm at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. Many friends have been shocked by the severity and speed of his deterioration, none more so than myself.
Alistair became ill very suddenly on New Year's Day and was hospitalised on January 5 with suspected food poisoning. Liver failure was later diagnosed and it was hoped that he could receive a liver transplant, but further investigation revealed a very aggressive form of cancer which had already spread from his liver to his lungs and stomach. Alistair died peacefully only days after the cancer was first detected.
His funeral will be held at Linn Crematorium in Lainshaw Drive on Friday 5 Feb at 1:30pm, with a reception afterwards (venue for this will be advised once confirmed).
I would like to thank, with all my heart, the hundreds of people who wrote letters, sent emails, cards and left telephone messages of support during his short illness. They were a huge comfort to myself and his family.
A memorial will also be held in Sydney organised by his family and friends in the next couple of months.
Alistair was a kind, gentle man who was committed to fighting for a better world – a world based on the principles of justice, equality, love and respect for all of humanity. The world was a better place for knowing him and is a sadder place for his loss. He leaves a great legacy in his music that will continue to bring inspiration to many who, like him, believed a better world was possible.
Fatima
Solo
With Dave Swarbrick
With The Malkies
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
acoustic
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
singer and revolutionary socialist, best known as the singer of the folk punk
Folk punk
Folk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered in the late 1970s and early 1980s by The Pogues in Britain and Violent Femmes in America. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade...
band, Roaring Jack
Roaring Jack
Roaring Jack is an Australian Celtic punk/Folk punk band of the 1980s and 1990s. The band formed in 1985 and played their first shows in Sydney in 1986...
.
Early life
Born in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Hulett discovered traditional music as an early teen and began playing the folk circuit in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
in 1968, after immigrating with his family. By 1971, he relocated to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
continuing to perform at festivals. In the early 1980s Hulett founded the folk punk five piece, Roaring Jack, and opened for international acts such as Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
, The Pogues
The Pogues
The Pogues are a Celtic punk band, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before...
and The Men They Couldn't Hang
The Men They Couldn't Hang
The Men They Couldn't Hang are a British folk punk group. The original group consisted of Stefan Cush , Paul Simmonds , Philip "Swill" Odgers , Jon Odgers and Shanne Bradley .- Controversy and success:Their first single, "The Green Fields...
. The band was nominated for two ARIA Music Awards
ARIA Music Awards
The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Recording Industry Association...
during their career.
Solo career
Hullett's first solo CD, Dance of the Underclass, was released in 1991 and was completely acoustic, featuring contributions from other members of Roaring Jack, and a rendition of The InternationaleThe Internationale
The Internationale is a famous socialist, communist, social-democratic and anarchist anthem.The Internationale became the anthem of international socialism, and gained particular fame under the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1944, when it was that communist state's de facto central anthem...
. "Dance of the Underclass" established Hulett as a key contemporary Australian writer, with several of the songs now regarded as modern Australian standards. One of the CD's songs He Fades Away, concerns the death of an Australian blue asbestos miner, was covered by Roy Bailey
Roy Bailey (folk singer)
Roy Bailey MBE , is a British socialist folk singer. Roy began his singing career in a skiffle group in 1958.Colin Irwin from the music magazine Mojo said Bailey represents "the very soul of folk's working class ideals.....
and June Tabor
June Tabor
June Tabor is an English folk singer.- Early years :June Tabor was inspired to sing by hearing Anne Briggs' EP Hazards of Love in 1965. "I went and locked myself in the bathroom for a fortnight and drove my mother mad. I learned the songs on that EP note for note, twiddle for twiddle. That's how I...
, and later by Andy Irvine
Andy Irvine (musician)
Andrew Kennedy 'Andy' Irvine is a folk musician, singer, and songwriter, and a founding member of the popular band Planxty. He is an accomplished player of the mandolin, bouzouki, mandola, guitar-bouzouki, harmonica and hurdy-gurdy....
. Both He Fades Away and Blue Murder were featured on the Niamh Parsons
Niamh Parsons
Niamh Parsons is a singer of contemporary and traditional Irish music.Early in her career Parsons sang with folk musician Jon Hicks on his album Chasing the Bear. Joining her husband Dee with his band the Loose Connections in 1990, Parsons released two CDs with this band...
album Old Simplicity.
A second album, In The Back Streets Of Paradise, was released in 1994, and was a collection of songs originally intended as the next Roaring Jack's release. This CD featured long-term collaborator, Jimmy Gregory, with whom Hulett played in a duo for many years on the Sydney folk circuit. The release of In The Back Streets of Paradise coincided with the formation of a new touring band Alistair Hulett and The Hooligans, featuring Lindsay Martin (fiddle), John Deery (uillean pipes), Jimmy Gregory (Bouzouki), James Fagan
James Fagan
James Fagan is a folk musician from Sydney, Australia. He in a singer and multi-instrumentalist specialising in the Irish bouzouki....
(Bouzouki and clarinet) and Phil Murray (accordion).
Later music
In addition to his solo albums, Hulett worked with Dave SwarbrickDave Swarbrick
Dave Swarbrick is an English folk musician and singer-songwriter. He has been described by Ashley Hutchings as 'the most influential [British] fiddle player bar none' and his style has been copied or developed by almost every British, and many World folk violin players that have followed him...
of Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
, producing three albums, and towards the end of his life, formed a new band, The Malkies, with whom he released one album.
Political beliefs
In 1991 while living in Australia, Hulett joined the International Socialist OrganisationInternational Socialist Organisation (Australia)
The International Socialist Organisation was an Australian Trotskyist political organisation, founded in 1971, originally as the Marxist Workers' Group until it dissolved to form Solidarity in 2008 with two other socialist organisations...
after becoming radicalised by the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
. In 1995, Hulett co-founded the Australian Trotskyist organisation Socialist Alternative
Socialist Alternative (Australia)
Socialist Alternative is a Trotskyist political organisation in Australia formed by an expulsion from the former International Socialist Organisation in 1995. It is one of the largest groups of the Australian far Left, claiming to have the largest active membership. With branches across...
, while often playing political benefits and rallies with Roaring Jack.
Hulett wrote songs in support of Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
, the Builders Labourers Federation
Builders Labourers Federation
The Builders Labourers Federation is an Australian trade union organisation which existed from 1911 until 1972, and from 1976 until 1986, when it was permanently deregistered in various Australian States by the federal Labor government and some state governments of the time. This occurred in the...
, the Maritime Union of Australia
Maritime Union of Australia
The Maritime Union of Australia covers waterside workers, seafarers, port workers, professional divers, and office workers associated with Australian ports. As of 2011 the union has about 13,000 members. It is an affiliate of the International Transport Workers' Federation and represents the...
, Scottish socialist John Maclean
John Maclean (Scottish socialist)
John Maclean MA was a Scottish schoolteacher and revolutionary socialist. He is primarily known as a Marxist educator and notable for his outspoken opposition to the First World War....
, and songs attacking Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
, Australian Imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
, former Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
Prime Ministers Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
and Ben Chifley
Ben Chifley
Joseph Benedict Chifley , Australian politician, was the 16th Prime Minister of Australia. He took over the Australian Labor Party leadership and Prime Ministership after the death of John Curtin in 1945, and went on to retain government at the 1946 election, before being defeated at the 1949...
, Postmodernists
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
and Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
over his support for Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
After returning to his native Glasgow in the late 1990s, Alistair was, until his death, an active member of the Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...
.
Illness and death
Hulett became acutely ill on New Year's Day 2010 and was hospitalised on 5 January with suspected food poisoning. Liver failureLiver failure
Acute liver failure is the appearance of severe complications rapidly after the first signs of liver disease , and indicates that the liver has sustained severe damage . The complications are hepatic encephalopathy and impaired protein synthesis...
was later diagnosed and it was hoped that he could receive a liver transplant, but further investigation revealed a very aggressive metastatic cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
which had already spread to his lungs and stomach. Hulett died on 28 January 2010 at the Southern General Hospital
Southern General Hospital
The Southern General Hospital is a large teaching hospital with an acute operational bed complement of approximately 900 beds. The Hospital is located in Linthouse in the south west of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom and provides a comprehensive range of acute and related clinical...
in Glasgow, only days after the cancer was first detected.
He was survived by his second wife, Fatima Uygun, who issued the following statement on his official site to announce his passing:
Dear Friends,
It is with overwhelming sadness I write to report the death of Alistair Hulett – singer, songwriter, international socialist, revolutionary, ecologist, community activist and my partner and best friend of 17 years.
Alistair died on Thursday evening, January 28 at 6:30pm at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. Many friends have been shocked by the severity and speed of his deterioration, none more so than myself.
Alistair became ill very suddenly on New Year's Day and was hospitalised on January 5 with suspected food poisoning. Liver failure was later diagnosed and it was hoped that he could receive a liver transplant, but further investigation revealed a very aggressive form of cancer which had already spread from his liver to his lungs and stomach. Alistair died peacefully only days after the cancer was first detected.
His funeral will be held at Linn Crematorium in Lainshaw Drive on Friday 5 Feb at 1:30pm, with a reception afterwards (venue for this will be advised once confirmed).
I would like to thank, with all my heart, the hundreds of people who wrote letters, sent emails, cards and left telephone messages of support during his short illness. They were a huge comfort to myself and his family.
A memorial will also be held in Sydney organised by his family and friends in the next couple of months.
Alistair was a kind, gentle man who was committed to fighting for a better world – a world based on the principles of justice, equality, love and respect for all of humanity. The world was a better place for knowing him and is a sadder place for his loss. He leaves a great legacy in his music that will continue to bring inspiration to many who, like him, believed a better world was possible.
Fatima
Album discography
With Roaring Jack- Street Celtabillity 12" EP, 1987
- Cat Among The Pigeons, 1988
- Through The Smoke Of Innocence, 1990
- The Complete Works Of Roaring Jack (German compilation), 2003
Solo
- Dance of the Underclass, 1991
- In The Back Streets Of Paradise, 1994
- In Sleepy Scotland, 2001
- Riches And Rags, 2006
With Dave Swarbrick
- Saturday Johnny and Jimmy The Rat, 1996
- The Cold Grey Light of Dawn, 1998
- Red Clydeside, 2002
With The Malkies
- Suited and Booted, 2008
External links
- Official site
- Alistair Hulett Biography
- Alistair Hulett and Dave Swarbrick
- Roaring Jack Tribute site
- Selection of videos
- The Malkies
- The Internationale with Jimmy Gregory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtAfIjRKUak&NR=1