Single flashback

Andrew Cash - Boomtown [1989]

For me, one of the best parts about revisiting music and artists from the 80s is twofold.

One, we have the internet now - so finding out about a song or a band is hella-easy now compared to when I was in my teens.

And two, the trajectory is obviously less uncertain than when you’re writing about new music.

I mean, where will Geese be in thirty or forty years? Will people still be arguing over Cameron Winter’s voice? I really don’t know.

Why do I bring this up?

Well, you see that young man with the long hair on that record jacket? Twenty or so years later he was a Member of Parliament here in Canada.

Yup. Andrew Cash, alongside his former punk bandmate Charlie Angus were rockers-turned-politicians.

Who would have seen that coming when their band L’etranger were on the go?

L’etranger - One People | did not chart, 1984

That’s Andrew on guitar, Charlie on bass and their ‘Clash go Toronto’ vibes. Love it.

Sadly, this band missed their connections and split in 1986.

The good news was that Cash would catch the eye of Island Records supremo Chris Blackwell, making AC the first Canadian act signed to the influential label.

His second Island album was also entitled ‘Boomtown’ and the single of the same name gave Cash - now more of a singer/songwriter than a punk - his second Canadian Top 40 single.

Andrew Cash - Boomtown | peaked #31, 1989

The musical evolution was from punk to more acoustic, rootsy vibes - but the lyrics? They’re still pushing against injustice of all kinds.

‘Boomtown’ is a tale of gentrification and renoviction. Both our narrator and his landlord observe that ‘the neighbourhood has changed’ as the fancy coffee shop moves in and the poor people are moved out.

“The landlord called last night he said, he’s selling off our home
He says he’s sorry but the neighbourhood has changed
They’ll renovate this old dump and put us out with last weeks’s junk
Some trendy folks gonna have a new place to play”

Fast forward another few years and Cash teams up with his brother, Peter Cash [Skydiggers], to form The Cash Brothers. Their sound was a little more country with a hat tip to Americana.

But sometimes, simply writing and performing songs about things you don’t like may not feel like it’s enough.

Sometimes you have to wade into the belly of the beast and try to make change from the inside.

Like Cash, Angus, and other examples like Sonny Bono or Peter Garrett [Midnight Oil].