The Levellers

The Levellers play The Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom on Saturday 24 October, part of their LTL35 tour. They're joined by Ned's Atomic Dustbin and The Meffs, so it's a full bill rather than a single act.

The tour marks the 35th anniversary of Levelling the Land, the album they're taking across the country this year. To get how that fits in, it helps to look at where they started. The Levellers formed in Brighton in 1988 when five lads — Mark Chadwick, Alan Miles, Jeremy Cunningham, Charlie Heather and Jon Sevink — combined anthemic folk rock, punk, crusty hippy idealism and left-wing politics. Their debut, A Weapon Called The World (1990), sat somewhere between The Waterboys and The Clash. Simon Friend replaced Miles for Levelling the Land (1991), which went platinum and gave them their first true hit, 'One Way'.

They didn't stop there. Zeitgeist (1995) reached number one and featured Joe Strummer on 'Just The One', and the Britpop-leaning Mouth To Mouth (1997) produced 'Beautiful Day'. So when they tour Levelling the Land this year, they're returning to the record that really put them on the map.

The support acts bring their own history. Ned's Atomic Dustbin fused punk and funk with a two-bass attack on their number-four debut God Fodder (1991), and The Meffs are an Essex duo known for high-energy Britpunk and politically charged lyrics. Between the three, there's a fair bit of punk and folk-rock to go around.

The show is at the Barrowland Ballroom, 242 the Gallowgate, Glasgow, on Saturday 24 October, starting at 19:00.