Thank you to everyone who has bought and shared our new single ‘Beyond the Blues’ this week, for supporting new original music and for great comments, all very much appreciated. Some of you may remember the tune from our last tour. For the single, we recorded it with Hal’s original lyrics. This is his backstory: “It’s both a celebration and a lament, about age, death and the passing of cultural icons. Seeing how the passage of time makes the past recede, I was feeling conscious of the way that the cultural power of rock music was slipping into history, hence all the name drops referring to the heyday of rock, psychedelia and hippydom – when these things all felt so vital and relevant. (See if you can spot ’em all!).”
If you enjoy our music, please help us get the word out, follow us, and and pass it on
Hal, John, Lou & Matt
Video filmed by Simon Baxter of Factor Fifty Films. If you’d like to buy the single we’d be very grateful. It’s on all the usual digital platforms, and Bandcamp is the one we recommend.
We filmed the video at O’Rileys, Hull. It’s an independent venue where we play, rehearse and have recorded the drum tracks for the new album. We’ve been back there this week recording the last few album backing tracks.
If you’d like to watch more videos, hear the singles, visit any of the places we are online, our social media accounts, videos, blog etc follow the link below and please follow us there.
Beyond the Blues is released on Scratch Plate Records via Label Worx. Thanks to Beat Filter PR. Hope you enjoy it, and if you listen and download it, thank you.
If you’d like to, you can subscribe to our blog. It’s free and you can do so by entering your email here:
Undead Guitars Turn Red Guitars Blue With New Single – ‘Beyond The Blues’
Ta daaa! We are delighted to announce that our (ace!) new single, ‘Beyond the Blues’ is out today. You can get it now on all the usual digital channels and from Bandcamp here:
Released on Scratch Plate Records via Label Worx. Thanks to Beat Filter PR. Hope you enjoy it, and if you listen and download it, thank you.
The Lowdown
Red Guitars Hallam Lewis, John Rowley, Lou Duffy-Howard, and Matt Higgins release their third single as a four piece, under their current name, Undead Guitars.
Beyond the Blues is released on January 30th 2026 on all the usual digital platforms and Bandcamp, via Scratch Plate Records.
The band’s new single is a spacey reflection on how music has changed through the last 40 years.
Singer and songwriter Hallam Lewis explains: “It’s both a celebration and a lament, about age, death and the passing of cultural icons. Seeing how the passage of time makes the past recede, I was feeling conscious of the way that the cultural power of rock music was slipping into history, hence all the name drops referring to the heyday of rock, psychedelia and hippydom – when these things all felt so vital and relevant. (See if you can spot ’em all!). I also remembered Derek Jarman talking about the colour of death being blue and I dipped into that – Beyond the Blues. I love the atmospheric dubby echoes in the music, ‘disappearing into the ether’, and the almost inadvertent flavours of Ennio Morricone feed into the whole “riding off into the sunset” feel – our very own psychedelic spaghetti western.”
Watch the official video here:
Video was filmed at O’Riley’s Music Venue in Hull by Simon Baxter of Factor Fifty Films.
Undead Guitars last single ‘Blazing Zombies’ in October followed the band’s 2024 single ‘Ho Ho Hum’, released to raise funds for refugee charities Breaking Barriers and The Refugee Council.
This year the four founding Red Guitars members continue work on a new album with Hallam on lead vocals. The band are preparing for live shows next year, information to follow on the band’s website and social media pages: https://linktr.ee/Undead_Guitars
‘Beyond the Blues’ by Undead Guitars Scratch Plate Records Cat No SPR668 distributed by Label Worx is available from 30th January on Bandcamp and all the usual digital outlets.
Beyond the Blues by Undead Guitars, formerly Red Guitars members: Hallam Lewis lead vocals and guitars, John Rowley guitar, Lou Duffy-Howard bass and backing vocals, Matt Higgins drums and percussion. Written by Hallam Lewis. Recorded and produced by Undead Guitars. Drums recorded at O’Rileys Music Venue, Hull. Video produced by Simon Baxter of Factor Fifty Films, filmed at O’Rileys Hull,
We are very pleased to report that our new single Blazing Zombies by Undead Guitars is released today on all the usual digital platforms, Spotify, iTunes, etc. on Scratch Plate Records, distributed by LabelWorx. Don’t forget to search for us under ‘Undead Guitars’, and please give us a follow.
If you’d like to visit any of the places we are online, our social media accounts, videos, blog etc here is a good place to find them all and follow us if you can: https://linktr.ee/Undead_Guitars
So, here it is, the (epic!) video for our new single Blazing Zombies, released today.
You can get the single on Bandcamp now, and it will be on all the usual digital channels.
Hallam: “Blazing Zombies is part raucously cathartic rant, stirred by so much anger, disaffection, and hatred in the air, and part personal reflection on our complicity in the systems that drive that division and disconnectedness – and the dreadful effects that it can have. A response to the everyday dissonance of extreme mundanity (‘please prepare to push your trolley off the end of the conveyor’ playing on repeat in a shopping mall) and apocalypse (‘please prepare for climate catastrophe’ playing on repeat on the news). At the end of the song the zombies express retrospective sorrow and regret at the havoc caused – a smidge of ironic humour and optimism survives! Happy Halloween!”
The official Blazing Zombies video was filmed in the Meka Space gallery and Black Lion in Bridlington and O’Riley’s Music Venue in Hull.
We had loads of fun making the video. We played our first gig as a four piece at O’Riley’s and invited the audience to dress as zombies for the live shots. Our fans certainly came up with the goods. You were terrifying!
‘Blazing Zombies’ by Undead Guitars, Scratch Plate Records Cat No SPR666 distributed by Label Worx. Available now on all the usual digital outlets and Bandcamp at the link: https://undeadguitars.bandcamp.com/track/blazing-zombies
Blazing Zombies: Hallam Lewis lead vocals and guitars, John Rowley guitar, Lou Duffy-Howard bass and backing vocals, Matt Higgins drums and percussion, written by Hallam Lewis. Recorded and produced by John Rowley and Undead Guitars. Drums recorded at O’Rileys Music Venue, Hull. Video produced by John Rowley, filmed by John Rowley, Simon Baxter and Richard Duffy-Howard at O’Rileys Hull, Meka Space Gallery and The Black Lion, Bridlington, East Yorkshire.
And if you’d like to, we’d be pleased if you’d subscribe to our blog, it’s free and you can do so by entering your email here:
It’s always been great for us up in Scotland. Cheers to Mike at Manic Pop Thrills in Fife for his feature & background to our name change, click on the image below and head to the review:
We are four founding members of Red Guitars, Hallam Lewis, John Rowley, Lou Duffy-Howard, and Matt Higgins and we are now called ‘Undead Guitars‘ 🎸🔥
We are currently working under our new name because one of our former singers, Jerry Kidd has trade marked the name ‘Red Guitars’ in his name only.
We clearly have equitable rights to the band name Red Guitars, but when we parted ways with Kidd in 2024, he registered it as a trade mark in his own name. Last December, when the four of us remaining Red Guitars released our single ‘Ho Ho Hum’ to raise funds for two refugee charities he used his registration to get our Bandcamp page suspended, and to prevent us releasing the single on other digital outlets. We challenged his registration with the Intellectual Property Office to the point of a tribunal case, and although we clearly have a good case, we have better things to do at the moment than to continue a protracted legal argument in a toxic situation. Life is too good and too short.
We have not given up being able to use the name Red Guitars in the future but for now we are having a great time together recording and preparing for more gigs. And we are delighted to be ‘Undead Guitars’ to release our upcoming new single and video ‘Blazing Zombies’ in October.
And if you’d like to, we’d be pleased if you’d subscribe to our blog, it’s free and you can do so by entering your email here:
Big thanks to everyone who came out to our Blazing Zombies video shoot and first gig as a four piece at the weekend. You all looked terrifying. We loved it!
After the video shoot we played our first gig as a four piece, with Hallam on lead vocals. And for this special first show Matt and John and I all sang lead on one song. We’ve had a great time putting this set together, and hope you enjoyed the new songs – as well as the old favourites and zombie songs. I wonder if we’ll get to play it again! Here are some photos of the night, taken by Richard Duffy-Howard and Mike Hood.
Great sound, lights and hospitality as ever at O’Rileys Music Venue, Hull, thanks to Darren and team. We had a blast. Without giving too much away, here are a few photos and screenshots from video. Can you spot any familiar zombies in the crowd?
Currently Temp Band Name Hal, John, Lou and Matt, find out more, visit our website home page here: https://redguitarsband.com/
And if you’d like to, we’d be pleased if you’d subscribe to our blog, it’s free and you can do so by entering your email here:
We are very pleased to be supporting the Refugee Council with the release of our single, ‘Ho Ho Hum’. The Refugee Council is a leading charity working with refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK.
Sung by Hallam Lewis, ‘Ho Ho Hum’ is a reflective observation on the struggles of migration for refugees, intertwined with his own recent experience of relocating from his home in South Africa back to the UK, when we reformed Red Guitars to play two UK tours.
We hope you enjoy ‘Ho Ho Hum’, and if you do enjoy listening please tell your friends and pass the word around to help support these important charities.
With best wishes from Hal, John, Matt and Lou.
The video has a strong message and some viewers may find the content upsetting. But here’s to more peaceful times to come.
Hallam Lewis, lead vocals and guitars John Rowley, guitars Lou Duffy-Howard, bass and backing vocals Matt Higgins, drums and percussion
We all have something to add to the backstory of the song …
Hallam Lewis: “The song ‘Ho Ho Hum’ evolved out of a piece of music (the main, opening guitar riff) that I’d had knocking about for some time, and was very fond of, and would often pick up and play in an idle moment. Funnily enough I’d given it the working title of Ho Hum quite early on, but it turned out to work very nicely in context – I think it was because the riff already had a flavour of marching on or ‘carrying on regardless’, which matched up well with the idea of travelling on persistently, despite many obstacles and indifference from others.
The idea to turn the song into one about the struggles of migration occurred to me one day whilst out walking the dog in Cape Town (where I was born, and returned to live, from 2006 until 2023). The opening lines – ‘we love and we leave where we come from, it’s deep in our breathing skin’ popped into my head, and much of the rest unfolded pretty quickly – though not without a good deal of tweaking, crafting and reassessment.
I’d had recent personal experience dealing with such impassive indifference, bordering on hostility and corruption, when dealing on many occasions with the ‘department of home affairs’ in South Africa, as my wife had to regularly apply for temporary visas in order to reside with me there. I obviously would not for a moment wish to draw any equivalence between this and the truly horrendous experience that it must be to be a genuine refugee, homeless and displaced by war or other momentous events. Nevertheless, I think the feeling of being at the whims of faceless bureaucracy when in a position of powerlessness is one many of us can relate to, and in turn this can help us relate to and imagine ourselves suffering the plight that asylum seekers and refugees have to deal with. There is so much in the news and media that tends to dehumanise and distance people in such a situation, so it felt like a good topic to attempt, in a small way, to ‘universalise’.
In retrospect, I had also read the excellent book ‘What is the What’ by Dave Eggars some years earlier, which tells the story of young people forced by war to leave their village in Sudan and walk for hundreds of miles, only to end up waiting hopelessly in limbo in refugee camps. The book has a warmly compassionate and uplifting side, but also conveys the rootlessness and ‘lostness’ inherent in any kind of migration. I have only realised recently that I was subconsciously drawing on this when I wrote the song.
I also added an extra ‘Ho’ to the title, when the line ‘hoping for room at the inn’ came to me, and I thought we could add in a little aside about the song being a Christmas one.
I have loved working with the band on the new material, and I’m really very happy with the way the song and the recording has continued to evolve and develop to this point. I think it’s sounding great, and I really hope that others will find it as engaging and enjoyable to listen to as I do.”
Matt Higgins: “Too often countries see refugees as a ‘problem’. It’s about time we adopted a bit more empathy and realise that a multi-cultural society enriches us all. I think in the West we sometimes don’t realise how lucky we are and that millions of innocent people around the world have had their lives turned upside down by the warmongers, the dictators and the self-seekers who just want power, control and money. Let’s all just be a bit kinder to each other. Is that so much to ask?”
Lou Duffy-Howard: “The difficulties of asylum seekers and refugees in humanitarian crisis is shocking, especially brought to light in the recent city riots.
I have worked with refugees in Hull over many years, initially when my husband Rich and I used to organise events and an annual free festival in a city park back in 1999. We met and played music together with Kurdish, Afgan, Syrian and African musicians who had recently sought refuge here. After that we both worked for projects in the city which helped refugees to integrate into life here and into work. Many people came with great skills, but had left all their paperwork, and qualification certificates behind, in their rush to escape. Rich and I went on to deliver a Heritage Lottery project about how it was for people coming here from war torn countries to find safety and start a new life. The stories people told us were heartbreaking and frightening. But some were heartwarming and uplifting. We played music together with the Kurdish friends we made, and found that music was the key to breaking language and culture barriers, and feeling welcome in a new land.”
John Rowley: “We live in turbulent and violent times. War, climate change, natural disasters and religious and gender persecution affect the lives of millions of people across the globe. This is the time of the biggest mass movement of people in history. At least 117 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. Among them are nearly 43 million refugees, around 40 per cent of whom are under the age of 18.
Now more than ever seemed like a good time for Red Guitars to put out their first new material in 40 years. Something to not just highlight the plight of these desperate people but to try to raise some money for the charities involved in helping people find a new home and employment so that they can have what we all expect from our lives.
The song ‘Ho Ho Hum’ is a gift to all our many fans and you can download it for free from our Bandcamp site. However, we ask that you donate a sum of money, no matter how small, to the Refugee Council or Breaking Barriers charities. While the Refugee Council provides direct support and advice on a range of services to asylum seekers and refugees who have fled conflict, violence and persecution in order to rebuild their lives here in the UK, Breaking Barriers is a specialist refugee employment charity which works to find suitable and meaningful work for refugees and their families.
All proceeds from this single will go directly to helping people establish a decent happy life while contributing to the wealth and diversity of this country.
Even if it’s just the cost of a coffee, please consider supporting this. And just as importantly, send it to your friends, and get the word out.”
“Anything is everything to people who have nothing.”
We are very grateful for all your thoughtful comments:
‘Such a moving video for such a powerful song. Thank you again, Red Guitars, for all you’re doing to raise awareness and support for refugees.’ Breaking Barriers
‘Thank you Red Guitars for your generous support and for using your music to shine a light on the struggles faced by refugees. “Ho Ho Hum” is a powerful reflection of resilience and hope, and we are deeply grateful for your kindness. Your efforts make a meaningful difference in the lives of the people we work with.’ Refugee Council
‘Huge congratulations to Red Guitars on the release of ‘Ho Ho Hum’. And thank you so much to you and your fans for your support. Every donation to Breaking Barriers will help refugees overcome the challenges they face to finding of meaningful work, and help them build new lives.’ Breaking Barriers
Incredible track. The patina of the passage of time on the voice, and the yearnings for ‘home’ on a personal level are deeply poignant … and then the context of the absolute horror of the reality of so many people’s lives … Wonderful sound on this song: refreshing clarity and space to let the instruments breathe; great bass; delicious sounding guitar. Worth the 38 year wait! Junkyard of Silenced Poets
‘Really great video you have for the song – very impactful.’ Chioma, Love Music Hate Racism
‘Good music & good people. This is their first new music since then I think & it’s no surprise it’s an effort at making a difference & supporting people in need.’ Tim Dredge
‘An incredible mix of frailty and heft sung and played with lyricism and underlying anger. Great track Red Guitars, and welcome back! Donation done.’ Bruce Woodcock
‘What a fantastic return and what a heartfelt lyric: can’t wait for the album.’ Nick Tranmer
‘Man, I really enjoyed that song: the high intensity parts contrasted with the quieter parts really pulled me into the song and kept me there! Thanks for sharing it. I will go check out those charities you mention too.’ Chuck E Bluesky
‘Brilliant. Terrific song from Red Guitars with a powerful message. In the 3rd decade of the 21st century we have learned very little. Needs to be heard far and wide in these troubled times.’ Tony Goodger
‘A beautiful song and Hallam’s vocal conveys the meaning of the song perfectly. Fantastic to hear new music from you. Have donated to both charities as they both do brilliant work and wishing you all the very best for the new era of the band.’ Skylla Ceto
‘A beautiful & poignant song. Great to hear, & great to hear you are still creating tunes. Best wishes to yuz all.’ Kent
‘Ohhh, Its like meeting up with a long lost best friend. What a warm beautiful vibe, & such an important message! I could listen to that all day ( maybe I will). Fantastic composition Hal & the rest of you still sound SO great too.’ (donation incoming)
‘Its such a lovely tune/composition, really fantastic & Hals lyrics are very touching.’ Manic Bluesky
‘At last, new music from the Red Guitars. A social conscience and a beautiful melody.’ Mike Smith
‘That’s an absolute banger of a track.’ Ian Halstead
‘Made the donation to breaking barriers. A Christmas present to myself (thanks all of you x)’ Captain Manic
‘A beautiful and moving new song. So fitting for Christmas time.’ Janice Van Tonder
‘I’ve rarely ever been interested in bands that reform just to play their old songs; however, when a re-formed band starts writing new material, that makes a world of difference to me. Well done, Red Guitars.’ Andy Roe
‘Simply wonderful. Hallam’s voice seems a perfect match to the sentiments of his lyrics, and I love how the music ebbs and flows to reflect the full range of emotions the subject evokes. A new classic in the Red Guitars songbook!’ Tim Bourne
‘Brilliant and very powerful.’ Fred McNeill Paisley Punk Scene
‘A beautiful and contemplative piece of music that articulates the struggles of refugees around the world.’ Tim Dalton Music Events
‘The song is fantastic and just what we need right now.’ Simon Bristow, Editor The Hull Story
‘Donation duly sent. Well done guys. Such a powerful song/video.’ Clive Parkinson
‘Cracking song and very moving vid. Will share around!’ Tribes of Europe
‘Brilliant, love it, Hallam’s voice is a great fit.’ Holy Gasoline
‘A touching & wonderful song about the desperate plight of Refugees & all they ask in return for this gift is that you support the charities . . . I have, can you?’ Capt.HB
‘Great to see the new single. Many happy times living in Hull 83/84 and seeing the band locally and even drove up to Glasgow to see them at a club on Sauchiehall Street and even still have a bootleg cassette from Retford Porterhouse gig. Thanks for many wonderful memories.’ Viv Russell
‘Great track a bit of a slow burner and poignant lyrics as well. Love it.’ Paul Hiscoe
‘The Red Guitars and us go way back, and they’ve just announced the release of their first new song since 1986! It’s a charity single and it’s sort of a Christmas single, too. It’s definitely not a darkwave single, but it IS a free BandCamp download, and a fine video, too. Most importantly, it’s all wrapped around a VERY good cause: a request that you donate in support of refugees. The links for donations to the Refugee Council and to Breaking Barriers are in the description below the YouTube video. Listen, watch, enjoy, share, but most importantly, show your support for this worthiest of causes’. Lunar Paths
‘If refugees needed an anthem, well this is it.’ Ian H
‘We’ve been so thrilled by the generosity of Red Guitars fans, and we love the perspective each member of the band brings to Ho Ho Hum’s backstory. On behalf of Breaking Barriers’ team and the refugees we work with across the UK, thank you so much to everyone who has downloaded and donated!’ Breaking Barriers
Photo by Richard Duffy-Howard
And if you’d like to, we’d be pleased if you’d subscribe to our blog, it’s free and you can do so here:
We are very pleased to be supporting Breaking Barriers with the release of our single, ‘Ho Ho Hum’. Breaking Barriers do invaluable charitable work to help refugees access meaningful employment and build a new life.
Sung by Hallam Lewis, ‘Ho Ho Hum’ is a reflective observation on the struggles of migration for refugees, intertwined with his own recent experience of relocating from his home in South Africa back to the UK, when we reformed Red Guitars to play two UK tours.
We hope you enjoy ‘Ho Ho Hum’, and if you do enjoy listening please tell your friends and pass the word around to help support these important charities.
With best wishes from Hal, John, Matt and Lou.
The video has a strong message and some viewers may find the content upsetting. But here’s to more peaceful times to come.
Hallam Lewis, lead vocals and guitars John Rowley, guitars Lou Duffy-Howard, bass and backing vocals Matt Higgins, drums and percussion
We all have something to add to the backstory of the song …
Hallam Lewis: “The song ‘Ho Ho Hum’ evolved out of a piece of music (the main, opening guitar riff) that I’d had knocking about for some time, and was very fond of, and would often pick up and play in an idle moment. Funnily enough I’d given it the working title of Ho Hum quite early on, but it turned out to work very nicely in context – I think it was because the riff already had a flavour of marching on or ‘carrying on regardless’, which matched up well with the idea of travelling on persistently, despite many obstacles and indifference from others.
The idea to turn the song into one about the struggles of migration occurred to me one day whilst out walking the dog in Cape Town (where I was born, and returned to live, from 2006 until 2023). The opening lines – ‘we love and we leave where we come from, it’s deep in our breathing skin’ popped into my head, and much of the rest unfolded pretty quickly – though not without a good deal of tweaking, crafting and reassessment.
I’d had recent personal experience dealing with such impassive indifference, bordering on hostility and corruption, when dealing on many occasions with the ‘department of home affairs’ in South Africa, as my wife had to regularly apply for temporary visas in order to reside with me there. I obviously would not for a moment wish to draw any equivalence between this and the truly horrendous experience that it must be to be a genuine refugee, homeless and displaced by war or other momentous events. Nevertheless, I think the feeling of being at the whims of faceless bureaucracy when in a position of powerlessness is one many of us can relate to, and in turn this can help us relate to and imagine ourselves suffering the plight that asylum seekers and refugees have to deal with. There is so much in the news and media that tends to dehumanise and distance people in such a situation, so it felt like a good topic to attempt, in a small way, to ‘universalise’.
In retrospect, I had also read the excellent book ‘What is the What’ by Dave Eggars some years earlier, which tells the story of young people forced by war to leave their village in Sudan and walk for hundreds of miles, only to end up waiting hopelessly in limbo in refugee camps. The book has a warmly compassionate and uplifting side, but also conveys the rootlessness and ‘lostness’ inherent in any kind of migration. I have only realised recently that I was subconsciously drawing on this when I wrote the song.
I also added an extra ‘Ho’ to the title, when the line ‘hoping for room at the inn’ came to me, and I thought we could add in a little aside about the song being a Christmas one.
I have loved working with the band on the new material, and I’m really very happy with the way the song and the recording has continued to evolve and develop to this point. I think it’s sounding great, and I really hope that others will find it as engaging and enjoyable to listen to as I do.”
Matt Higgins: “Too often countries see refugees as a ‘problem’. It’s about time we adopted a bit more empathy and realise that a multi-cultural society enriches us all. I think in the West we sometimes don’t realise how lucky we are and that millions of innocent people around the world have had their lives turned upside down by the warmongers, the dictators and the self-seekers who just want power, control and money. Let’s all just be a bit kinder to each other. Is that so much to ask?”
Lou Duffy-Howard: “The difficulties of asylum seekers and refugees in humanitarian crisis is shocking, especially brought to light in the recent city riots.
I have worked with refugees in Hull over many years, initially when my husband Rich and I used to organise events and an annual free festival in a city park back in 1999. We met and played music together with Kurdish, Afgan, Syrian and African musicians who had recently sought refuge here. After that we both worked for projects in the city which helped refugees to integrate into life here and into work. Many people came with great skills, but had left all their paperwork, and qualification certificates behind, in their rush to escape. Rich and I went on to deliver a Heritage Lottery project about how it was for people coming here from war torn countries to find safety and start a new life. The stories people told us were heartbreaking and frightening. But some were heartwarming and uplifting. We played music together with the Kurdish friends we made, and found that music was the key to breaking language and culture barriers, and feeling welcome in a new land.”
John Rowley: “We live in turbulent and violent times. War, climate change, natural disasters and religious and gender persecution affect the lives of millions of people across the globe. This is the time of the biggest mass movement of people in history. At least 117 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. Among them are nearly 43 million refugees, around 40 per cent of whom are under the age of 18.
Now more than ever seemed like a good time for Red Guitars to put out their first new material in 40 years. Something to not just highlight the plight of these desperate people but to try to raise some money for the charities involved in helping people find a new home and employment so that they can have what we all expect from our lives.
The song ‘Ho Ho Hum’ is a gift to all our many fans and you can download it for free from our Bandcamp site. However, we ask that you donate a sum of money, no matter how small, to the Refugee Council or Breaking Barriers charities. While the Refugee Council provides direct support and advice on a range of services to asylum seekers and refugees who have fled conflict, violence and persecution in order to rebuild their lives here in the UK, Breaking Barriers is a specialist refugee employment charity which works to find suitable and meaningful work for refugees and their families.
All proceeds from this single will go directly to helping people establish a decent happy life while contributing to the wealth and diversity of this country.
Even if it’s just the cost of a coffee, please consider supporting this. And just as importantly, send it to your friends, and get the word out.”
“Anything is everything to people who have nothing.”
We are very grateful for all your thoughtful comments:
‘Such a moving video for such a powerful song. Thank you again, Red Guitars, for all you’re doing to raise awareness and support for refugees.’ Breaking Barriers
‘Thank you Red Guitars for your generous support and for using your music to shine a light on the struggles faced by refugees. “Ho Ho Hum” is a powerful reflection of resilience and hope, and we are deeply grateful for your kindness. Your efforts make a meaningful difference in the lives of the people we work with.’ Refugee Council
‘Huge congratulations to Red Guitars on the release of ‘Ho Ho Hum’. And thank you so much to you and your fans for your support. Every donation to Breaking Barriers will help refugees overcome the challenges they face to finding of meaningful work, and help them build new lives.’ Breaking Barriers
Incredible track. The patina of the passage of time on the voice, and the yearnings for ‘home’ on a personal level are deeply poignant … and then the context of the absolute horror of the reality of so many people’s lives … Wonderful sound on this song: refreshing clarity and space to let the instruments breathe; great bass; delicious sounding guitar. Worth the 38 year wait! Junkyard of Silenced Poets
‘Really great video you have for the song – very impactful.’ Chioma, Love Music Hate Racism
‘Good music & good people. This is their first new music since then I think & it’s no surprise it’s an effort at making a difference & supporting people in need.’ Tim Dredge
‘An incredible mix of frailty and heft sung and played with lyricism and underlying anger. Great track Red Guitars, and welcome back! Donation done.’ Bruce Woodcock
‘What a fantastic return and what a heartfelt lyric: can’t wait for the album.’ Nick Tranmer
‘Man, I really enjoyed that song: the high intensity parts contrasted with the quieter parts really pulled me into the song and kept me there! Thanks for sharing it. I will go check out those charities you mention too.’ Chuck E Bluesky
‘Brilliant. Terrific song from Red Guitars with a powerful message. In the 3rd decade of the 21st century we have learned very little. Needs to be heard far and wide in these troubled times.’ Tony Goodger
‘A beautiful song and Hallam’s vocal conveys the meaning of the song perfectly. Fantastic to hear new music from you. Have donated to both charities as they both do brilliant work and wishing you all the very best for the new era of the band.’ Skylla Ceto
‘A beautiful & poignant song. Great to hear, & great to hear you are still creating tunes. Best wishes to yuz all.’ Kent
‘Ohhh, Its like meeting up with a long lost best friend. What a warm beautiful vibe, & such an important message! I could listen to that all day ( maybe I will). Fantastic composition Hal & the rest of you still sound SO great too.’ (donation incoming)
‘Its such a lovely tune/composition, really fantastic & Hals lyrics are very touching.’ Manic Bluesky
‘At last, new music from the Red Guitars. A social conscience and a beautiful melody.’ Mike Smith
‘That’s an absolute banger of a track.’ Ian Halstead
‘Made the donation to breaking barriers. A Christmas present to myself (thanks all of you x)’ Captain Manic
‘A beautiful and moving new song. So fitting for Christmas time.’ Janice Van Tonder
‘I’ve rarely ever been interested in bands that reform just to play their old songs; however, when a re-formed band starts writing new material, that makes a world of difference to me. Well done, Red Guitars.’ Andy Roe
‘Simply wonderful. Hallam’s voice seems a perfect match to the sentiments of his lyrics, and I love how the music ebbs and flows to reflect the full range of emotions the subject evokes. A new classic in the Red Guitars songbook!’ Tim Bourne
‘Brilliant and very powerful.’ Fred McNeill Paisley Punk Scene
‘A beautiful and contemplative piece of music that articulates the struggles of refugees around the world.’ Tim Dalton Music Events
‘The song is fantastic and just what we need right now.’ Simon Bristow, Editor The Hull Story
‘Donation duly sent. Well done guys. Such a powerful song/video.’ Clive Parkinson
‘Cracking song and very moving vid. Will share around!’ Tribes of Europe
‘Brilliant, love it, Hallam’s voice is a great fit.’ Holy Gasoline
‘A touching & wonderful song about the desperate plight of Refugees & all they ask in return for this gift is that you support the charities . . . I have, can you?’ Capt.HB
‘Great to see the new single. Many happy times living in Hull 83/84 and seeing the band locally and even drove up to Glasgow to see them at a club on Sauchiehall Street and even still have a bootleg cassette from Retford Porterhouse gig. Thanks for many wonderful memories.’ Viv Russell
‘Great track a bit of a slow burner and poignant lyrics as well. Love it.’ Paul Hiscoe
‘The Red Guitars and us go way back, and they’ve just announced the release of their first new song since 1986! It’s a charity single and it’s sort of a Christmas single, too. It’s definitely not a darkwave single, but it IS a free BandCamp download, and a fine video, too. Most importantly, it’s all wrapped around a VERY good cause: a request that you donate in support of refugees. The links for donations to the Refugee Council and to Breaking Barriers are in the description below the YouTube video. Listen, watch, enjoy, share, but most importantly, show your support for this worthiest of causes’. Lunar Paths
‘If refugees needed an anthem, well this is it.’ Ian H
‘We’ve been so thrilled by the generosity of Red Guitars fans, and we love the perspective each member of the band brings to Ho Ho Hum’s backstory. On behalf of Breaking Barriers’ team and the refugees we work with across the UK, thank you so much to everyone who has downloaded and donated!’ Breaking Barriers
Photo by Richard Duffy-Howard
And if you’d like to, we’d be pleased if you’d subscribe to our blog, it’s free and you can do so here:
Here it is, our new single, out today. ‘Ho Ho Hum’ is our first brand new recording since 1986, written and sung by Hallam Lewis, it is a reflective observation on the struggles of migration for refugees, intertwined with his own recent experience of relocating from his home in South Africa back to the UK, when we reformed to play two UK tours.
Our new single ‘Ho Ho Hum’, our first since 1986 is released on December 1st 2024 and on all the usual digital platforms from January 24th 2025. The single is free to download at the link https://undeadguitars.bandcamp.com/ but we ask you to make a donation to either of the refugee support charities that we are working with, Breaking Barriers or the Refugee Council.
The video has a strong message and some viewers may find the content upsetting. But here’s to more peaceful times to come.
We hope you enjoy ‘Ho Ho Hum’, and if you do enjoy listening please tell your friends and pass the word around to help support these important charities.
John Rowley, Lou Duffy-Howard, Hallam Lewis and Matt Higgins. Photo by Richard Duffy-Howard
We all have something to add to the backstory of the song …
Hallam Lewis: “The song ‘Ho Ho Hum’ evolved out of a piece of music (the main, opening guitar riff) that I’d had knocking about for some time, and was very fond of, and would often pick up and play in an idle moment. Funnily enough I’d given it the working title of Ho Hum quite early on, but it turned out to work very nicely in context – I think it was because the riff already had a flavour of marching on or ‘carrying on regardless’, which matched up well with the idea of travelling on persistently, despite many obstacles and indifference from others.
The idea to turn the song into one about the struggles of migration occurred to me one day whilst out walking the dog in Cape Town (where I was born, and returned to live, from 2006 until 2023). The opening lines – ‘we love and we leave where we come from, it’s deep in our breathing skin’ popped into my head, and much of the rest unfolded pretty quickly – though not without a good deal of tweaking, crafting and reassessment.
I’d had recent personal experience dealing with such impassive indifference, bordering on hostility and corruption, when dealing on many occasions with the ‘department of home affairs’ in South Africa, as my wife had to regularly apply for temporary visas in order to reside with me there. I obviously would not for a moment wish to draw any equivalence between this and the truly horrendous experience that it must be to be a genuine refugee, homeless and displaced by war or other momentous events. Nevertheless, I think the feeling of being at the whims of faceless bureaucracy when in a position of powerlessness is one many of us can relate to, and in turn this can help us relate to and imagine ourselves suffering the plight that asylum seekers and refugees have to deal with. There is so much in the news and media that tends to dehumanise and distance people in such a situation, so it felt like a good topic to attempt, in a small way, to ‘universalise’.
In retrospect, I had also read the excellent book ‘What is the What’ by Dave Eggars some years earlier, which tells the story of young people forced by war to leave their village in Sudan and walk for hundreds of miles, only to end up waiting hopelessly in limbo in refugee camps. The book has a warmly compassionate and uplifting side, but also conveys the rootlessness and ‘lostness’ inherent in any kind of migration. I have only realised recently that I was subconsciously drawing on this when I wrote the song.
I also added an extra ‘Ho’ to the title, when the line ‘hoping for room at the inn’ came to me, and I thought we could add in a little aside about the song being a Christmas one.
I have loved working with the band on the new material, and I’m really very happy with the way the song and the recording has continued to evolve and develop to this point. I think it’s sounding great, and I really hope that others will find it as engaging and enjoyable to listen to as I do.”
Matt Higgins: “Too often countries see refugees as a ‘problem’. It’s about time we adopted a bit more empathy and realise that a multi-cultural society enriches us all. I think in the West we sometimes don’t realise how lucky we are and that millions of innocent people around the world have had their lives turned upside down by the warmongers, the dictators and the self-seekers who just want power, control and money. Let’s all just be a bit kinder to each other. Is that so much to ask?”
Lou Duffy-Howard: “The difficulties of asylum seekers and refugees in humanitarian crisis is shocking, especially brought to light in the recent city riots.
I have worked with refugees in Hull over many years, initially when my husband Rich and I used to organise events and an annual free festival in a city park back in 1999. We met and played music together with Kurdish, Afgan, Syrian and African musicians who had recently sought refuge here. After that we both worked for projects in the city which helped refugees to integrate into life here and into work. Many people came with great skills, but had left all their paperwork, and qualification certificates behind, in their rush to escape. Rich and I went on to deliver a Heritage Lottery project about how it was for people coming here from war torn countries to find safety and start a new life. The stories people told us were heartbreaking and frightening. But some were heartwarming and uplifting. We played music together with the Kurdish friends we made, and found that music was the key to breaking language and culture barriers, and feeling welcome in a new land.”
John Rowley: “We live in turbulent and violent times. War, climate change, natural disasters and religious and gender persecution affect the lives of millions of people across the globe. This is the time of the biggest mass movement of people in history. At least 117 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. Among them are nearly 43 million refugees, around 40 per cent of whom are under the age of 18.
Now more than ever seemed like a good time for Red Guitars to put out their first new material in 40 years. Something to not just highlight the plight of these desperate people but to try to raise some money for the charities involved in helping people find a new home and employment so that they can have what we all expect from our lives.
The song ‘Ho Ho Hum’ is a gift to all our many fans and you can download it for free from our Bandcamp site. However, we ask that you donate a sum of money, no matter how small, to the Refugee Council or Breaking Barriers charities. While the Refugee Council provides direct support and advice on a range of services to asylum seekers and refugees who have fled conflict, violence and persecution in order to rebuild their lives here in the UK, Breaking Barriers is a specialist refugee employment charity which works to find suitable and meaningful work for refugees and their families.
All proceeds from this single will go directly to helping people establish a decent happy life while contributing to the wealth and diversity of this country.
Even if it’s just the cost of a coffee, please consider supporting this. And just as importantly, send it to your friends, and get the word out.”
“Anything is everything to people who have nothing.”
Photo by Richard Duffy-Howard
Hallam Lewis, lead vocals and guitars John Rowley, guitars Lou Duffy-Howard, bass and backing vocals Matt Higgins, drums and percussion
‘Ho Ho Hum’ is written by Hallam Lewis, arranged and recorded by the band
And if you’d like to, we’d be pleased if you’d subscribe to our blog, it’s free and you can do so here:
More records are arriving, thanks for your photos everyone. And thanks to London Peaky webzine for this fab comment:
“Just listening to a pre-release copy of Red Guitars extended 2023 remix of ‘Good Technology.’ And I don’t believe what I’ve heard. By a country mile, one of the greatest pieces of music I’ve heard in YEARS.” London Peaky
They are selling fast – good job we saved a box for Saturday’s launch gig!
In 1983 we went into Fairview Studio, owned by Keith Herd, where we recorded all our singles and album Slow to Fade. This was so exciting for all of us – a life changing time. Yesterday, 40 years on we had a lovely afternoon with Keith – a great catch up over pizza and cake in his garden in the sunshine. Here we are in Keith’s mastering studio, where we listened to music and looked through the original 1983 studio diary.
Whenever anyone in the music biz wanted to meet up we always invited them up to Hull. We spotted visits from Arista and Brian Morrison & Dick Leahy in the diary. Needless to say we weren’t impressed by any of them. The 40th anniversary remix of Good Technology is released on our own Self Drive label.
Good Technology 2023 – pre order your copy now!
June 24th marks 40 years since Good Technology was released. We are issuing a limited edition red vinyl 12” extended remix to celebrate the anniversary. A radio edit and remix of second single “Fact” is included along with a digital download of the tracks.
and please follow us there.
