Make
Hay Not War (Dead From The Waist Down)
The Wurzels
EMI
Gold
Release
Date: 17 Mar 2003
Following
the release of Never Mind the Bullocks,
Ere's The Wurzels in 2002, The Wurzels
planned to release another single off the album (two
previous singles on the album Don't Look Back In
Anger and Come On Santa! had been release
prior to the album's release). They opted for their
re-work of the Catatonia song Make Hay Not War (Dead
From The Waist Down), timing the release to take
advantage of the strong anti-war feeling at the time.
When
USA and UK had decided to pursue the invasion of Iraq,
there was worldwide opposition to the invasion. On 15th
February 2003, the Stop The War Campaign protest attracted
millions of protestors across the world. The Wurzels
planned to release the single 'in support of the Anti-War
Movement' (as seen on the artwork below) with the release
dated planned for 17th March.
However,
17th March was also the date that US President Bush
gave the Iraqi leadership a 48-hour deadline to surrender;
and on 20th March, British and Amercian troops invaded
Iraq. It was decided that releasing an anti-war single
during the week that the war started might backfire,
and so the single release was pulled.
So
there never was a release of the single, and we have
no indication of what other tracks would have made up
the release. However, EMI had already pressed and distributed
publicity versions, an official EMI Gold UK 1-track
CD-R demo of the release which was issued exclusively
to reviewers and radio stations. It had a custom printed
sleeve and titled disc, and is already becoming highly
collectable.
1.
Make Hay Not War (Dead From The Waist Down) |