Satire
The Marsh Family have pioneered a peculiar brand of topical musical satire, raising smiles (and sometimes hackles) about political events, personalities, and subjects. They disagree with the idea that children shouldn’t be involved in politics, and try to stay open-minded about the objects of their songs – even though the collapse of integrity and governmental competence in recent years has inevitably slanted much of the content.
They started 2024 with songs about dubious Honours Lists and the Postmasters Scandal, and have since poked fun at both the Tory and Labour leadership. Their latest satires took on questions of the Freedom of the Press, the London Mayoral Campaign, and General Election topics, accruing over 2.5 million views in May and June 2024. They have sung songs about climate change, vaccination, politicians’ comings and (mostly) goings, pandemics, journalism, culture war topics, inflation, sewage, international conflicts, and more besides. Many of the most popular satires are relyriced adapations of existing songs – though some draw on folk, Christmas, or original writing. The kids always have a veto on what is sung about, and there is always a competition over who gets the funniest lines.
Besides accruing some twenty million views in the last year (including on Boris Johnson’s resignation, Gary Lineker’s battle with the BBC, and Rishi Sunak’s U-turn on climate policies) – their songs have featured or been talked about in political and satirical podcasts such as Americast (BBC Sounds), The Rest Is Politics (Alastair Campbell), been a commonplace ‘pudding’ on The Trawl (Marina Purkiss & Gemma Forte), and The Skewer (Jon Holmes). They have also featured on Alex Jones’s InfoWars, been blocked by James O’Brien, and aggravated a number of GB News presenters.
Braverman Shanties
The ‘trilogy’ of shanties, based on The Wellerman, celebrating the departure of Home Secretary Suella Braverman and her divisive rhetoric, have now accrued upwards of 12 million views across all platforms. They include “Gone” (Oct 22), “Back” (Nov 22), “Wrong” (Sep 23), and “Sacked” (Nov 23).
Presidential Ages
This song addressed the advanced ages of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the two front-runners as presidential candidates for 2024.
Neverending Dorries
This acapella holiday adaptation of “The Neverending Story” about the failure to resign of former Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries, reached 1.4 million views and featured on a BBC Radio Documentary about the MP.