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Asian Dub Foundation and Stewart Lee’s new single ‘Comin’ Over Here’ is still in race to be Brexit Number One.
A campaign was launched earlier this month (December 12) in a bid to get the song to Number One when the Brexit transition period ends, with 100% of the band’s share of sales going to frontline refugee and migrant support groups.
The campaign urges fans to purchase the track between 00:01am GMT on Christmas Day (December 25) and 23.59pm GMT on New Year’s Eve (December 31). Should efforts prove successful, the single will be the Number One the next day: the first day the UK leaves the EU.
“Buying a download from Amazon/iTunes will count more on the chart than streaming it, but do stream the song via Spotify/Apple Music/Deezer etc too as it all helps,” the group wrote on Facebook. “The chart will be announced on 1st January. Download links will be made available on Christmas Day.
“Hate Brexit? Then buy this track…get your friends to buy this track…let’s put the bigots into their place.”
As of today (December 30), ‘Comin’ Over Here’ is Number One on the Amazon chart and Number Two on the iTunes chart. You can help the track be Brexit Number One by purchasing it here.
Watch the track’s video below:
The political Hackney band first shared ‘Comin’ Over Here’ back in September, featuring Lee’s words from his now legendary UKIP sketch from his Comedy Vehicle show.
His skit lampoons the words of former party leader Paul Nuttall, and the old xenophobic cliche of different nationalities “coming over here”. In his surrealist bit, he traces it back to Anglo-Saxon immigrants and even recites the poem ‘The Wanderer’ from the era.
Speaking to NME, Lee said: “A lot of people feel very alienated by a lot of the political discourse at the moment and a lot of people have been told they don’t belong, so it’s a routine that allows people to laugh at that idea.
“There’s a bit in the middle that’s from an Anglo-Saxon poem that’s over 1,000-years-old and no one knows who wrote it. I love the fact that it’s ended up on a record in the year 2020, in a way that whoever wrote it could never have dreamed of.”
The comedian added that now was a fitting time to release the track, with the UK a month away from the end of the Brexit transition period.
“Every time Brexit is in the news, violence against racial minorities and people from the EU who are working here increases. One of my Polish friends has told her kids not to sit on the top deck of the bus any more. While I have made the joke that everyone who voted for Brexit were racists and cunts, for a lot of people even on the left it was a political thing about not being part of the federation.”
He added: “For a lot of people it’s not about racism. However, whatever happens in Brexit, it won’t change what’s happening in this song. You know, what’s the definition of Britishness? A lot of Asian Dub Foundation are Black and British, they’ve watched that argument play out in front of them and they’d have been at the sharp end of it when things were very different in the ‘70s and ‘80s.”
Released earlier this year as part of the cult comedy band’s July album ‘Kunts Punk In Your Face’, the song received the backing of Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker.
The last-minute push to get it to the top of the Christmas charts was in response to the Prime Minister’s U-turn on coronavirus Christmas restrictions.
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