Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. – The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager

Sam Duckworth is a very varied man. Although he’s probably fed up with it already, many have compared him to fellow Essex acoustic performer Billy Bragg due to his politcal aspirations. Comparisons have also been drawn with wide-ranging bands such as Blur, Lemon Jelly and At The Drive In. He used to front a metal band. He certainly isn’t easy to pin down to a genre.

His aspirations at the moment though focus on his alter-ego, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly – a name which comes from a sub-heading in a spectrum magazine piece, detailing the solution for the latest Batman game. The music itself its a little more straight forward, at least on the outside. The debut album, The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager, recorded mostly in his bedroom with just him, a guitar and his Laptop, is an album of acoustic brilliance.

Parts of it are cute, and deliberately so. ‘Lighthouse Keeper’ tells a story of growing up in Southend-on-Sea and the fond memories that your home evokes; and stories of following your dreams run through the Moby Dick inspired ‘Call Me Ishmael’.

But there is another side to Duckworth, the one which provoked the Billy Bragg comparisons. He is famed for his run-ins with the BNP after a racist attack in a nightclub two years ago, leading to his support for the Love Music Hate Racism campaign that is going from strength to strength.

The album too, reveals a more political stance. ‘Glass Houses’ in particular highlights his fight with the BNP with cutting lyrics and cynicism that you’d struggle to answer back to. Then there’s ‘Whitewash is Brainwash’, a rant against global corporations making Britain a sterile place to live. ‘I went to Ikea today / It didn’t change my life / Yet everyone in my street is going Scandinavian’ he deplores. You can’t really argue with that either.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly isn’t just about protest songs though. You only have to listen to the heartfelt confusion surrounding relationship on ‘War of the Worlds’ to understand that. This is a man that allegedly played over 200 gigs all over the UK last year, often playing late night gigs amongst fans and crashing on sofas and floors. It’s no surprised he’s developed a good sense of the state that our country is in.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly will round off a tremendous twelve months with four celebratory appearances at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. Less than a year since his debut single on Atlantic Records, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, otherwise known as 21 year old Sam Duckworth, will perform high profile slots on the Other, John Peel, Leftfield and Park stages over the three days.

Saturday will see Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly perform three shows. He’ll kick off his Glastonbury on Love Music Hate Racism’s Leftfield Stage where he’ll be joined by a some special guests, including Killa Kela and Plan B (‘Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly & Friends’ ), before performing with full band in the second headline slot on The John Peel Stage and then rounding off Saturday by joining Damon Albarn’s Africa Express on The Park Stage. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly will then perform a mid afternoon show with full band on The Other Stage on the final day of the festival.

The shows will see Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly performing tracks from his critically acclaimed, silver-certified debut album ‘ The Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager’ and also previewing brand new material. And with NME Awards-nominated artist’s history of spontaneous gigging and ‘have guitar, will play’ attitude, there are sure to be a few more surprises in store at Worthy Farm.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly will perform on the following stages:

SATURDAY
7pm – Leftfield Stage (‘Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly & Friends’)
10pm – John Peel Stage (Love Music Hate Racism)
Midnight – The Park Stage (Africa Express)

SUNDAY
3.40pm – The Other Stage