Based in Brighton, Sussex, England, Liberty Cage
were formed as the career of celebrated indie/roots band Men They
Couldn’t Hang stalled in 1991. From that group, songwriters Phil ‘Swill’
Odgers (vocals/guitar) and Paul Simmonds (guitar) recruited Paul’s
brother Neil Simmonds (bass) and ‘just decided to go into a studio in
Brighton and see what happened’. After multi-instrumentalist Dave Kent
and former Tender Trap drummer Simon Lomond joined, Liberty Cage quickly
established a strong reputation for their live shows - an aptitude they
shared with their former incarnation. In Paul Simmonds and Odgers they
similarly possessed two talented lyricists, capable of combining folky
humanism with caustic political tracts. This was confirmed by the May
1994 release of Sleep Of The Just, a self-produced and financed album
recorded during ‘studio down-time’. Though strong early demo material
such as ‘This Side Of The Street’ had been jettisoned, new songs such as
‘Mercy Of The Guards’ and ‘Fire Below’ ably compensated. Though the
songs were played with punk ferocity, the album indelibly cast Liberty
Cage as a folk band, just as the Men They Couldn’t Hang had been before
them. As Paul Simmonds conceded: ‘The best folk music will have
something to say in 100 years when pop fads become sociologist’s
footnotes and clothes to laugh at.’