Having spent over 30 years making music to widespread critical acclaim Merseyside hero Ian Prowse announces his brand-new album, ‘No Names,’ arriving July 3rd via Learpholl Music. He chatted to us about the new album:
You have your new album ‘No Names’ released on Friday 3rd July 2026. How did you want to approach the making of the album?
It was all change for this one really, my producer of 25 years, Tony Kiley, had decided to retire from studio work so for a few weeks I was in a panic thinking I’d never get these songs out.
He told me straight, ‘If you don’t know how you should sound by now you should be taken out the back and shot’.
Where did you record the album and who produced it?
So this is the first album I’ve co-produced with our long standing engineer Paul Thompson, Paul is from Ellesmere Port too so we have a lot in common. We mainly did it in Sort Studios in Liverpool, Room 0 there is completely noise insulated, so we set up there. We also had a fabulous day recording the girls in Abbey Road and a day in Leeds Becket Studio 1 recording the She Sings Wakefield Women’s Choir.
Do you have any interesting, funny or memorable stories from the recording sessions?
On the opening day of recording, we had the 20-piece women’s choir in to sing on ‘Keynote Speech’, in at the deep end for my first day as a producer. I was wondering how Paul would be as an untested co-producer too. After the first run through, he came running out of the control room down the stairs into the sound room and told them all off, ‘You’re singing a protest song! Sing it like you mean it FFS!’.
I thought, ‘We’re gonna be alright here, he’s all over it!’.
Did you use any particular instruments, microphones, recording equipment to help you get a particular sound/tone for the record?
My mind was completely focused on the songs, structures, edits, melodies, and instrumentation. The technical side I totally left to Paul, and it worked a treat. I find the technical talk irritating, there’s no room in my head for all that, I’m consumed by the actual song.
Having said that we used my Rickenbacker 330 to great effect for the first time on this record.
Which of your new album tracks hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?
A) The horn lick during Rendezvous Point is supposed to convey soulful joy for the love of my daughter and The Clash.
B) To The Letter the opening song seethes quite a bit, nothing worse than artists who use socialism as a marketing tool.
C) Stand Your Ground is a love letter to my oldest friends that we may always go to the pub and talk rubbish.
Who were the musicians who were on the album with you?
Significantly we got Elvis Costello singing on The Cleaner, he croons wonderfully at the intro and outro. Then a full circle was made for me when Steve Wickham agreed to play his beautiful fiddle Rendezvous Point, Steve’s music changed my musical life when I first heard Fisherman’s Blues. There’s a song called When Bobby Was Alive which was co-written with my Celtic soul brother Damien Dempsey, that’s like nothing I’ve ever done before.
Does the album’s title have a specific meaning/significance?
Yes, No Names refers specifically to the duality of authority where I’m from. The law of the land and the law of the street. ‘No Names’ was an instruction that went around the town following an incident of extreme violence, a kind of ‘Loose lips sinks ships’, should the authorities come asking.
Learning how to swerve violence is a skill we all learned in Ellesmere Port.
Was it a difficult album to write?
They’re all difficult to write; it’s very, very hard to come up with 11 strong, original songs. You need patience, luck and to keep your musical motor running at all times. It’s an incredibly odd way to make a living, the song controls you, not you it.
Who designed the album artwork?
Andy Bolter has done another amazing job, my renaissance has gone hand in hand with his incredibly thoughtful visuals.
One of the tracks is ‘Keynote Speech’. What was the story/inspiration behind the track?
Like an angry ‘Give Peace a Chance’, so we recorded it like Lennon did, live as hell. I used Springsteen’s Born in the USA maxim, give it a huge singalong chorus and you’ll be able to sneak anything into the verses. Name me another song that refers to both period poverty and Gaza?
Do you have any live dates planned in the UK/Europe in 2026?
We are taking the full band out all over the UK & Ireland in the autumn, we can’t wait.
