Things won’t magically go back to ‘normal’ of course; pubs will reopen offering only indoor table service, and establishment owners will be asked to keep a record of customer details in aid of contact tracing. But one musician who we can thank for keeping us sane during the thirteen weeks since we last popped out for a pint is IDLES frontman Joe Talbot, whose online virtual talk show Balley TV has been offering the homely comfort of your local directly to your computer screen.

《《《 Balley TV 》》》

Free therapy? Virtual pub? Watch and you won’t learn a thing. All are welcome. Let’s hide in plain sight. Love.

Subscribe & set a reminder to watch at https://t.co/7cS8A8I0zT pic.twitter.com/8sswEKcBdT

— BalleyTV (@BalleyTV) May 28, 2020

Named after Talbot’s own label Balley Records, the show followed up May’s pilot with its second edition last Friday, featuring appearances from IDLES crew member Adam Greenwood, Chvrches singer Lauren Mayberry, and indie songwriter Hak Baker. As with the first episode (in which Talbot was joined by his bandmate Adam Devonshire in chatting to The Streets’ Mike Skinner and Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova), the guests’ video displays were propped up onto the faces of two gargantuan cuddly toys in a whimsical take on the post-COVID hang out that only a net-era punk host could pull off. Greenwood was hitched onto the face of a deeply unsettling manikin but frankly the less talked about the better. Watch the episode here:

Adding to the high calibre of musicians involved thus far, Talbot has made public the dates and guests for four more juicy interviews we can look forward to every other Friday (the full list is detailed below). All this coincides with the run-up to IDLES’ hotly anticipated third album Ultra Mono, which is set for release on the 25th of September via Partisan Records. You can preorder the album through IDLES’ website here, as well as buy tickets for a series of livestream gigs the band are doing to celebrate the release.

Balley TV Ep. 3 w/ Arlo Parks & Billy Bragg – Friday the 3rd of July

Balley TV Ep. 4 w/ Kate Tempest & Kenny Beats – Friday the 17th of July

Balley TV Ep. 5 w/ Ishmael Butler & Sharon Van Etten – Friday the 31st of July

Balley TV Ep. 6 w/ Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam), Jehnny Beth (Savages) & Fern Ford (The Big Moon) – Friday the 14th of August

The tweet includes a statement explaining their actions, writing “Today is 11 years since the death of the great Russian poet, Dmitriy Prigov. Prigov created an image of a policeman, a carrier of the heavenly nationhood, in the russian culture,” it reads.

“The heavenly policeman, according to Prigov, talks on the two-way with the God Himself. The earthly policeman gets ready to disperse rallies. The heavenly policeman gently touches a flower in a field and enjoys Russian football team victories, while the earthly policeman feels indifferent to Oleg Sentsov’s hunger strike. The heavenly policeman rises as an example of the nationhood, the earthly policeman hurts everyone.”

Oleg Sentsov was a vocal protester of Russia annexing of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2015, for charges of conspiring to commit terrorist acts, which Sentsov denies, and has been on hunger strike since mid-May 2018.

Pussy Riot have long been speaking out against Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin, for their outdoor performances and vocal criticism of the Russian president. This led to two members being imprisoned for nearly two years. Pussy Riot last released music in mid-March, releasing the track ‘E L E C T I O N S’, on the day of the Russian elections, no less.

The feminist punk band released a video of them protesting the imprisonment of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and Ukrainian activist Olexandr Kolchenko on their Facebook page, which shows them hanging banners saying ‘Free Sentsov’ and throwing leaflets.

The group posted a statement alongside the video explaining why they were protesting.

“We remember when we were imprisoned, we received news about hundreds of activists around the world putting on balaclavas and going to the streets to support us. That was the moment we understood we are not alone. But we should not forget that even though we’ve come to the other side of the fence, there are still hundreds of political prisoners behind bars waiting for your support. We received a lot of letters, smiles, and noise from you.

To continue we’re calling on you today to raise attention to two guys from Ukraine: film director Oleg Sentsov and anarchist Olexandr Kolchenko, who are in Russian prison right now. Sentsov got 20 years in prison, Kolchenko got 10 years. Because they, like you, did not sit by — they were fighting for their freedom in Crimea, which was annexed by Putin. During the investigation in Russia Oleg Sentsov was tortured and two months ago, after our action, he was transported to a penal colony with some of the cruelest conditions in Russia — “Polar Bear.” We decided to do an action right now, while we are in New York, with activists here because we believe there are no borders to our solidarity.”

Members Maria Alyokhina and Olga Borisova were also briefly detained in Russia back in August for protesting against Sentovs imprisonment. Sentov is currently serving a 20-year sentence after being found guilty of planning terrorist acts in Crimea after Russia annexed Ukrainian territory in 2016. Sentov claimed he was ‘threatened with rape’ in an attempt to force him to confess to the crimes.

riot days in trump tower ✨ pic.twitter.com/ZsTNAi0Ix2

— Pussy Riot (@pussyrrriot) October 24, 2017

This is the protest-groups first appearance since ‘Punk Prayer’, a song that won them international acknowledgement, especially in the west, gaining endorsement from the likes of Paul McCartney and Madonna. Their flagship video was shot in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, an act that led to the imprisonment of three members Nadezhda Tolokonnikva, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich on charges of hooliganism, a sentence that much of the world regarded as a travesty. The band claim that ‘Like a Red Prison’ aims to draw attention to Putin’s practice of circumventing the majority and sharing the vast oil proceeds with his closest allies.

The song is complete with its usual, charmless vocals, screeching remonstrations with buzzy guitars grinding in the background, however the introduction is far from talentless. The bass and drums jog in syncopation with palm-muted metal crunches accenting the jutting groove, until the singer blurts out in an anxious howl. From this point onwards it’s virtually unlistenable, but after-all the message supersedes the sound.

It is important for us to acknowledge such staunch protest music in an age where it is considered cliché. Considering the groups brush with incarceration, the bravery these women show is highly commendable. The bemused looks on the oil-workers face in this video encapsulates the lack of understanding, whether it be wilful ignorance or not, that many people in ‘state-subjugated’ societies are burdened with.

You can watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOM_3QH3bBw