Michelle Shocked is the Paula Pan of pop
Newcastle Evening Chronicle
October 31,
1989
Original article: 
By her own admission, she refuses to grow up.
She’s still the rebel with a cause – the homelessness crisis.
“I feel most strongly about squatting and the homeless problem,” said the Texas singer who sets up home for a night in Newcastle on November 19, when she plays the City Hall.
“I have squatted while living in New York, Amsterdam, and San Francisco, and lived on a houseboat on the Thames.
“To me it’s a green issue, it’s about using housing resources effectively.
“Even now I live in Los Angeles and refuse to pay rent. I also refuse to buy a car. I refuse to grow up.”
Michelle once vowed never to return to live in the United States while Ronald Reagan was in power.
“Life was unbearable there under him,” she says.
“But I saw something good could be done through the squatting movement, by a union of homeless in San Francisco, so I returned.”
Michelle’s tour will give folks the chance to hear material from her latest LP, Captain Swing.
If her first two albums were noted for their protest lyrics, the new one may be remembered for Michelle’s musical departure.
It contains a heck of a lot of swing sounds, influenced by the New Orleans, Chicago, and Memphis scenes.
What of the future for Michelle? She still owns her houseboat on the Thames and may turn it into the headquarters of the Strawberry Jam movement.
“Strawberry Jam” is a song she plays live but has never recorded and she wants to use the boat to produce fanzines and steer an organisation which would help people think and speak for themselves.
No one could accuse Michelle of doing anything less than that.
Added to Library on June 4, 2022. (137)
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