Officer!, an English interjection used to address a police officer, a "bobby" in London, to ask for directions, information, or help. And perhaps, since the 1980s, this word might have taken on a certain authority, aggression, with several exclamation points against these increasingly repressive police forces, under the yoke of the various political regimes of the English right wing (the Torries), an era begun by Mrs. Thatcher, the unstoppable Margaret, who left her mark on her time, her society, and the entire Western world with her social (or anti-social) and economic models, leading to the ultraliberalism we know today. 

Many English people, mostly poor or "lower middle class," as they say, have suffered and continue to suffer with two f's, even if sometimes three or four f's are needed to demonstrate the force of this suffering. The English right wing remained in power for almost 20 years: Margaret Thatcher from 1979 to 1990, followed by John Major until 1997. At the beginning of the Thatcher era, Mick Hobbs began his musical career, notably as a bassist in the band The Work, a dry, uncompromising rock band, proud of its title "I hate America". At the same time, he set up his more personal project, more fragile in form under the name of Officer!. But just as involved in the big questions of our lives ("All reality is symbolic", "Take something big and call it a god (or a dog)" ...). A collective that took different forms with his musician friends because for Mick, community made sense. It was then a question of fighting and surviving in this anti-poor, anti-artist world. 
 
This album, "Dead Right," the latest from Officer!, is intended as a slap in the face to the English conservatives, "who destroyed my life", as Mick once said. With his friend and longtime member of Officer!, Felix Fiedorowicz, Mick created this project, open to more than 20 collaborators (always the sense of community), performers, authors, and composers, to put an end to this alienating right, especially since July 2024, the left (Labour) has returned to power in the United Kingdom. This rock-tinged album is brilliant, enlightening, and fun: excerpts from speeches and announcements by British politicians are interspersed throughout the musical themes, including direct addresses ("Putin's table"), hard-hitting messages ("Kick them out now"), and traditional militant chants ("Le chant de partisans", "l’Internationale", "Red Flag").