We named our new album Bungaroosh which seemed like a good idea at the time. After thinking about it, we do have some very slight misgivings. Here’s why

What is the meaning of Bungaroosh?

Many people from the Brighton & Hove area will know what Bungaroosh is but for those from other regions here’s an explanation. Bungaroosh is a term for a method of constructing walls relatively quickly and inexpensively and was employed from around the late 18th / early 19th Century. Not only can Bungaroosh walls be found in Brighton, Hove, Lewes and some adjacent areas but also in some areas of London. Builders would shovel a wide variety of materials such as flint, brick, cobblestones, chalk, pebbles, sand and even small pieces of wood into wooden shuttering, then a lime mortar would be poured in and allowed to set. These walls would often be rendered with a lime based mixture to create a consistent flat surface before painting. The method was commonly employed as Brighton grew rapidly from a small fishing village into a large town and many very grand facades hide a Bungaroosh wall.

We’re sure Bungaroosh walls seemed like a good idea at the time they were built but today they are often problematic. Flint is virtually impossible to drill into because it is extremely hard whereas lime mortar is very soft. The lime mortar is also prone to erosion from the elements. In short, a magnificent facade could be hiding a cheaply and rapidly built wall. it could be crumbling. It could be impossible to drill into. It could contain rotting wood.

We thought it was a great analogy for aspects of the world in which we live and it is why we wrote the album title track. Many of us have come across people who display a crisp, smart exterior but underneath have hidden issues. Perhaps all of us have faults that we keep to ourselves. There are some towns and cities that have a very fine reputation but try to ensure social problems don’t make the news.

So here’s our misgiving. When we started thinking about an album title we both agreed Bungaroosh summed up the album and what we like to do. Some hard bits – some soft bits – some unexpected bits. It was only after we started performing the song and explaining the meaning to audiences that it occurred to us that something full of what is essentially cheap, plentiful materials may not be the best marketing angle! However it’s such a brilliant word, peculiar to our part of Sussex, with a great analogy and we 100% stand behind it.