Levellers Announce Remixed And Expanded Levelling The Land 35th Anniversary Edition

Levellers are marking the 35th anniversary of their breakthrough album Levelling The Land with a remixed and expanded reissue, due out on October 16, 2026.

A first taste, the previously unreleased “Fifteen Years (Outtake),” is out now, and the anniversary edition can be pre-ordered now too.

Levelling The Land was the Brighton folk-rockers’ platinum-selling second album, and it has remained one of the cornerstones of a career now spanning nearly 40 years. It was recorded at Ridge Farm studios in Surrey during the summer of 1991 and produced by Al Scott, who set out to capture the energy of the band’s live shows in the studio.

The album gave the Levellers three huge hit singles in “One Way,” “15 Years” and “Far From Home,” and became a defining soundtrack for a generation frustrated with Thatcherite politics and the musical lull between the 1980s and grunge. Fan favourites such as “The Game,” “Liberty Song,” “The Riverflow,” “Boatman” and “Battle Of The Beanfield” have only grown in stature since its release.

Even with that success, founding member and fiddle player Jon Sevink says the original mix never quite captured the band live. “

We had 24 tracks of analogue tape to work with and we used them all. But music in the early 1990s was bound by technology. We were told by the record company that too much bass would overload people’s tiny TV and car speakers, making them fart and rattle.

Subsequently low frequencies were removed from the EQ which we felt left a slightly disappointing listening experience, particularly when compared to modern recording,” he explains.

Modern mixing technology gave Sevink the chance to put that right. “The advances in music mixing technology have now given us a ‘wider’ stereo image to listen to, allowing for more space in the music between instruments and voices. So I called Al Scott with the idea to remix the album from the original multi-tracks so it sounds current, but – really importantly – without losing sight of the album that everyone knows and loves. He was immediately up for it and in my opinion has done the perfect job,” says Sevink.

The remixed album will be released on a single vinyl edition, keeping the original tracklisting. A specially expanded CD version arrives as a 3CD package, adding B-sides, outtakes and demos, many of which had been lost for decades before turning up during the remix process.

Some of that material came from an unlikely source. “The digital transfers of the 2 inch reels of tape also contained unfinished versions of songs and some unheard music. So I put a call out to the rest of the band to search through cupboards and drawers for any cassette tapes or other material that might relate to the early 90s,” says Sevink.”

“A package soon arrived from drummer Charlie Heather containing old cassettes, one of which was labelled “Demos of the LP.” It turned out to hold demo versions of Levelling The Land, unheard for almost 30 years.

Sevink says the anniversary itself matters less than the material finally surfacing. “So forget the anniversary, it’s just a number after all. Far more important is that this definitive collection of material is finally seeing the light of day. Songs as relevant today as they were in 1991. Sounding great!”

The album is also known for one of the most striking sleeves of the last forty years, later reproduced on hundreds of thousands of t-shirts. It was designed by bassist Jeremy Cunningham, continuing the artistic world he began with the band’s debut, A Weapon Called The Word.

Cunningham explains the concept behind the artwork. “I thought for our second album I could expand the Levellers artistic world a bit. So I kept the same two figures from Weapon but instead of them confronting each other, on Levelling The Land they’re dancing together.”

“But they’re dancing through a broken world. To the left is kinda idyllic countryside with sunshine and a viaduct but the river running out of it disappears into a mass of cooling towers, high rise and low rise housing projects and a benefits office. The other river running out of both backgrounds is a road – and it’s that our figures have chosen to dance out of the wasteland on,” he says.

“The artwork is the same as the music on the album, it juxtaposes all these ideas, and the bottom line is weighty lyrics but played over pop music. Both the artwork and the music came from the same place. Expanding the Levellers world,” Cunningham adds.

Levellers – Levelling The Land: 3CD

CD1: Levelling The Land, remix by Al Scott

1. One Way
2. The Game
3. Fifteen Years
4. The Boatman
5. Liberty Song
6. Far From Home
7. Sell Out
8. Another Man’s Cause
9. The Road
10. The Riverflow
11. Battle of the Beanfield

CD2: Bonus tracks

B-sides

1. Dance Before The Storm
2. Hard Fight
3. The Devil Went Down To Georgia
4. Last Days Of Winter
5. Plastic Jeezus

Outtakes

6. Liberty Song
7. The Road
8. Far From Home v1
9. Boatman Jig v1
10. Plastic Jeezus
11. Fifteen Years
12. Another Man’s Cause
13. Far From Home
14. One Way (Dance Mix)

CD3: Levelling The Land demos

1. One Way (Demo)
2. The Game (Demo)
3. The Boatman (Demo)
4. Liberty Song (Demo)
5. Far From Home (Demo)
6. Sell Out (Demo)
7. Another Man’s Cause (Demo)
8. The Road (Demo)
9. The Riverflow (Demo)
10. Battle Of The Beanfield (Demo)
11. The Devil Went Down To Georgia (Demo)
12. Last Days Of Winter (Demo)

Levellers, Levelling The Land, remix by Al Scott: 1LP

Side One

1. One Way
2. The Game
3. Fifteen Years
4. The Boatman
5. Liberty Song
6. Far From Home

Side Two

1. Sell Out
2. Another Man’s Cause
3. The Road
4. The Riverflow
5. Battle of the Beanfield

Levellers are marking the anniversary on the road too. The tour began at Beautiful Days, the festival the band founded 23 years ago, followed by a show in Salisbury and a headline open air date in their hometown of Brighton on September 5. Further dates run through October and November.

Levellers ‘Levelling The Land 35th Anniversary’ Tour dates

21-23 Aug – Beautiful Days Festival (sold out)
04 Sep – Salisbury City Hall
05 Sep – Brighton Hove Park (final tickets)
16 Oct – Koln Live Music Hall, Germany
17 Oct – Maastricht Muziekgieterij, Netherlands (sold out)
18 Oct – Leuven Depot, Belgium (sold out)
20 Oct – Holmfirth Picturedrome (sold out)
21 Oct – Holmfirth Picturedrome (sold out)
22 Oct – Belfast Mandela Hall
23 Oct – Dublin Vicar Street
24 Oct – Glasgow Barrowland (sold out)
29 Oct – York Barbican (sold out)
30 Oct – Llandudno Venue Cymru
31 Oct – Blackpool Empress Ballroom
19 Nov – Nottingham Rock City (sold out)
20 Nov – Bristol Prospect Building (sold out)
21 Nov – London Hammersmith Eventim Apollo (sold out)

“Fifteen Years (Outtake)” is out now, and the 35th Anniversary Edition of Levelling The Land can be pre-ordered ahead of its October 16 release.