A BIRCHWOOD band have teamed up with a renowned artist who attempts to capture the mood of ‘Brexit Britain’ through satire.

Christopher Spencer – better known as Cold War Steve – has created the artwork for Man and The Echo’s new single, A Capable Man.

The surreal piece sees the band, known for weaving politics into their pop songs, taking a breather by a derelict pool surrounded by the likes of Michael Gove, Nigel Farage, José Mourinho, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Piers Morgan and Vladimir Putin...riding an ostrich.

Cold War Steve does not usually work with bands but agreed Man and The Echo’s song about ‘ridiculous, overconfident’ men was a perfect fit.

Frontman Gareth Roberts said: “He’d been approached by a few people to do it before but he never fancied it. But the song fits really well with what he does.

“I don’t think he realises how big he is or how much people really love it. It makes him laugh more than anything but we were thrilled to have it done and be in it.

“I like the Gary Barlow bit. He said is there anyone in particular you want in it and Gary was one that I asked for.

“So I was quite pleased to see what he did with him hugging Kim Jong-un.”

Warrington Guardian:

You can also see drummer Joey Bennett looking like he’s telling off Donald Trump. Gareth, a former Birchwood High student, added: “We did a shoot with a photographer who runs a Twitter account called Urban Goals.

“He basically goes around the country taking photographs of goalmouths that are painted on brick walls or are on fields in the middle of council estates.

“He came to a couple of our gigs and we got chatting and we asked him to do our band photography.

“So for the photoshoot we’re in front of the goal and what you can see in the Cold War Steve piece is us sat down having a breather after a kickabout and Joey telling us something while wearing a 1970s sheepskin manager’s coat.

“It almost looks like we’ve sat for that photo. His composition, the perspective on everything and the way he makes people look like they’re making eye contact is incredible.”

All the people in the piece are successful figures and politicians that have an arguably ridiculous element to them or the band have a bone to pick with their world view.

Gareth said: “These people are ridiculous and they’re in charge of stuff and they’re successful to varying degrees and in different areas of life.

“Cold War Steve did a cheese rolling one and there must be 400 people in it.

“It’s incredible how many of these people are elevated due to blind confidence and an old boy network. It’s slightly depressing.

“It’s the dying embers of a generation who hate the fact they were wrong about a lot of stuff and are going down kicking and screaming.

“My only reservation with using it was that it might seem like we’re trying to cash in on something whereas it was just the perfect person to do the artwork for what we recorded which was essentially an anthology about useless men.

“I almost imagined it as a musical at first with songs sung by different characters.”

A Capable Man will also be included on Man and The Echo’s second album which is finished but has no release date as of yet.

Gareth added: “The release of it has gone well and we’ve had lots of pre-orders for the vinyl.

“Next we’ve got a tour with She Drew The Gun and a date back home as part of [WAM] Festival.

“After that we’ll decide on a release date for the album and next single. It’ll be summer time I imagine.”

Man and The Echo play on the first night of [WAM] Festival at the Auction Rooms in Legh Street on Saturday, March 9. Tickets are available on seetickets.com.