About Soldier

Soldier is a song written and recorded by Harvey Andrews in 1972. It was released as the B-side of the single In the Darkness, and later featured on the album Writer of Songs.

The song was inspired by an event in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 1971 Sergeant Michael Willetts of 3 PARA cleared a room in Springfield Road RUC Police Station of civilians because a bomb with a short burning fuse had been planted by the Provisional IRA. After the room had been cleared, an Inspector who helped local people flee then slammed the door to the room which contained the bomb, but realizing the door was not strong enough to absorb the blast, he pressed his body against the door, shielding the people on the other side. The charge exploded, and he was seriously injured.

Sgt Willetts whose post was actually down a hall heard the screams, instead of saving himself he choose to run toward the bomb after shouting orders to another soldier to evacuate upstairs. He was left with a man and woman with their two children. He pushed them into a corner and stood between them and the bomb. A chunk of metal from a locker was blasted into the back of his head and he died on the operating table two hours later.

As his and other bodies were carried out Irish Republican supporters clapped, jeered and sang rebel songs to the disbelief of other soldiers and police.

Harvey Andrews was so struck by the incident that he wrote the song to highlight the senselessness of violence and to make the point that soldiers, too, are human, and that Sgt Willetts had laid down his life for people who considered British soldiers to be nothing more than "murderers." (The incident of the soldier embracing the bomb was poetic licence.) Broadcasts of Andrews' record were banned for some time by the BBC lest feelings be exacerbated in the nationalist community of Northern Ireland, or the British public be incited to attack innocent Irish people. The Ministry of Defence advised British soldiers not to sing the song in pubs where it may incite strong emotive behaviour. Some have interpreted this as a ban.

Harvey Andrews' authorship is not always widely known, and many incorrect stories about the song's origin circulate. Harvey Andrews intended the song to transcend sectarianism, but some have wrongly interpreted it as the glorification of military heroism.

The song's merits were debated in Folk Review. It was criticised by Leon Rosselson for "catastrophic naivety", and Dick Gaughan compared it unfavourably to Andrews's song Hey Sandy.

Sales of the record In the Darkness / Soldier could not keep up with demand in Northern Ireland. A record shop on Shankhill Road in Belfast broadcast the song by loudspeaker, and subsequently sold 5000 copies. Harvey John Andrews (born 7 May 1943 in Stechford, Birmingham) is an English singer-songwriter and poet.

From 1964, Andrews supported his nascent career as a singer/songwriter by working as a schoolteacher, before becoming a full-time professional musician in 1966. Andrews has produced 16 albums singing his own songs, many of which have also been recorded by other artists.

He collaborated on a successful musical depicting life growing up in Birmingham in the forties and fifties. "Go Play Up Your Own End" has been well received across the Midlands, especially in its production in 2006 featuring Jasper Carrot in a major role, but has yet to make the transfer to London. The musical has played at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the Birmingham Hippodrome and the Alexandra Theatre, thus setting a record of having been staged at every one of the second city's major theatres.

In 2007 he published a musical memoir "Gold star to the Ozarks". Harvey retired from full-time concert performances in October 2012 with a series of concerts at The Guild Hall, Lichfield.

He has appeared at many festivals around the world. Television appearances include The Old Grey Whistle Test, Rhythm on Two and over 50 other shows. He has made two television specials featuring his songs, The Camera and The Song, and The Same Old Smile. Two further specials were produced in the Netherlands and Ireland. He sang "Riding Free", the theme song from the cult British horror movie Psychomania in 1973, and wrote and sang the theme songs for two Australian TV series, Golden Pennies (1985) and The Haunted School (1986). He has hosted BBC Radio Two's Folk on Two and a Radio Four Kaleidoscope special was devoted to his work.