Norman Baker: Former Home Office minister and his band The Reform Club back with a new album

Tony Blair had better watch out

Norman Baker's band The Reform Club

It’s a question that stirs fierce debates among popular music aficionados: who mounted the greatest comeback of all time? Was it Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, or perhaps the Grateful Dead? If Take That is in the running, what about S Club 7?

A new name now joins this pantheon of legendary comeback kings: Norman Baker.

The former Home Office minister, who lost his seat at the general election, will release a second album in January with his band, The Reform Club. On Never Yesterday, Mr Baker uses his music to take pot-shots at Tony Blair and tabloid journalism, although most of the 12 tracks are a sardonic take on aspects of everyday life, such as shopping.

Norman Baker lost his Lewes seat to the Conservatives in the May election (Tom Pilston)

Two years ago, the Liberal Democrat belted out “Piccadilly Circus” from the band’s debut album, Always Tomorrow, while he was a transport minister. It was a single that divided critics.

The Guardian said lead singer Baker “fits the rock star profile perfectly [because] he has been a troublemaker in the House of Commons”, while The Daily Telegraph’s critic claimed the song “exposes him as a bit of a naive dreamer, with the pop instincts of a civil servant”.

Our own John Rentoul is not a fan of the man’s political views – accusing him of being “a conspiracy theorist” for questioning the death of weapons inspector David Kelly – but loves the music.

Telegraph be damned: The Reform Club has been signed by Angel Air Records, which typically specialises in reissuing forgotten classics from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. These include the works of Adam Faith, Bo Diddley, Culture Club, Go West, and T. Rex. New artists must be “at least 40 years old”, laughs Peter Purnell, Angel’s chief executive, who claims The Reform Club’s work is in the mould of The Kinks. Mr Baker, 58, concurs: “It’s a traditional, very English musical observation in the vein of The Beatles, to The Kinks, to Madness, to Blur… The album is not particularly political – this is a music album, albeit a couple of tracks have political overtones.”

The most overtly political song is “Give War a Chance”. This is a satirical take on Mr Blair’s time in office, particularly on how he took Britain into the Iraq war – which Mr Baker opposed – and the wealth he has accumulated since then while being involved in the Middle East peace process.

On Never Yesterday, Norman Baker uses his music to take pot-shots at Tony Blair and tabloid journalism

The track, which is one of 11 that Mr Baker co-wrote with his bandmate Mike Phipps, opens with the lines: “I am an envoy of peace/But I’ve got war on my mind...”.

The Reform Club is about to film a video for the song, which Mr Baker hopes will be released around the time the findings of the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war are made public next summer.

Unlike some other Lib Dems who fell in May, Mr Baker, who was once a regional director of the Our Price record-shop chain, seems to have found a happy new career. The House of Commons’ loss is the music world’s gain.