A RECURRING ROLA COLA RAY THEME
PIGS AND PIES. – BTW I am NOT referring to the police…
PIGS CAN’T FLY
Rola Cola Ray — The Pork Pie, The Lie & The Promise in the Sky
There’s a phrase running through a lot of Rola Cola Ray’s protest songs:
Pigs can’t fly.
It sounds ridiculous at first. Almost childish.
But that’s exactly why I use it.
I’ve deliberately built a whole language around pigs, pork pies, lies, political lies and pie in the sky — phrases that allow me to take complicated political promises and turn them into something simple, visual and memorable.
And then there’s 2030.
That number appears in Pigs Can’t Fly because, to me, 2030 represents a date constantly appearing in political discussions, plans, targets and predictions about the future. Rather than treating the year as some magical destination, the song asks a much simpler question:
What happens when political promises become pie in the sky?
PIGS CAN’T FLY
The central line is deliberately blunt:
Pigs can’t fly.
Of course they can’t.
That’s the joke.
But underneath the joke is the idea that sometimes political promises can sound just as impossible.
A politician can stand at a podium and promise the future.
A campaign can sell a vision.
A government can announce another target.
And the public is expected to believe that everything will somehow work out.
That’s where my pork pie comes in.
The promise becomes the pie.
The pie becomes the story.
The story becomes the lie.
PORKY PIES
I’ve used the expression “porky pies” because it is instantly recognisable British and Irish slang for telling lies.
It’s also perfect for the Rola Cola Ray sound.
Instead of saying:
“I disagree with this political narrative.”
I’d rather say:
“They’re eating their porky pies.”
It’s cheeky.
It’s sarcastic.
And it sticks in your head.
That’s important to me because these aren’t academic essays set to music.
They’re songs.
A protest song has to survive outside the page.
You should be able to hear one line once and remember it later.
PIE IN THE SKY
Then there’s “pie in the sky.”
That’s another phrase I return to because it describes the idea of an attractive promise that may never become reality.
Put the three together:
Pigs can’t fly.
They eat porky pies.
They sell pie in the sky.
Now I’ve got a Rola Cola Ray vocabulary.
And that vocabulary can travel from one song to another.
2030
In Pigs Can’t Fly, 2030 becomes part of the imagery.
It’s not presented as a prediction of exactly what will happen in that year.
It’s a symbol of the future being constantly packaged and presented to us today.
Targets.
Promises.
Plans.
Deadlines.
Visions.
Forecasts.
2030 is somewhere over the horizon.
And that makes it perfect territory for a song asking whether the things being promised today will actually arrive tomorrow.
THE POLITICAL LIE
The phrase “political lie” is deliberately stronger than simply saying “a lie.”
Politics is built around communication.
Speeches.
Manifestos.
Campaigns.
Announcements.
Press conferences.
Slogans.
Promises.
Sometimes people believe those promises.
Sometimes they don’t.
And sometimes the truth sits somewhere in between.
That’s where protest music comes in.
I’m not trying to write a government report.
I’m writing from the perspective of someone looking at the world and saying:
“Hang on… does this actually make sense?”
A RECURRING ROLA COLA RAY THEME
This is why you’ll hear the same kind of imagery appearing throughout many of my protest songs.
Pigs.
Pork pies.
Lies.
Political lies.
Pie in the sky.
Promises.
2030.
The future.
They’re becoming recurring characters in the Rola Cola Ray universe.
The language gives the songs a connection.
One song might attack an idea directly.
Another might use humour.
Another might be darker.
Another might sound almost surreal.
But underneath them is the same approach:
Question the story.
Question the promise.
Question the official version.
Then make a bloody good song about it.
WHY HUMOUR?
Because protest music doesn’t always have to sound miserable.
Sometimes a sarcastic grin can hit harder than a serious speech.
“Pigs can’t fly” is funny.
“Porky pies” is funny.
“Pie in the sky” is funny.
But put those words over a huge synth drone, a massive Northern vocal and an enormous echoing chorus, and suddenly the joke becomes something darker.
The listener starts wondering what the joke is actually about.
That’s the Rola Cola Ray approach.
Cheeky on the surface.
Serious underneath.
THE RIDE TO 2030
The opening line says:
“This is Rola Cola Ray…
on target for a big twenty-thirty…
get ready for the ride.”
It’s deliberately theatrical.
Almost like an announcement from somewhere in the future.
Then the music starts.
The drone begins.
The voice echoes.
And the pigs take flight.
Except…
PIGS CAN’T FLY.
And perhaps that’s the whole point.
Before we accept the next promise, the next target, the next grand vision or the next piece of political messaging, maybe we should stop for a second and ask:
Is this reality…
or just another pork pie?
ROLA COLA RAY
I write the songs.
I build the concepts.
I write the lyrics.
I construct the musical prompts and arrangements.
And across a growing collection of protest songs, pigs, pork pies, lies and pie-in-the-sky promises have become part of the Rola Cola Ray vocabulary.
Not because every political claim is necessarily a lie.
But because questioning political claims is exactly what protest music has always been allowed to do.
Pigs can’t fly.
But apparently…
they can sell you a ticket to the sky.
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