Nits: The quietly revolutionary gentry of pop

The 38th shape is the poppy of peace

Today, at long last, I unexpectedly found a husband for my Jane Austen Funko Pop figurine! It is John Lennon in a military jacket, with guitar and his typical glasses. A perfect match if you ask me. Until now I had Miss Austen coupled to Leonard Hofstadter, the somewhat shy scientist from the TV hit series “The Big Bang Theory”. But just like Emma’s – Jane’s famous character – my matchmaking abilities aren’t always a success. But now I feel quite optimistic and confident. Jane and John … living happily ever after.

Of course John’s social and political activism is well-known. It balances between an overt revolutionary thinking and an aesthetic of pacifism. But The Beatles’s occasional form of pop activism was secondary to their musical revolution of pop. A way of musical thinking that helped to free musicians from many a standard protocol. Musical conventions and rules of conduct were there only to be broken time and time again. The “activism” of Nits is not situated on the battlefield of fighting opinions or opposing political or social forces, theirs is a commitment to the expression of an active life in music; Nits give a voice to the musical wanderer within and without, all through their lives. They compared the transience of life to the flowering of lilies of the valley and fleur de lis. But their bouquet of flowers also includes the red poppy, symbol of memories of war and bloodshed, in their music of hope, joy and peacefulness. An essential reminder, an eye-catcher for those who really listen, standing out in the fields of beauty that Nits created.

Living in England for a while I quickly learned that for the British the poppies are the symbol of remembrance of the casualties of war, of the soldiers who gave their lives for the freedom of others, referring of course to the poppy fields in Flanders, Belgium, the site of war scenes during the First World War. Nits tread peacefully into the many discourses of war, bringing flowers instead of guns into their songs of war scenes remembered and regretted, where the sorrow and loss and the incomprehensibility of the act of violence take centre stage. Sketches and stories in the aftermath of war. “In Dutch Fields”, “The Flowers”, “Sketches of Spain”, the many songs on ANGST around the Second World War, “Crime and Punishment”, and the trilogy of songs in the wake of the murder of Theo Van Gogh, are some of their most prominent stances against all sorts of violence and war waging.

Poppies had of course also been sold by a pretty nurse on “Penny Lane”, for Remembrance Day probably. And they pop up again on the DOING THE DISHES album in the song “In Dutch Fields”, which is based on the poem “In Flanders Fields” by John Mccrae, where the poppies blow between the crosses. A poignantly beautiful tribute to all those who lost their lives on those fields of Flanders. Nits join in the ranks of these softly rebellious voices who denounce the absurdity and inhumane cruelties of war. The crowd of red poppies again in “The Flowers”. A protest voiced by a “cultural elite” – perhaps – who take the side of the people. In the case of John Lennon, a working class hero, the opposition against war was at times quite “revolutionary”. It also entailed his denouncement of the social classes system in the United Kingdom. While Nits and The Beatles probably share a more or less identical background of the working class, Nits express their social and political critique in a much more subdued and lyrical way. They are more of the quietly revolutionary kind. When you look at their work from a distance, you’d hardly notice this social or political commitment, but it is there, between the musical lines of their work as a soft reminder of what is righteous and what is good.

There was a girl once who wrote. Everyone thought she was just telling romantic stories of girls looking for a husband amidst all sorts of little, futile tribulations and family stories. But in fact she was a rather radical rebel, though in a very quiet way. It is only the connoisseur who would see the truly rebellious character of the stories in her novels. She denounced the precarious position of girls and women of her time, who were financially disadvantaged, due to hereditary laws who favoured men – brothers, nephews, children … – and to the sheer lack of opportunity given to women to choose a profession. She gave a voice to young women in her novels in a way which at the time was quite exceptional and even revolutionary. Jane Austen, through the sophistication of her writing and the invention of new techniques in novel writing, set the tone for a form of literature that is so wide-spread nowadays that we don’t even notice how new and groundbreaking it once was. She was the first to use the style of free indirect speech which is a manner whereby the voice of the narrator in third person mingles with the direct voice of a character speaking in the first person. Her novels hereby gain a personal vivacity and a sophisticated sense of intimacy where the narrator feels very close to her characters’ inner world. I particularly enjoy this style of writing as a reader. And by naming one of her novels – Mansfield Park – after the judge William Murray, first Earl of Mansfield, who prepared the way for the abolishment movement in Great-Britain, Jane Austen expressed her abhorrence of slavery. But nowadays hardly anyone is aware of all these things … Nits too share this nobility – in the moral sense of the word – of the mind. And equally, there’s a real intimacy in the work of Nits which makes it feel like a pleasant, familiar environment to dwell in. Nits make a peaceful, non-aggressive form of pop music, full of ideas – and not only musical ones, but also more philosophical ones, testimony to an enlightened, erudite and broad-minded view on life.

Jane chose her own path. She never married – she needed her freedom. She just wanted to write. She wanted to write. In the freest way possible. I often detect the same free-spirited sophistication, determination, soft rebellion and denouncement of wrongs in society, in the work of Nits. Nits just wanted to make music. And they did at first glance just that. But they achieved so much more. A way of life in music, a way of thinking in music, a way of freedom in music. They wanted to make music. In the freest way possible. They were rebellious, as pop ought to be, but not in the traditional, screaming, in-your-face way of musical rebellion. Nits rebelled against the self-imposed limitations and limits of the genre of pop music. They reinvented and reshaped the genre through their compositions and improvisations, through their spontaneous and direct way of creating musical lines, colours, shapes and forms, setting out their very own idiosyncratic musical path, undaunted and steadfast. Taking them from the port of Amsterdam to a kitchen in the Swiss mountains …

And they worshipped the flowers, honoured the poppies in their garden of music which they carefully cultivated in the wise manner of critical, rebellious philosophers, just like Voltaire advised … In a candid and almost innocent way … in the manner too of Voltaire’s little anti-hero Candide. Where worlds of domesticity and travel naturally come together in the adventurous language of their music.

I know … I shouldn’t have – perhaps – coupled Jane to John … But they both are heroes of mine. Though heroes is not the right word, more like companions. I like to spend my days in closeness to their work. Two very different worlds; let’s say, not so very different after all. I wonder why there’s no Funko Pop figurine of Henk Hofstede. But of course I know the answer why. I could see him – in a miniature version of himself – dressed up finely in a suit with a hat perhaps, wearing yellow socks, his guitar in one hand, a camera in the other … Now wouldn’t that be nice …?!

Joke Roelandt, July 2025