ETON Alive is a typically provocative title from Sleaford Mods, Britain’s most overtly political band of our times.

Newly released on the Nottingham electronic duo’s Extreme Eating label, their fifth state-of-the-nation report is being accompanied by a tour that brings singer Jason Williamson and musician Andrew Fearn to a sold-out Fibbers in York tomorrow night.

“That title is a comment on how the politics that have undeniably wrecked our country were engineered by people who went to Eton,” says Jason.

How come political bands have become an endangered species in Britain, Jason? “I think there’s a variety of reasons,” he says. “Firstly, gentrification. Secondly, working-class voices tend to come up against authority or blocked paths, like “drill” music [a genre of rap] being shut down by the police.”

For the uninitiated, the stereotype image of the Nottingham drill scene is of hooded and masked youths rapping about urban decay and disputes, using lyrics that may focus on carrying guns and knives.

“They talk about isolation, paranoia, death, gang culture... and these are the things that are the result of oppression,” says Jason.

Broadening the discussion about the dearth of acts to follow in the agitated footsteps of Costello, Bragg, Weller, Strummer, The Specials and co, he continues: “Our peers are token flag-waving lefties, which is completely useless, jumping on the train that we resurrected a few years ago, and that’s just not good enough.”

Sleaford Mods have set up their own label to release Eton Alive after a parting of the ways with Rough Trade. “It was a premature departure,” says Jason. “Ideally we would have stayed with them for another album and seen where we were after that.”

Instead, old manager gone, Williamson’s wife Claire has taken over overseeing the release. “She’s elevated the campaign to what it would have been with Rough Trade – and we’re still on good terms with the label, who’ve helped us and given us good advice,” says Jason.

York Press:

"The politics that have undeniably wrecked our country were engineered by people who went to Eton," says Jason Williamson

Sleaford Mods had enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Rough Trade: “They left us alone to make our records; they’re an old-school label, who didn’t interfere with the creative process and that’s one of the things that had attracted us to them," says Jason.

“The one thing that might change is that we might make a bit more from the new record, but not much. The money you’d get in advance was not money in your pocket but for promotion. Now we’re in control!”

At 49, Grantham-born Jason Williamson is a voice of experience, turning that maturity, his life lived, into songs with political and social bite. “I’ve been trying to make my way in music since I was 24, an age when bands are more in tune with themselves," he says.

“My voice has only been politicised because of our experiences. What became apparent to me was the only things worth talking about, like the obscenity of the minimum wage, came about through trying to live that way. At 24, writing that way wouldn’t have been possible.”

With age comes conviction. “Obviously, I’m not perfect; obviously some points I make could be torn apart by people who may know more, but I’m definitely in a confident position, and that’s a good place to be, and that’s what people connect with.

“If I’ve not addressed it elegantly, or if it’s not accurate, I can live with that, because it’s intelligent, emotional material that is the reality in lots of respects.”

Should you be wondering why Jason favours an electronic duo as his musical weapon of choice for his vexed rants, he says: “I just find it a more contemporary form for making music. I found the band format more laden and old, and as a songwriter it’s easier to work with electronics. That really attracted me to it,” he says of the Sleaford Mods' deconstructed laptop blues. “I was getting into hip hop and electronic music as well, and with this medium the possibilities are endless.”

Sleaford Mods play Fibbers, York, March 6, sold out; doors 7.30pm. Further Yorkshire gigs follow at Hull Asylum, March 7; Stylus, Leeds, March 9; Holmfirth Picturedome, March 13; Plug, Sheffield, March 14.