---

Street choirs

This weekend I combined attending the national Association of Green Councillors conference with the 28th National Street Choirs Festival, both in the vibrant Sheffield city centre. On Friday evening I was helping to steward at the evening concert, featuring a line up called 'The Free Radicals' - a group whose roots go back to the 80's when several of the members were either in the Sheffield Street Band or founder members of the Sheffield Socialist Choir. The recently refurbished City Hall Ballroom was also an appropriate venue for the event - my earliest memory of which was attending a NALGO benefit for the Miners Strike, also about the time of the first 'Street Bands Gathering' as it was called which consisted of 3 bands - Sheffield Street Band, the Fall Out Marching Band (London) and the Dirt Sisters (Nottingham) - I was there, as  a 'groupie' having seen them all playing at protests at the Cruise Missile base being built at Molesworth. Eight years later in 1992 I was on the organising committee for the '10th National Street Music Festival' in Sheffield - by then I had succeeded in getting Sheffield Socialist Choir to participate and changing the name to a more inclusive title. The procession through the streets featured us singing at the front - as I recall a very difficult tune to march to in 7/8 time by John Webber, followed by some 60 of us singing on the City Hall steps in the rain. Fast forward to the 2010 Street Choirs (no longer bands taking part) and Saturday saw bright sunshine beaming down on 800 singers all neatly packed in their parts on the steps to sing protest songs reflecting struggle and protest - from Rosa Parks, to Billy Bragg's updated version of the Internationale (can now find a half decent video of these on You tube, listed alongside some of our cuban performances!). 'Busking' is still a key feature of the event with performances in the many squares and public spaces around the city centre - I was priviledged to sing with the choir that I first joined as a founder member in 1988 in the Winter Gardens - an example of modern sustainable design for a northern public space. The weekend included a walk around a city that I left 10 years ago with local Green Party members to look at some of the follies of the 'rejuvenation' that people who extol the virtues overlook - the half demolished fire station HQ built in the 1980s now being taken down for a massive 'retail quarter' that may never appear because of the recession and rise of internet sales - the St Pauls Tower skyscraper that dominates the previously inspiring open sky above the glass roof of the Winter Gardens - the second makeover of the Crucible Square in 20 years that now channels all the runoff from a large paved area down towards the doors to the Crucible! On our walking round we also so some of the evidence still of the devastating 2007 summer floods - a testiment to the future problems of climate change in a hilly area with lots of hard landscaping and new development.

 The highlight of the weekend was the Saturday evening concert - for once I chose to be in the audience rather than performing, so I was able to listen, not just to tenors but the whole effect as Sheffield Socialist Choir sang a song 'Ire Santiago' we had sung in Cuba and a new powerful song about the 2009 Israeli attack on the people of Gaza - 'A blinding flash of white light lit up the sky over Gaza tonight, people running for cover, not knowing whether they're dead or alive  - we will not go down in the night without a fight, you can burn up our mosques our homes and our schools but our spirit will never die...We will not go down in Gaza tonight' It reminded me why the Sheffield choir has been so important to me - with the mix of political committment to fighting for justice and inspiration for those involved in those struggles to strengthen their resolve to achieve change - In 1990 the choir sang in Sheffield Cathedral at 48 hours notice in celebration of Nelson Mandella's release from prison, in 1989 we learnt the Internationale in Chinese within 3 weeks to sing in solidarity with those murdered in Tiennamen Square.

Cameron and Clegg are now spawning a whole new generation of political song as we struggle to defend public services and what advances have been made since Thatchers era.

 STOP PRESS: 

 

 

In need of inspiration?

Music has become a commodity to be bought and sold, but for some of us the taking part and using your voice to project emotions and inspire yourself and perhaps others is still centrally important. This clip sent to me by someone in Sheffield Socialist Choir makes the point that we are all one human race and each of us can put our own interpretation on a song. Ultimately this planet belongs to us all and we all have to play our part in saving it and changing it to a more harmonious place: Hope it works: http://vimeo.com/moogaloop..swf?clip_id=2539741 Some of this spirit is embodied in the UK annual Street Music Festival (Choirs Festival) that takes place this year in Whitby on the weekend of July 9th-10th

Here's a bit of background from playingforchange.com

'Playing for change' is going to feature on the Jazz/World stage at prime time slot on Saturday at Glastonbury.

Mark Johnson got the idea for the Playing for Change project one day when he happened upon a New York City subway performance. "Some of the best music I ever heard in my life was on the way to the studio," he said. "It just hit me that great music is just moments in time, and they exist all over the world."

So over several years, he travelled the world to capture those moments. They included street musicians from India, performers from South Africa and a children's choir from Ireland.

The album's lead single, a remake of a Ben E. King classic, starts out with the soulful, raspy voice of singer Roger Ridley, playing his acoustic guitar in the streets Santa Monica, Calif., then segues into the voice another street performer, Grandpa Elliott, in New Orleans. It then blends their voices and instruments while folding in musicians and vocalists from France, Brazil, South Africa and elsewhere.

The album also includes versions of Bob Marley's "One Love" and Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come," as well as big-name cameos from Bono and Keb' Mo', who said the project has a "big purpose. It's found its way into the consciousness of the public."

"Playing for Change makes a statement because its primarily people who were playing music on the streets," he added. "What it says is people are really moved by real people playing real music. It's real feelings and real situations."

It's also about more than music. Johnson has started a foundation to create music schools across the world, and more concert performances are planned, "There's something transcendent about it and the whole idea," said TV producer Norman Lear. "(There's) a global search for desire for connection, a spiritual surf ... this kind of music has caught that effort.

On the Net:

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_en_mu/storytext/us_music_playing_for_change/32397274/SIG=1118fk1kq/*http://www.playingforchange.com

 

Beware of Rover

Where am I?"

"In the Village."

"What do you want?"

"Information."

"Whose side are you on?"

"That would be telling.... We want information. Information! INFORMATION!"

"You won't get it."

"By hook or by crook, we will."

"Who are you?"

"The new Number Two."

"Who is Number One?"

"You are Number Six."

"I am not a number - I am a free man!"

(Laughter from Number Two.)

Patrick Mcgoohan who recently died (co-producer as well as lead characterin the 1968 TV drama) was just ahead of his time - keeping alive the scenario foretold by Orwell in the novel 1984. Wikipedia entry speculates on his motivation for the series as being to identify human greed and selfishness as the biggest risk to the future. Less well known are his views on the consumer society:

"I think progress is the biggest enemy on earth, apart from oneself... I think we're gonna take good care of this planet shortly... there's never been a weapon created yet on the face of the Earth that hadn't been used...

...We're run by the Pentagon, we're run by Madison Avenue, we're run by television, and as long as we accept those things and don't revolt we'll have to go along with the stream to the eventual avalanche... As long as we go out and buy stuff, we're at their mercy. We're at the mercy of the advertiser and of course there are certain things that we need, but a lot of the stuff that is bought is not needed...

...We all live in a little Village... Your village may be different from other people's villages, but we are all prisoners."

- 1977 interview

 Following on from Danger Man, this series captured the sinister mood of the era, at the height of the cold war, with many of the leading edge technology of surveillance used by the Soviet and communist countries being applied without No 6 being able to work out whose side was in charge of 'the village' - in itself a comment on the role of the enemy threat in keeping its citizens 'prisoner' in the prevailing political philosophy.

Singing for Oxjam at the Winning Post

TO raise money for Oxfam, dont miss this opportunity to relax and hear a variety of voices including my own (spot me on the back row)!

"Top world and acoustic music from York acts Paula Ryan (fourth from the left on the front row of chechelele), Celtic singer and songstress, Akimbo acoustic group, fresh from their resounding success at the Duchess, and Chechelele, York's own world music choir as they pool their talents for Oxjam!"

7.30pm Sat Nov 8th at the Winning Post pub on Bishopthorpe Rd South Bank, York

Summer?

This summer, as in most years since the eclipse in 1999, our family have spent a week camping in Devon on a biodynamic farm overlooking Totnes and the River Dart. There is something for all ages including the many children and teenagers. For details see http://www.sharphamfamilycamp.co.uk/  The vision of an annual community of friends old and new, started by the farmer Richard who tragically died in 2007, lives on. At the camp cabaret, one of the campers read out a poem composed this week and he kindly agreed to share it with others who were there. Although the weather was the wettest ever, we still had a good time and came away rested if somewhat muddy!  

Sharpham 2008

(for Richard)

On narrow road, through high-sided lane we came,

And thought there were no fields so kind, so warm, as these sweet slopes

Where briefly, once again, we made our home,

 

Not in the honeyed chaos of our other lives,

The non-stop pulse of day-to-day,

The spinning cycles of that world,

And meals on time, (not in our house! Andy)

 

But in the hallowed hours of here,

These dear acres held by Richard's shade

And vision of how our lives might be,

And us indeed transformed.

 

So rain could come and batter hard, in vain,

And clothes be wet, and sleep

Provoked by storm and blinding gale,

The constant drum a trouble to our dreams.

 

And what did we learn?

Just this, for sure.

That our love and hearts will hold all this -

The farm and fields,

His spirit dear, and all that Nature can provide,

 

And, in the months to come, as evenings close,

We will draw nearer to our fires,

And our eyes grow moist as we recall these sacred days,

And hold them close and dear,

For all the times ahead.

                                                                  

© Murray Edscer 8/ix/2008

Next page >>