Working With the London Philharmonic Orchestra

       “Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!”

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 1997 

One Friday at my singing group, Streetwise opera (http://www.streetwiseopera.org/) based at Crisis Skylight (http://www.crisis.org.uk/pages/crisis-skylight-london.html) it was announced that we could work with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. (http://www.lpo.org.uk/).......

I turned up on Monday morning. I did not know what to expect. There were several instruments around the room: drums, harps, trumpets, violins, xylophones, maracas and guitars. We started by clapping to our own individual beat, making sure it did not match anyone else’s. It was then discussed if the sound was synchronised or not.  The next exercise, the conductor started a beat and we all joined in as one. The difference was very clear to hear. To work as a team and to listen to each other sounded as if we had created a tune, achieving synchronisation.

We then looked at 14 different pictures, picked our four favourites, with which we would then create the music and lyrics for a 10 minute piece of music. We had one week to create and learn the piece ready for two performances at the end. The pictures we chose  came from a Mexican revolution exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts (http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/). The four most popular were the four pictures we would work from.

The first picture was of 4 men sat at the very front of the train holding up their guns. We discussed why they were sat on the train: their moods, and their characters, to get an idea of the type of music we could create. Then we chose an instrument. We decided that the 739 was important to these men; so we decided to include that in the piece we were creating. So we started the time signature (the beat) with people getting used to playing in a 7, 3, and then 9, while choosing what chords to use.

After the first day, we started to get the basic feel of the music and the shape of the piece as well as getting used to each other. The orchestra were brilliant at encouraging us to try different instruments, while we found our place for this piece. The conductor then needed singers to come up with words. I decided to join the singers. We discussed words, feelings, thoughts as a way to truly incarnate the 4 men in the picture. Then we would meet up with the orchestra to put our words with their music. The days went fast and didn’t seem as long as they were.

I missed one day because of other commitments.  On the last day, we had to rehearse everything. We had being rehearsing in small sections all week however this was to be the first time we put the whole piece together. Even then, alterations were still being made; for all the pieces  had to flow effortlessly into one big piece of music.   The first performance would be at the end of the day.

“Some part of me can't wait to see what life's going to come up with next! Anticipation without the usual anxiety. And underneath it all is the feeling that we both belong here, just as we are, right now.”
 Alexander Shulgin

The performance seemed to take ages to come around. The buzz, anticipation and nerves flicked around the room like lightening. The performance itself was over just as it began, and there was applause. I know the piece was 9 minutes long but that isn’t how it felt.

Then I don’t know how long it was before we met for our next rehearsal in preparation for our second performance. But when we did the conductor had made a few changes that we went over. Every time we have played the music it has always changed a little. It was like being home from home. Then we met for the final performance, we had a sound check. Then it came to performing. Again, it was over all too quickly.  The young boy in the picture above, so well expresses the anticipation. It was a very exciting time, inspirational, invigorating, motivating and exhausting all the same time.

My thanks to everyone involved and to everyone who encouraged me to go for this amazing experience.    

 

Musical Extravaganza

I am looking forward to a night I have never experienced before and may never experience again. I will be performing with the London Symphony Orchestra, (LSO), singing in the LSO Community Choir at the Barbican Concert Hall in the City of London. 

Like music? Free concert on 30th November

Our blogger McTaggart is singing blues this Friday night in a free concert at the Working Men's College in Camden.

He'll be writing about music and how it can help people for the blog next week. In the meantime, if you'd like to hear him and other performers, the concert is free to all.

As well as the blues band, the concert will feature drumming, piano, country, jazz, world music, choral music, classical music, guitar and harmonica...so there is something for every taste.

When: 7pm, Friday 30th November
Where: Working Men's College, Maurice Hall, Working Men's College, 44 Crowndale Road, London NW1 1TR
Nearest tubes: Mornington Crescent and Camden Town

Autumn Online comes to a close!

It's been a very busy couple of months running 'Autumn Online' which aimed to build the confidence of 30-50 people, who have experienced homelessness and/or addiction, with using the web.

Watching each other’s first video blogs at Bondway Service

Watching each other’s first video blogs at Bondway Service

Equipped with laptops and cameras, the On Road team spent two days in each service helping residents with basic online skills, blog writing and video blogging. 

The hope was that participants would enjoy the experience of creating online content and feel more confidence to use the web as a result, whether by keeping in touch with people by email or by accessing information that can help them, like news and support websites and public services online.

On Road  held drop-in workshops in 5 different Single Homeless Project services across London; Arlington Road hostel, 165 Project in King's Cross, the Dennis Handfield House, Highbury New Park hostel and Bondway advice and support service.

Participants learned how to set up email addresses and access public service websites like the Post Office, NHS and Direct.gov. They gained confidence in typing, using the mouse, searching for information and getting online. Working in small teams, they were shown how to use simple flip cameras, interview each other and edit short videos which were then uploaded onto Youtube. You can watch some here.

Many people were interested in writing for Unheard Holler (the blog On Road helped clients to set up back in September 2011) and there has certainly been some rich content up there! People have shared their personal experiences and journeys, contributed poetry, drawings, music and videos. There has been a lot of thought and time put into posts about raves and republicanism, medication and movie reviews, detoxing and democracy, careers and creativity - not to mention gardening! And there's more to come…

Check out the photos from all the workshops on Facebook.  If you're a client and want to get involved with the blog speak to your SHP service manager. If you want to learn more about the project contact Alana (alana@onroadmedia.org.uk). 

Disco Juice

The story begins with the Summer of Love 1989 September 9am Hoxton market. A convoy of us heading for Energy Rave. I had already taken my first E. Buzzing. It seemed that we were driving for ages. When we got there it was kicking. The locals were watching in amazement. It was blinding. Paul Trouble Anderson was playing, I had my second E, dancing the night away. Sunday was upon us, 16 hundred people, all buzzing.

All of a sudden the DJ announced that there was a fire around the back of the air craft hanger. Someone had set the cars alight. All of a sudden there was a fire engine driving past. The man on the back was ringing his bell, it was like something from trumpton. I was laughing so much. It was on the front of all the Sunday papers.

The Summer of Love was great but let me tell you, too many parties and too much taking drugs takes its toll. I ended up taking too much coke, I lost all my weight and my confidence went. By the time summer 2011 came, I was in detox. A guy called Dougie came to see me about a room in SHP. Of course I said yes. SHP is a hostel in Highbury New Park.

After about 6 months in the hostel I found an organisation called Squeaky Gate music production with is in Shoreditch. Squeaky Gate is group that helps the homeless. The course involves using Garage Band where everything is done on a computer. Back in the day you had to use a four track mixer a drum machine and a sampler. Squeaky gate has been good to me. Last year I made a 3 minute track. It's a housey sort of tune. I would recommend it to anybody. You can listen to it on Sound Cloud.

Funk House

 

'Spiral' by Steve & Co

Spiral

Hi, whoever is interested, although most of my work is unfinished SHP and On Road Media have helped me to produce a short film which is indicative of the way my work is developing. This is an attempt at snychronising visual and audio artwork centred around Spirals and nature. The spiral seems to be manifest and inherent in nature and music and hopefully this is expressed by my song ‘The Constant Rhythm of the Sea’.

Any comments or ideas welcome.

Music as a healing power

What makes people love music so much?

“In all the world in all the gin joints you had to walk into mine.” Sam did play it again. Mainly music makes people decide to move to it in accordance as to how they feel.

Music can cost a lot to enjoy, but it’s just a normal part of life, of the system of things. Nothing initiates music but its own starch. Like at the football, songs can be heard by all. It’s part of the system. ‘Knees up mother brown’ and ‘Gee me the ol’ piano’ is decorously in the past. But how does music come about? Nobody in my opinion can resist music. Everybody can love it. So what makes you sing, play, gong, pong etc? 'Love I’m all shook up'. All the songs of the past come from life experience. 'Are your pants on fire'? Setting an example within society as a musical parody is badly missed as a stage. So come on, give us a round of ‘love is a splendid thing’ and then you will know music better than you did before.

I used to be a jazz singer for a group called Jasmine. Singing for them I felt spoilt because I never expected them to take me on really and it was a real treat. I sang in a pub called the Old Dog and Dumpling. There were drums, oboe and sax. It made me feel well. When I am feeling unwell, it’s like a full stop. A straight line of thought is gone.  You don’t realise what is happening or whether you can get up or talk or even speak. My life has been compromised by not coping. But, when I am leading or listening  to the music, it lifts my spirit. It just makes me want to move. It coordinates me between one reality and another. Music gives all realities. It helps me to know where I am.

E.M.

The Scene that swept me away

This is me at Haggle Records on Essex Road in London.
It's one of the few remaining vinyl shops on the high street.

I left school in 1981 and went to work for a record distributer called S Gold and Sons. I was there for two and a half years.  At the time, it was the biggest cash and carry warehouse of records in Europe. I was an order processor and it was working there that helped me find soul music. That’s where I got hooked and found the beat. Although I’m still looking for the perfect beat. I was a vinyl junkie.

Working for Gold’s, we used to get tickets for The Embassy in Mayfair. I met Jeffrey Daniel from Shalamar there on the dance floor. I used to put myself about in those days. He invented the moonwalk. It’s a little known fact that he taught it to Michael Jackson. Tim Westwood was playing there that night, I used to like him and listened to him on London Weekend Radio . He was a rare groove buff before he got into hip hop. Every weekend, I would be out at a “boogie” to see acts like George Benson, James Ingram, Frankie Beverly and Maze, Herbie Hancock and we used to go to soul weekenders.  The beat goes on….

I started collecting import vinyl from Groove Records, City Sounds, Bluebird and Music Power Records. I would go every weekend.  My addiction to vinyl drove me to open my own record shop with a friend, Pat. It was called Contrast Records and was on Cross Street, off Upper Street, Islington. We used to run a pirate radio station from a small room above the shop. We would only ever broadcast on Sundays because it was so risky, we didn’t want to get busted by the Department of Trade and Industry and the police. If they had caught us, the shop would have got shut down. At that time, the BBC had a monopoly on the airwaves and we felt that they weren’t playing proper black music so we decided to do it ourselves for the people.

I used to DJ in a pub called the Greyhound on Balls Pond Road. One night I was playing  my signature tune “Silk Fuse One” and a woman from the audience came up to me and said “Do you realise you are playing two records at the same time?” That’s how ahead of the game we were.  I was playing to myself more than the crowd; they were ignorant about these things and I felt they needed educating.   Nobody knew what we were doing. At that time the only way of mixing was one slip mat and a fader.  We used to do things like playing Acapella tracks over instrumentals. Technics decks didn’t exist back then.

A lot of the guys I grew up with on the scene have made it in the music business, have become successful. But I always took it too far. One party too many.

I sold all of my vinyl for drugs in about ’88. I had about 1300 original pieces and bootlegs. I had started off doing coke on the weekends, in the pubs or in my mate’s studio. It was everywhere. I remember the girls with long little finger nails, painted with the Burberry symbol. They would use it to scoop up a line. It was easy to score and use in pubs and clubs back then. Let the good times roll everybody, let ‘em roll before you get too old.   I ended up using heroin later down the line. And that’s when the wheels started falling off. Some guy came into the pub one night and said “try this”. We didn’t even know what it was. We were so naïve. I saw a lot of good people go to waste.

I wouldn’t change anything but I do have a few regrets. There is a lot of guilt and shame. But I have never really done anything bad, even at my lowest. I never crossed that line. I have morals and I live by a code. I just got swept away in the whole scene, the music, the celebrations. I loved being young in the 80s. Nobody was skint back then; you couldn’t spend a pound note. I feel I was born just at the right time to enjoy this. I feel sorry for the kids right now. They have been brainwashed by the computer culture.

Master Jay