Niche of a Niche…

GOBSMACKED

This is a video of a Community Music project of mine from 20+ years ago. Gobsmacked involved bringing groups of PMLD students together with mainstream primary and secondary students and members of adult choirs.

PMLD stands for Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties, characterized by severe intellectual disabilities, communication challenges, complex health needs, and physical/sensory impairments. Specifically these SEND students were non-verbal. Typically, though they could produce sounds, they were thought of as not being able to sing.

When I met my first class of PMLD at Beaumont College in Lancaster I heard voices singing. The ‘noises’ they were making sounded to my ears like individually curated ‘extended voice techniques’. The sounds I and other vocalists had used in the world of free improvised music - screeches, clicks, growls, whispers. I heard music.

As I worked I listened carefully to each student and sung back to them in a version of their own repetoire. Copying them in my own way. Their response was so positive that I began to use echo and looping pedals so they could listen to themselves. You can see some of this work happening in the video. You’ll see the looks of delighted recognition on the faces of the students.

Gobsmacked was a logistically complicated, and aesthetically challenging adventure that was ‘successful’ and ‘unsuccesful ‘ in equal parts. What I take for myself from it now is that sense of finding a niche. In community music it’s useful to be versatile and flexible, to turn your hand to anything that’s asked of you. I’ve never really been that way. I started as a drummer but became more interested in Voice. But only in SEND settings. And then especially in SEND settings with PMLD students. Niche of niche of a niche. Becoming less and less employable and at the same time coming closer and closer to the essence of what I had to offer. A way of paying attention to a channel of receiving and broadcasting that we could all access but most people don’t.

As ever there’s more I could say about that. About methodologies, personalities, and expectations around what counts as music or creativity. But what I want to point to here is music as a way of making of difference, music as activism.

Gobsmacked, happened under the aegis of More Music as was most of the community music work I ever did. Their strap line was building confidence and spirit. At the time I didn’t take much notice of that - marketing spiel. But as I look back I see that nurturing those two qualities, in communities and individuals, really was what it was all about.

XR

This really came home to me during XR’s April 2019 Rebellion on the streets of Westminster. It wasn’t a More Music project but I was there with close friend and MM founder Pete Moser. He had a trumpet and accordion. I had a big bass drum.

We were involved in ‘taking’ and occupying a stretch of Whitehall near Waterloo Bridge. It went well. A base was established. Tents, kitchens. We were there for the long stay. Chanting ,samba bands, red rebels.

The police left us alone for quite a while but eventually came in numbers targeting all the structures and serving us orders, of questionable legitimacy, to move.

After they’d gone we were left sad and bedraggled and a bit shocked. People sat around in small groups, talking quietly. No more samba bands, no more singing. Pete and I felt sorry for ourselves too. Till we started playing our instruments. Just for ourselves at first, but that quiet energy had a clear impact on the people around us. They noticed and smiled and, encouraged, we stood up, walked around, got a little louder. People swayed in time to us. A little dancing broke out. The front line re-formed and pinned out their huge banner again. Tents were uprighted. People stood tall again.

As we played I saw spirit and confidence building before my eyes. And the music we were making had been clearly been foundational in that. Unforgettable. I got it! Music is unlikely to change anyone’s mind but it can support people’s hearts. It can remind us who we are and what we’re here for. Bring our attention and energy back to who and what we value and love.

MY MANY COMPANIONS

In March I did the first two Offerings on Cherished Land of My Many Companions. The first one over in County Durham involved a 150 mile round journey to play to a single figure ‘crowd’ outdoors in unpredictably unwelcoming weather. The last mile took 30mins as I drove in loops struggling to find the exact location. All the ingredients for one of those ‘WHY AM I DOING THIS?!’ afternoons. But it was a truly wonderful experience for me and my companions.

The drizzle felt like it could be sat through till it began to come down more relentlessly ten minutes before we were due to begin. Hastily we strung a tarp up and all got under it. As I sang the wind lifted it like a parachute, then dropped it onto my head. Rather than an encumbrance it felt like the tarp was channeling the presence of the wind. The sounds of flapping air and scratching branches part of the orchestration.

Following an attentive silence when I finally came to the end of the hour’s set, people responded generously. I told them I genuinely felt it had little to do with me. I’d successfully dialed my ego out and allowed ‘eco’ through. “It felt like the Spirits were here with us.” someone said. Not something I’d ever thought of but I couldn’t have hoped for a better quote.

I mention this not because I imagine anyone there was converted from being a climate change-denier to climate-change activist. I do think they arrived believing but maybe left with that belief re-affirmed, perhaps re-ignited. Reminded of what they value and love and re-energised to act - even if it’s to continue to do what they’re already doing. Each of us in our own seemingly impactless, but actually vital, niche of a niche of a niche way.

UPCOMING MMC

MMC:THETOUR continues…

Sunday 10/5 2pm Storth, Cumbria with Sarah Hymas

Sunday 24/5 2pm Ulverston, Cumbria with Amy Clouds

MMC: THE ZINE launches…

Skear Zines online event Tues 2/6 7.45pm tbc

There will be more MMC on Cherished Land in the Autumn including an appearance at The Sondering, a remarkable, boutique festival in the Lake District in September that wants us to meditate on Death and celebrate Life.