CENTRE STAGE 2015 the search begins

MARTIN HOUSE CHILDREN’S HOSPICE PRESENTS: CENTRE STAGE 2015

Hot off the heels of ‘Centre Stage’ winning Hospice UK's 2014 National Award for 'Innovation in Income Generation', 2015’s competition is now open for registration. Martin House Children’s Hospice, together with Leeds & Reading Festivals, have begun their new search for the act who will ultimately claim the prize of playing at next summer’s Leeds AND Reading Festivals, and a music performance video with Shot by Sodium.

The competition has gone from strength to strength since its inception in 2009 and continues to receive involvement and support from Yorkshire bands Embrace, Pigeon Detectives, The Cribs and Pulled Apart by Horses. Now in its sixth year, the competition, which raises vital funds for the hospice, is inviting young bands and soloists of ANY genre to enter. Participants must be between 11- 21 years old and from North or West Yorkshire. 

Over the coming months, registered acts will undertake their own fundraising for Martin House, who witness the therapeutic benefits of music first hand within the hospice. Once registered, acts will be automatically entered into the Heats, which will take place on 28/29/30 April at the Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds. The lucky finalists will then take to the stage at O2 Academy, Leeds, on 22nd July, following a professional mentoring day.

The competition hopes to hit the big £200,000 mark next year, in terms of funds raised. Martin House are currently looking for sponsorship for the year ahead. “Securing this would give us a huge boost and help us to make even more money for Martin House – we’d love to hear from people who would like to share our exposure and journey right through to Leeds Festival” says Centre Stage Organiser, Sarah Smith.

The competition is an invaluable link to the local music industry, especially those supportive of unsigned, young artists. It has provided connections and opportunities for many contenders, including those with BBC Introducing and M.A.S. Records. Impressively, 2012 finalists ‘Carnabells’ played this summer’s Glastonbury Festival and previous winners have taken to the road and supported both The Pigeon Detectives and Embrace!

Overall, the competition is about YOUNG PEOPLE HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE!

To enter, please register online on the Martin House website, ensuring you read the rules and regs! http://www.martinhouse.org.uk/Centre-Stage

Notes:

“I’d strongly urge local, young musicians to enter. It really is an incredible opportunity.” Mike Heaton, Embrace

“Every year I’ve been impressed by the calibre of the young artists who participate, and blown away by the commitment and effort they put into their fundraising. I’m delighted to be involved as Centre Stage has gone from strength to strength.” Melvin Benn – MD Festival Republic

• Please credit photographs to ‘Sodium’ (http://www.shotbysodium.com/)

Centre Stage Background: The premise of the Centre Stage Competition is to give young bands a fantastic platform and exposure whilst raising vital funds for Martin House Children’s Hospice. Since its initial launch, by The Pigeon Detectives in autumn 2009, Centre Stage has so far provided a platform for over 150 young, Yorkshire acts and raised close to £200,000 for Martin House Children’s Hospice. The competition has the support of Embrace, The Pigeon Detectives, The Cribs, Pulled Apart by Horses and Festival Republic. In order to enter, artists must be under 21 years old and in North or West Yorkshire and must be committed to undertake their own fundraising for the hospice, ideally with the support of their school/college.

Martin House Children’s Hospice: Martin House Children’s Hospice cares for children and young people, throughout Yorkshire, who have a life limiting illness. They support their families too, through the life of their child and through their bereavement. On opening in 1987, they were only the second children’s hospice in the UK. They now have an established teenage unit, Whitby Lodge, which was the first in the world to open. Martin House needs to raise over £4.5m this year to run, receiving less than 12% from Government sources.

Contact: Sarah Smith – Centre Stage Organiser:

ssmith@martinhouse.org.uk // 01937 844569

https://www.facebook.com/centre.stage.5

www.martinhouse.org.uk

Twitter: @centrestage2015 // @MartinHouseCH

Interview with Lansana Mansaray, “Now Ebola is the new Civil war.”

 Barmmy Boy talks about his new track ‘Pack Up and Go’ an inspirational  empowering rap about Ebola that he is producing in the Studio with Hull based music producer Steve Cobby, composer and co-founder Fila Brazillia.

Barmmy was born in Freetown, Sierra Le

one, growing up in the crowded streets of Cockle Bay Lane, living most of his boyhood and youth through civil war and strife. After the civil war encountering music helped heal and empower Barmmy and has driven him to share its power with others.

“Now Ebola is the new Civil war.”

 “Ebola now is killing people really fast like happened in the Civil War and you know during the civil war there was a lot of fear in the community, most people left the country because of the fighting and it’s happening again. Flights have been stopped, people can’t get into the country, everyone is panicking you know, and people are dying- it’s like another civil war again.”

“The Civil war was devastating, people were dying for us and you couldn’t tell when your time is up you know, you could be killed by a stray bullet or you could be killed by a stray bomb or someone would come up and shoot you or something.” Ebola is like this.

 “It’s the truth and nobody is talking about it and if no one is talking about it it still exists and it is about time someone talks about it.”

‘Pack and Go’ is about Ebola, its kinda pack and go to a new stranger. My song allows the people to address their own problems, allowing the people to actually see Ebola as a threat and saying it should go; it should be banished, it should be taken care of, it should be controlled. And people should take the necessary precautions. If people say this for themselves instead of allowing someone to tell them, control them, a key issue”

Does it frighten You? “Yes it does I’ve got my family there and I want to get back at some point I should have flown back but because of the situation I have postponed it.”

Are your family at risk? “Yes they are because all of them live in Freetown, six sisters and my mum. My mum is a petty trader and my dad is blind. Cos I live in a very congested community and hand shaking is common and as soon as you have slight fever the simplest way to check is by putting the hand in your neck and if your neck is really hot they say oh you have a fever. And because Ebola does transfer through touching- then it is a problem.” 

 “As soon as I’ve finished recording it Pack and Go- if it’s done in one day I’m going to send it down to Freetown Sierra Leone. I m going to put it on Facebook a lot and You Tube but mostly it’s meant for the radios to share in Freetown”

Barmmy talked about his experiences in the Civil War, “I was a young man by then caught up in the fighting and you know for a few years because I was young I moved with a group of young guys and friends who most of them I lost you know. I was around fourteen. I had an M16 for a while for a friend. I was part of a community division, at this time we had trained soldiers.” 

There was a time in Freetown when a lot of people had guns so you definitely needed a gun because you don’t want someone to show up in your home and ask you for your food or you know something, and if you don’t give him, he’s going to shoot you. So most houses had a gun to defend their families and make sure intruders don’t come in and take things away.

Did you use a gun? “Not really just during the celebrations shooting and scaring you know”

“There was a point in time I was caught up in the crossfire but I didn’t get to use [a gun] cos we fall back, we had to retreat. That is where I lost most of my friends.”

“I have lived with trauma for a long time, though you know I try to cover it up, but sometimes it brings memories. Five of my best friends they have gone down in a single day and you know my sister and my younger brother; my father lost his eyesight totally so sometimes it brings back bad memories”

But also because I am alive and I can live with life, I feel motivated to move on and make a difference, cos you know I don’t even know if it was luck, I don’t really know what kept me alive. I don’t know why I am still here to keep going, moving and doing.

I left home when I was eleven, so pretty much living the street life, fishing was part of this and I had to do a lot of petty trading, selling things in the streets was a big part of my survival and also working for food.  

When the war ended in Sierra Leone like many other young people music played a vital role in the trauma healing process. Like music was the driving force for a lot of young people. We used music to talk about issues affecting us in our communities. We decided to use music to talk about our social problems. “That was the same as using the guitar instead of the gun.”

“I became a music director and worked for the International Education Network- with the task to coordinate ex combat and ex fighters and of course young people who wanted to use music to talk about their problems; to talk about their experiences too in the world just to express themselves.”

They have covered many issues; HIV, Corruption, Child Abuse, Poverty all sorts of issues.

Barmmy came to Hull to work with several schools and to continue his learning about filmaking, extending his work with young people, teaching Rapping as a means to empower and telling his own stories about conflict and corruption. Barmmy Boy uses rap to make young people aware of the issues facing them in Sierra Leone.  “My songs are about issues, if I can say positive things. I see them as a voice for the young people in my own country.”

“Young people are marginalised back in Sierra Leone and the young people are the less fortunate ones, Young People make up 40% of the population. They are the pillars of the nation. If they are empowered even with the necessary information or schemes to move on, then we are talking about the development of the grassroots. Education in general would change lots of things.”

The Winners are - - --

Rock schooldrummers

King-No-one

Isaac Haywood

 An amazing start to the Centre Stage Final as Rockschool drummers took the stage and gave a tremendous performance of their talents ably conducted by Isaac Haywood. Then to a crescendo of noise last years winners  King No-One  joined them on stage soon to be followed by the contestants:-

Shupadum

 Shupadum,Chickadees,Girlsondrugs,Bryony Drake,premonition,Random Behaviour,Oliver Pinder,Conflare,the Puppeteers,Arcarode,The Concetines and  demoralised who entertained us for the next 2 hours all hoping to claim the prize to play at Leeds and Reading Festival 2014. All these young bands have raised over £1000 each for Martin House Children's Hospice
   whilst the Judges made their deliberations  the supports keep up a constant chant hoping to sway the judges,

Random Behaviour

Eventually the results were in and all the bands were waiting with baited breath until  they were announced.

Premonition

The Runners up were Conflare and Arcarode

Girlsondrugs

The Winners were Girlsondrugs who received their certificate to a roar of approval from the audience.
Centre Stage registration for 2015 is open in September 2014
We will let you know how much was collected for Martin House when all the money has been collected

Bryony Drake

Oliver Pinder

The Puppeteers

Conflare

We wish all the entrants well as they clearly all have a future and Congratulations yet again to girlsondrugs We are already looking forward to next years competition.

Arcarode

Demoralised

The Concetines

Denis
Yorkshire Gig Guide

The excitement builds at o2 Leeds

  

**MARTIN HOUSE CHILDREN’S HOSPICE PRESENTS: THE FINAL - CENTRE STAGE 2014**

Back in April, Martin House Children’s Hospice held their fifth, annual Centre Stage Heats at The Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds. The venue hosted three nights of young, local bands and artists  battling it out to earn themselves a place at this month’s Final, where they will compete for a place on the bill at both the Leeds and Reading Festivals this August and also a performance video shot by local filmmakers, Sodium.

The Final is now looming and very eagerly anticipated, and is set to take place on Wednesday 23rd July at O2 Academy, Leeds. The event will see the most diverse range of contenders to date and will be judged by a high profile panel, including Jon McIldowie (Booker for Leeds and Reading), Mike Heaton (Embrace) and James Brown (Pulled Apart by Horses). The evening will be hosted by local Music Producer, Ed Heaton, who also offers a recording prize to the competition.

The Finalists:

CONFLARE: an exciting four-piece from Castleford with catchy guitar riffs. Their third time in Centre Stage!

DEMORALISED: four-piece from Otley. In their words “Showing people how Metalcore should be done”!

BRYONY DRAKE: singer/songwriter from Tadcaster, playing acoustic folk and well-crafted hooks.

RANDOM BEHAVIOUR: a young, four-piece alternative rock band from Prince Henry’s in Otley.

ARCARODE: a new, ambient alternative rock band, from Leeds, with a slight hint of folk from the violin.

OLIVER PINDER: young, fresh, singer/songwriter from Halifax playing upbeat pop/folk music.

GIRLS ON DRUGS: two-piece electro from Selby. Deep bass synths and sultry vocals.

THE CONCETINES: four-piece playing catchy, infectious indie rock. Been on the Leeds’ scene for a while.

CHICKADEES: young, budding band from Leeds. Uplifting saxophone, synth and melodies!

SHUPADUM: from Tadcaster/ York. Their sound is centred around ‘playing fun music’ and ‘rocking hard’!

PREMONITION: a teenage rock band from North Yorkshire made up of four students from Selby College.

THE PUPPETEERS: four-piece bluesy, rock band from Prince Henry’s in Otley. Also finalists in 2013.

 ....and Special Guests King No-One (winners of 2013) and Rock School UK.

Since securing their places, the finalists have been busy upping their rehearsal time, writing new material and getting lots of gigging practice, not to mention continuing their fundraising and helping to raise the profile of the competition and charity. As preparation for the final, Martin House have organised professional mentor sessions at Old Chapel Studios, Leeds, to answer any last minute questions and deliver some constructive advice for their big performance.

To date, Centre Stage has been a great success and last year welcomed its first winning band from North Yorkshire, King No-One, who received an amazing reception at Leeds & Reading, and still remain close supporters of the charity. Previous winners ‘The Mexanines’ reaped the benefits of the exposure that Centre Stage has given them as they enjoyed life on the road as the main support for The Pigeon Detectives at the end of 2013. Also, 2012 finalists ‘Carnabells’ have just played this summer’s Glastonbury Festival on the BBC Introducing Stage.

The competition has now raised almost £150,000 for the charity, which has been channelled directly into the care of the children and their families at Martin House Children’s Hospice.

Fantastic prizes also awarded to ‘the best fundraisers’, ‘the runners up’, ‘best promotion and publicity’ and ‘best door tally’. Blacks Solicitors are assisting with sponsorship for the event.

The Final will be held on Wednesday 23^rd July at O2 Academy, Leeds. Doors 6.15pm. Show starts 7pm. Tickets are available at www.o2academyleeds.co.uk at £6.50/£4.50 (concs). The event will also be pay on the door.

END

Notes:

·        Please credit photographs to ‘Sodium’ (http://www.shotbysodium.com/)

Centre Stage Background: The premise of the Centre Stage Competition is to give young bands a fantastic platform and exposure whilst raising vital funds for Martin House Children’s Hospice. Since its initial launch, by The Pigeon Detectives in autumn 2009, Centre Stage has so far provided a platform for over 150 young, Yorkshire acts and raised almost £150,000 for Martin House Children’s Hospice. The competition has the support of Embrace, The Pigeon Detectives, The Cribs, Pulled Apart by Horses and Festival Republic. In order to enter, artists must be under 21 years old and in North or West Yorkshire and must be committed to undertake their own fundraising for the hospice.

Martin House Children’s Hospice: Martin House Children’s Hospice cares for children and young people, throughout Yorkshire, who have a life limiting illness. They support their families too, through the life of their child and through their bereavement. On opening in 1987, they were only the second children’s hospice in the UK. They now have an established teenage unit, Whitby Lodge, which was the first in the world to open. Martin House needs to raise over £4.5m this year to run, receiving less than 12% from Government sources.

Contact: Sarah Smith – Centre Stage Organiser:
ssmith@martinhouse.org.uk // 01937 844569

https://www.facebook.com/centre.stage.5

www.martinhouse.org.uk

Twitter: @centrestage2014 // @MartinHouseCH