Homelessness and the spectre of being too poor to even afford food and the basics of life in Britain in the 21st Century is on the scale of being a national disgrace. Yet with each passing day those supposedly in charge of the nation’s welfare are to be seen as taking a view of moral disgust at the people who find themselves in such positions rather than the root cause of the issue, that of greed and corruption, of allowing Capitalism to smash the lives down of ordinary people in the ever increasing hunt for the spare pound note. It is an attitude that does the Government no good at all and can be seen to further sever the ties between the haves and have nots in society.
Although those in power have done their best to conceal the problem, the scandal that blights the way we can look at ourselves in the mirror, the issue can be seen on any major street or shopping centre, any park, any road or any spot of rain soaked piece of ground. It is one that opens the eyes to just how fortunate some are to even just to have a roof over their heads and as the economic tightening strap further erodes into the lives of those who rely, who are in the very basic need of compassion and help from a society that never seems to care, the more it seems that the ordinary person finds a way to take Government to task and to shame them with an idea of such magnitude that only good can come of it.
For Val Colvin, the idea has caught the attention of Liverpool and in We Shall Overcome, a weekend of music and events, not just in Liverpool but further afield, will shine a very big torch on the disgrace that is being perpetuated in our name. Talking to Val Colvin before next weekend’s events I ask her –
Where did you get the idea from?
VC: “Two friends of mine, Joe Solo and Ste Goodall, who are musicians, watched the election and they were not happy with the results and they wanted to do something to help people who were suffering from the Government’s policies of austerity so they Facebooked each other on the night of the elctions and said what is it we can do and they both decided to do a music event in aid of food banks. Whilst they were on Facebook, they messaged all their friends to see if there was anything we could do. I was on Facebook at the time and I said I sure Liverpool could do something and messaged all my friends, within 48 hours, 30 friends had said we’ll help and within another 48 hours, I had 70 friends saying we’ll help so I asked them who was going to organise Liverpool and they said you are! So that’s how I became involved, I’ve no music background but I’ve got lots of friends who are musicians.”
It’s quite a startling fact that, as you say, as someone who has no musical background except for watching live music; that you’ve managed to pull off a very sensational event. That must make you very proud I guess.
VC: “I’m extremely proud and humbled by how willing everyone was to help such a good cause. We started this cause with absolutely no money at all, we’ve got the venues for nothing, we’ve got musicians for nothing, we’ve got the sound engineers for nothing, which is unusual I’m told. We’ve got merchandise for nothing from people and we’ve now got an art auction on the Monday. It has been so popular in Liverpool we’ve extended our “weekend” from the 2nd – 4th October, to 1st – 5thOctober with our finale being an art auction at The Brink in aid of the Whitechapel Centre. I’ve had over 100 pieces of art donated to me so I am proud of what I’ve done. In real life, I’m an intensive care nurse and I wouldn’t have done it without the aid of friends.”
I’m glad you’ve mentioned friends as I was going to lead on from that, you must be proud of Liverpool as well.
VC: “Liverpool is a well-known city for helping people, if there’s anyone in crisis the people will always help. There are lots of events happen at the drop of a hat. Someone will say they need help and people will help. When I put this to people, straight away they said they’d help, they’ve passed it on to their friends and we have 22 events now taking place in Liverpool with everyone saying ‘yes’. I’m very proud of Liverpool and I’m very proud of the Liverpool musicians and the music scene and very proud of all the music venues that are helping us. I’ve been very humbled actually mostly by the young people who are getting involved. I felt that my generation might not be safe in the hands of the youngsters but they get involved in all the social issues and social events, they are helping people all the time and I’m very proud of them as well.”
Do you feel saying that about our generation being in the hands of the young, that there is a groundswell within Liverpool and Merseyside of anger that hasn’t been seen for so long in this country from the younger generation? They not only see where they’ve been let down but also their families as well.
VC: “I don’t necessarily see it as anger, I think all their frustration is coming out now and they are being given another voice by other people who are talking about what their needs are as well as what their family needs and they want to help. I haven’t seen anger, I’ve seen spirit, I’ve seen people getting together, I’ve seen community building. That’s what I’ve seen with the youngsters. I’ve went to St Michael’s Irish Centre on Friday and all the youngsters sitting around drinking Coke, listening to the music and hugging each other, there was a real sense of community. I met two young girls, Sufea and Sumuyya, involved in The Granby Project, early 20s they are and are involved in the Project to help people in their community. We have the only College in the country involved in WSO – Birkenhead Sixth Form College– who are doing a food bank collection and playing acoustic music in their lunch hour, that’s helping their local community. I think there’s not so much an anger but they are releasing their frustrations and finding their voices now.”
Coming back to the art auction, which is almost a unique thing for the city, are there any pieces that stand out for you?
VC: “There are a wide range of donations given to us, absolutely! There are paintings, there is poetry, drawings, jewellery, glass, sculptures, ceramics, pottery, there’s wooden art pieces, there are all kinds of things that people want to put their own kind of mark on by talking to the world through their art. Again, I’ve no experience of art at all, a friend of mine called Danny Crone who goes by the name of Cyrano Denn offered me four John Lennon pieces that he’d done and asked me to raffle them for our event, put them wherever you want and I said they’re too good to raffle but you’ve given me an idea. So that’s who started this auction. He’s a lovely man and again gets very embarrassed when you talk about him and say how good he is and how he started all of this, but he’s got all the credit for the art auction. My job again was that I simply asked and people said ‘yes’. Adam Partridge said he wanted to work with the Whitechapel Centre so we’ve killed two birds with one stone and he’s helping us, all for nothing. The Brink is giving us the space for nothing and hopefully we’ll raise a lot of money for homeless people.”
The Brink is almost the ideal venue for you with the way that it works with recovering alcoholics and it’s got a very laid back atmosphere in there.
VC: “The Brink has given us everything we want, we’ve got a music event on there, we’ve got the auction on there. We’re also hoping to help them with some funding, they do a suspended coffee scheme, whereby you go in and buy a coffee and you buy an extra one so someone who’s homeless comes in and they can have a hot drink. They must use their services as well, so there’s a catch there and they know where to go for help. All these things going on around us to help people in a world which is rich and in a city which is rich. There are lots of people who have money and yet there are lots of people who don’t have any money. Many don’t have a roof over their heads or a sandwich to eat, nothing. It’s so unequal, it’s so bad that in the 21stCentury, it’s still that way, because it should be shared around with everyone. People should be given the chance to work, to earn a bit more money and to help people. Our objective in this is not so much political, it’s come from a political stance where we see austerity harming people but ours is about building community as well we are anti-austerity, pro-community, we really want to build on that.”
Liverpool is probably the biggest pro-community city in the whole of the country.
VC: “Absolutely! Liverpool has embraced the ethos of ‘We Shall Overcome’ look at the amount of events we’ve got on. It just so happens to be the Everton v Liverpool Derby on Sunday 4th October so we’ve also got Everton Football Club and in particular Everton in the Community involved. They, and in particular Steven Naismith, are massive supporters of The Whitechapel Centre. Everton are holding a food bank drop off point at Everton Free School, Spellow Lane. Anyone going to the match can drop off items between 11.30am-1.30pm. So, we’ve done very well in Liverpool with all of our events, but it doesn’t matter that some places are putting snooker events on, or bingo events on, or any small event it all helps. Manchester have put a load of events on, Hull as well. We’ve got some in America and some in Canada, some in Australia. Next year we will work with the wider community to work on this. So it doesn’t matter if you’re putting one thing on or if you are putting 20 things on we’re raising food or money, we’re all in the same family, we’re all helping people, that’s what it’s all about.”
Ian D. Hall