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NEWSLETTER NO. 2 Red Notes is a socialist choir based in Bristol. We sing songs of peace, justice and human rights and welcome new members. If you would like to join the choir (basses are particularly wanted) or could offer your support in other ways please get in touch. Choir practices take place on Wednesday evenings at St Werburgh’s community centre, Horley Road at 7.30.Since the last newsletter Red Notes has performed at a number of events and venues. We were there for the toppling of Bush’s statue in the City Centre where an enthusiastic crowd joined in with our singing and a South African woman was particularly pleased to hear some songs from the years of struggle against apartheid. We sang at a George Galloway meeting at the Malcolm X centre, at Bristol University Students Union for a meeting on Palestine and Edward Said’s contribution to the struggle, we entertained the crowds attending a tribute concert to Paul Robeson by Willard White outside the Colston Hall (and were invited by the management to sing in the bar afterwards!) and we have done street singing in support of various causes. Our next booking is on 21st February at the Southville Centre to open the peace festival there. AGM As a fully fledged and bona-fide organisation Red Notes had its first AGM on 21st January this year. It was a lively and well-attended meeting, though it was frustrating to have so many present yet so little time left to sing! We have a constitution and a bank account, and it was agreed that members would pay subs of £8 waged/£4 unwaged by standing order if possible, or £2/£1 per session attended. Elections took place for various posts : Secretary – Flo (Deputy – Andy); Treasurer – Janine; Publicity – Miriam (Deputy – Jude); Newsletter Editor – Quentin (Deputy – Clare); Archivist – Sonia; Membership Secretary – Jude. We’re hoping that future newsletters will have some interesting contributions from them on their roles. Joining the Red Notes I first met the choir at Tolpuddle where I was helping at one of the bookstalls. Although it was July our stall was in a freezing draught and so I had bought a red top from the Amnesty stall to keep warm. Perhaps this was what prompted one of the Red Notes members to ask me if I’d like to sing along with them – so I sang a couple of songs which I knew and listened to some new ones and I was hooked! After the summer break I joined the choir properly and have been singing regularly for nearly six months now. For anyone thinking of joining the choir I’d say "yes, do it now – the choir members will give you a warm welcome". I hadn’t sung anything beyond a pub knees-up or a hymn at a funeral for years and my voice was as rusty as a burnt-out car but the friendly encouragement I had soon cut through the nervousness and helped me to get back "in song". It is hard work – the first few practice sessions felt very tiring but I was surprised how soon I could follow my part and contribute to the splendid choir sound and now it all seems much easier. My first gig with Red Notes was at the Bridgwater Peace Festival in September and by then I could join in most of the songs reasonably confidently. I nearly came unstuck though when we sang ‘Only Our Rivers’. This song has such beautiful harmonies and poignant words that I found it hard not to cry. It is a favourite song for most of us although the Welsh song that we are currently learning sounds wonderfully haunting too. Most of our songs are cheerful and rousing with quite a few old favourites. ‘Siya Hamba’ sung in the African Xhosa language is probably the song we sing best – everyone loves this one. Many of the gigs for the choir are outdoors – we sang at the ‘Toppling Bush’ demo in November for instance and then at the ‘Buy Nothing Day’ in Broadmead. Our performances prompt a lot of interested queries from the public, which are difficult to answer properly while we are singing. (We really need a non-singing member or two to help us with this.) The choir performs in public about once a month, which seems quite busy. One of the perks apart from the sheer fun of singing is taking part in some fascinating festivals and rallies as part of the Peace and Justice movement. I love it and look forward to an exciting programme of singing in 2004. Tess Fête de l’Humanite´ Talking of festivals, as mentioned in the last newsletter Red Notes are taking a coach from Bristol to the Fête de l’Humanite´ in Paris in September. Bookings are now being taken. The cost is £180 for the coach and 3 nights B&B in a 3* hotel in central Paris. A £25 deposit will secure you a place. CD The plan to make our first CD is progressing. Cost is £100, and we will need to do some serious and intensive rehearsing. The AGM endorsed the idea, and currently we hope to have it ready for the summer. Jeff Brewster - photographer, calendar producer and Sedgemoor Peace Group member – has agreed to do the graphics. Donations towards the cost would be welcome. Buy Nothing Day (This was written in early January – the Newsletter was a bit delayed) How relevant this seems now we are facing the mounds of post-Christmas waste on our doorsteps. On that cold November day in Broadmead most of the crowds of shoppers only saw the few intrepid members of the Green Party and reduced Red Notes choir as interesting street entertainment rather than protest against rabid consumerism. How many useless and tacky presents did you give and receive this year? And what about those bright lights consuming electricity as if it didn’t cost the earth, not to mention the mountains of food wasted either in our dustbins or by us over-fed westerners shoving even more excess down our gullets. Oh yes, and the gift-wrap bulging out of the dustbins……. I could go on. Bah humbug you say, but stop a minute and think who really benefits from our ridiculous celebration of greed. Most of us would agree that it is the time spent with friends and family over Christmas which really makes this a happy time. Kids fractious from too many plastic geegaws and adults grumpy from too much food and drink detract from our pleasure rather than adding to it. So why do we do it? To keep up with everyone else perhaps, and from a desire not to appear mean. How much does powerful advertising drive our behaviour? Of course there is pleasure in giving and entertaining but we might enjoy it more if it were all simpler and less lavish. For my part I resolve to keep my Christmas presents next year small, inexpensive and homemade or recycled as far as possible. I have kept this year’s wrappings to recycle next year and cards will be made into labels so I won’t need to tear round the shops buying things that people don’t really want. I hope that ‘No Shopping Day’ will be repeated and that we’ll make more of an impact perhaps a bit earlier next time. Scrooge Contributions for the newsletter are always very welcome. Any views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the editors nor the majority of Red Notes members. Copyright February 2004 © Red Notes Publications
NEWSLETTER NO. 3 Red Notes is Bristol’s only socialist choir, based at St Werburghs Community Centre Horley Road. We practise there each Wednesday between 7.30 and 9.30pm and new members are always welcome. You can also contact us by email at rednoteschoir@yahoo.co.uk or via our website at http://beehive.thisisbristol/rednoteschoir , where you will find details of our repertoire, our diary, photos and other information. It’s been a while since the last newsletter and a lot has happened since then. We opened the Southville Peace Festival in February, and have sung at a range of other events : in March at Bristol Unison BCWVO branch AGM, the Global Day of Action demo in Bristol on 20th - the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq; in April outside the court on the opening day of the trial of the ‘Fairford Five’; at the May Day celebration organised by Bristol Trades Council at the Centre for the Deaf; at a Night for Palestine in June at St Werburghs to raise funds for Medical Aid for Palestinians; at Tolpuddle in July and most recently at a benefit party to raise money for Voices in the Wilderness UK and at the Fête de l’Humanité in Paris (see reports below).
In Newsletter No 2 we said we planned to make a CD. We somewhat underestimated the cost initially, not fully appreciating the various stages of production, but we managed to raise and borrow the £1000 needed, and it is now available for £10. Red Notes is non-profit making, and all proceeds from the CD will be ploughed back into enabling us to be more effective in campaigning with those causes which support the struggle for peace justice and human rights.
RECORDING THE CD We were singing at the Tolpuddle Festival last year and Tony Benn stopped by to listen to us and have a chat. He then asked us where he could get our CD. This prompted us to record one. The thought was a bit daunting as Red Notes was only 2 years old then but we were all keen. In April this year we made the decision to do it and aimed to have the CD ready for this year’s Tolpuddle Festival. This gave us two months to carry it through. From then on we spent all choir practice sessions rehearsing the songs that would be included on the CD. We also held extra rehearsal practices at some of our singers’ houses – thank you to Lola and Chris for invading your homes for two months! The recording date was set to 6 June to allow enough time for the CD to be produced. We worked extremely hard that day and managed to record all 17 songs. We all went home exhausted but buzzing with excitement. The beautiful art work on the cover was provided by Jeff Brewster who has been a great supporter of Red Notes from the beginning. Many thanks to Jeff for the time he spent doing this. The recording was done by Tom Simenauer and we thank him for his immense patience and professionalism. We have been overwhelmed by the many donations we received towards the cost of producing the CD and we thank everybody - South West Democratic Left, South West TUC, Bristol and West Region CND and a number of local Unison Branches. Apologies to those which have not been acknowledged on the inside cover – the donations reached us after the CD had gone to press. The CD contains most of our favourite pieces and is a mixture of international songs. We hope that people who have bought it enjoy listening to it as much as we have enjoyed making it. Flo
VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS – FUND RAISER Many thanks to everyone who supported Clare and Quentin’s fund raising party for Voices in the Wilderness. We raised in total £106.45. Luckily the sun was shining and so we were able to spend the afternoon and early evening outside. Guests started arriving at about 2pm and everyone contributed to a wonderful selection of food and drinks. The Red Notes were in full swing by 3pm, practising for the forthcoming Paris trip and some of our regular followers were in full voice too. The Tombola was a great success, especially for those who won prizes - although one child spent £5 trying to win back the box of chocolates she had contributed in the first place! Janine presented a book token to Jeff on behalf of the Red Notes. Jeff had kindly done the graphics, free of charge, for our CD ‘Red Notes Rising’. There was also a range of entertainment from people singing, playing guitar, wind instruments and drums. Rob put on a great performance and managed to get maximum audience participation. Later in the evening there was a barbeque and the party continued into the night with music and dancing. The last of the ravers finally retired to their tents/caravans/beds at about 3.30am. All good fun in a good cause! Clare
RED NOTES CELEBRATE 100 YEARS OF l’HUMANITE Piling out of the taxi at 7.30 on a very wet and windy Friday morning to wait for the coach to Paris seemed a bad idea for a few moments. Then familiar faces of people I hadn't seen for years started to emerge from the huddled crowd as we bundled into the coach and the fun began. We chattered, ate, sang (of course) and drank our way to Paris via the Dover-Calais ferry. Our driver, Ken, was stress and noise resistant and coped splendidly with unscheduled dead ends, hair-raisingly narrow streets and all the other hazards of the Paris rush hour to get us to our hotel on time. The hotel was posh and very convenient with the Gare de l'Est and Metro at the door. Most of us set out to have an evening in Paris. Our little party enjoyed a good and cheapish French meal and then the more hardy of us found a jazz bar. In the morning after a wondrous buffet breakfast there was time for more pavement pounding before catching the coach to the Fête, ready to sing! We hadn't reckoned with the horrendous traffic and complete lack of sign posting and arrived at the Fête site to be turned away to find the 'proper' coach park a few yards away. Those few yards involved a huge and frustrating detour by road and we arrived hot and sticky at the Chorale Populaire marquee just as they finished singing! Never mind - we were greeted very warmly and the mikes and sound system put out again for us to sing - just as a huge cloudburst started which scattered us to the nearest shelter. We eventually sang squashed into the marquee behind the sheltering masses. Later we sploshed our way through the mud to sing at the Morning Star stand where we collected a few fans, some of whom turned up every time we sang. The high spot of the tour, for me, was singing in the Iraq tent. We sang our Arabic anthem "Biladi" which ended with audience and singers moved to tears. Then everyone joined in the Internationale in French. The Fête de l'Humanité is the most amazing gathering. Every country in the world and every region of France seem to have a stand - the Chinese and Iranian tents looked especially enticing. There is dancing, drumming, clowning, a fun fair, films, theatre and of course lots of opportunities for exciting food and drink. Some of us had a late lunch in the Paris Communist Party marquee - very smart with wooden floor and waitress service! Everywhere there are passionate political debates amid all the razzmatazz and jazz. You'd need a month to see it all. We couldn't do justice to the 'book village', the multi-media centre or the sports displays and tended to stay in the Village du Monde where all the international stands were. On our second day at the Fête we managed to sing with Chorale Populaire. They are a fifty strong, very organised lot with two conductors who conducted alternate songs, both with impressive panache. Their songs were arranged in sophisticated and very effective styles but our "Diggers" song seemed to have defeated them. (This is a very English song with a 17th century melody and down to earth words.) " Mandela", which was another song we sang together, nearly defeated us as they had completely rearranged it. Fortunately our listening skills helped us to avoid messing up this lovely song. (Thanks to Ann-Marie for her patient training.) We were all relieved that we managed to sing "Chiffon Rouge" correctly, as this is the French equivalent of our "Red Flag". It felt really good to sing the Internationale as part of Chorale Populaire especially when the audience joined in the chorus. It was a memorable experience to sing with such a choir but it was with relief that Red Notes and the Cor Cochion members who had supported us started our busking again. Wherever we sang we got a great audience response. Our non-singing followers, as well as the Chorale helpers, managed to sell quite a few of our CDs (don't worry there are plenty more!) and we got enough compliments to feel really good. Most of us ended the Fête by listening to "Quilapayun". This group of Chilean musicians were in Paris to sing at the Fête de l'Humanite 31 years ago when the Pinochet coup took place, making it impossible for them to return home. Their songs represent the spirit of resistance sung with passion. Some die-hards from our party stayed on after the close of the Fête to enjoy the warm glow of winding down and packing up, but most of us had been long enough on our feet in the noise, bustle and mud and were glad to catch the coach back to the hotel. Next day a leisurely and hassle free journey back home in spite of rough seas. Au revoir Paris, Chorale and the Fête - we'll be back. Tess
(Plans are already in hand to run a coach again next year, by popular request, so book the weekend of 10/11th September 2005 in your diary now! Ed. ) Advert (sort of) Do people know about the Phone Co-op? It’s a co-operative which offers an alternative to putting money in the hands of BT or other large corporations. They offer good deals on internet connection, email facilities and general call charges including a free 0845 number so that people can call you from anywhere in the UK for the cost of a local call. For more info see www.thephone.coop or phone 0845 458 9000. What about a Red Notes christmas card this year? This picture is by Sarah Gittins who used to do a lot of the posters for the peace vigil. She gave it to Neville Carey from DL who said that it is a picture of Red Notes singing at the vigil.
Future Events Red Notes will be performing African songs at Wrington Memorial Hall, on Saturday 2nd October. All proceeds will go to Swaziland Schools via Skillshare International. The schools are for children who have been orphaned, mainly as a result of Aids. The evening of music and dance will also feature performances by Out of the Blue, Cousin Mary and Moya ( from Swaziland ).The evening event, starting 7.30, is part of a full day’s programme, including children’s art exhibition, drumming workshops etc. Other plans include monthly singing at the peace vigil and continued support for the Fairford Five. Contributions for the newsletter are always very welcome. Any views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the editors nor the majority of Red Notes members.
Copyright October 2004 © Red Notes Publications |
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