and be ready for an all-requests show going back through almost 30 years of my songbook. It will be quite an emotional journey and I’m proper looking forward to it.
The gig will be raising donations for Mesopotamia Cafe in Nottingham as part of We Shall Overcome #WSO2020. Rachel and the team there provide vital grassroots community outreach work there putting together 300 emergency food parcels per week.
Being in lockdown has brought many things into focus for me, but perhaps the most troubling has been how to meet the growing need in our communities when my main source of fundraising has been cut off.
The need out there is greater than ever. With unemployment set to explode and a ‘furloughed’ workers trying to stretch 80% of their wage into 100% of their bills, demand on already stretched food banks has soared; and when that is coupled with a closure of support services, a grassroots emergency is unfolding invisibly, hidden by the emasculating presence of the international health crisis dominating the headlines.
Thankfully, the success of #WSOisolationfest last weekend has secured our operations over in Ashton-under-Lyne, allowing Pauline Town the freedom to continue daily food parcels to the homeless, the elderly, and those with crippling physical and mental health problems struggling so much to provide the basics of existence for themselves. Knowing Pauline is safe has been a massive weight off my shoulders this week, but that is one town, and the question I’ve been asking myself is how do I help the next?
Well, my ‘Live In T’Shed’ gig on Saturday May 2nd began life as a fundraiser to replace my poor stricken laptop, which bid a final farewell to the world in the dying minutes of last week’s festival; but your generosity has meant I have that covered already, so the donations over and above that are now heading to Mesopotamia Cafe in Nottingham, a place delivering emergency food parcels in the Midlands much as Pauline is doing in Greater Manchester. Turning this live stream from t’shed into a fully-blown We Shall Overcome event makes sense, and if it’s a success I will broadcast a monthly show from there until we’re out of lockdown and I can get out and gig again.
Well, I decided yesterday to extend the #NotOnOurWatchCampaign from the ‘We Shall Overcome EP’ to include ALL Joe Solo CDs and backdate it to last Monday, so every penny raised from CD sales online will be donated weekly to a cause in urgent need. This will continue indefinitely, or at least until we can gig again and I can step up the help physically once again.
and you can bag a CD knowing your contribution will have made a direct difference to someone’s life.
So there you have it, #LockdownSolidarity in a nutshell. Donate to the live stream, buy a CD, and you will be helping communities up and down the UK to combat the poverty restrictions of movement are inflicting on hundreds of thousands of people, because behind closed doors, this is the as yet invisible effect of Covid-19, and ultimately it could well be a bigger killer unless we fight it too.
Originally planned as a fundraiser for a replacement for my poor defunct laptop, I will be live streaming a two hour gig from t’shed on Saturday May 2nd into a dedicated Facebook group.
The all-requests gig has now become a We Shall Overcome show, as thanks to the generosity of your support I quickly met the funding target so any money raised from today will be donated to Mesopotamia Cafe in Nottingham, a vital resource for those suffering in the local community and beyond.
Your requests span 29 years of songwriting, so I have my work cut out remembering some of it, but it will keep these idle hands occupied for two more weeks of lockdown, and beyond that, who knows, maybe they’ll let us out to play again.
Though I’m not holding my breath.
If you’d like to watch the live stream it will be into the Facebook group here:
Just have to say a MASSIVE thank you to the 25,000 people who attended WSO ISOLATION FESTIVAL yesterday, turning an otherwise bleak Easter Saturday in lockdown into something truly magnificent.
It wasn’t just the £26,000 raised on the GoFundMe, or the £2000 in festival t-shirts, all of which will keep WE SHALL OVERCOME functioning hitting the front line of need in these most desperate of desperate days; nor was it only the messages streaming in from all over the world- Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Italy, France– telling us how you were spending the day, and how much it all meant to you.
It was something bigger than that. Humanity itself was being tested here. No human contact. No roar of the crowd. No light shows. No big screens. We were sat at home and our only point of contact was a two dimensional screen, our willingness to comment, and the breadth of our collective imaginations.
Yesterday, for all its many faults, social media passed a test. It proved our connections aren’t just physical, they are existential too. 25,000 people transcended their remoteness and beat the lockdown without stepping out of their front door.
Our humanity was more powerful than our separation.
It was incredible.
So a colossal THANK YOU to George Borowski, Poetry Aloud Presents:, Davy Kettyles, Kirsty McGee, Jess Silk, Steve White and the Protest Family, Attila the Stockbroker, Maddy Carty, The Wakes, Caitlin Gilligan, Headsticks, Matt Hill Songwriter, Pixie Styx Music, Phil Odgers, Naomi Bedford & Paul Simmonds, Billy Liar, Chuck SJ, Efa Supertramp, Stephen Morris, Graham Rhodes, Janine Booth, Poetry on the Picket Line, Robb Johnson, Grace Petrie, Carol Hodge, Bernie Laverick, Pete Bentham and the Dinner Ladies, Boss Caine, Paddy Nash & The Happy Enchiladas, John D. Revelator, Depresstival, Star Botherers, Kev Titterton and Billy Bragg for being there for us and spreading that message around the world.
And of course to Matt Hill, Pete Yen, Val Colvin, Jamie Bramwell, Simon Ibbotson, Kevin Pearson and Steve Nevard who made it happen on the day in the name of Stephen Goodall.
Pauline Town? Big Sis? Told you we had your back xx
At 11.45am tomorrow we kickstart #WSOisolationfest with a video tribute to our friend and brother Ste Goodall who left us last week. From there we have 12 hours of music and poetry from some of the UK’s finest, and it should be the perfect way to pass a Saturday in Lockdown Britain.
We are running the event to help Pauline Town through these dark days in one piece, ensuring those 80 packed lunches a day are still reaching street homeless in Greater Manchester, and her work at housing the most vulnerable can continue when we don’t have gigs to fund it; but we are also very aware that people need to spend some shared time with others, and just when we need the energy and inspiration of live music, we can’t get it.
So tomorrow is the tonic. We’ll be on it from 11am with a DJ set from Barnsley Sime, then the event proper follows at 11.45am.
It will take a lot of coffee, but I will be there keeping it rolling for the full shift.
WSO Isolation Festival, set to take place in the dedicated Facebook group on Saturday 11th April just got a major boost and the icing on its cake when Billy Bragg answered the call and added his name to an already stellar cast of performers.
I am so looking forward to this. It is taking every waking moment right now, but promises to be a really special day of togetherness, even if we are all miles apart. Quite aside from the fundraising aspect is the genuine need we have to share something together, a sensation the lockdown is set to deny us for many weeks to come. I’m hoping this will be a day we can all be normal again, a day to remember in a year to forget.
On the other side we have the GoFundMe page for #WSO2020 to keep Pauline Town going with her We Shall Overcome work over in Ashton-under-Lyne. As many of you will know, that incredible lady’s daily graft includes making 70 packed lunches for the local homeless community as well as working tirelessly to house those in desperate need of shelter. That is usually funded by gigs and donations, but the current circumstances mean this is impossible so we were forced to get creative and from that was born this festival.
As a footnote I want to acknowledge the phenomenal contribution of Steve Nevard who has been selling #WSO2020 merch and festival t-shirts, so far raising an incredible £1500 for the cause. Steve has been forced to self-isolate with Covid-19 symptoms and I’d like to wish both he and his family a speedy recovery and send my love and solidarity in this worrying time x
On Saturday 11th AprilWe Shall Overcome will be running an all-day virtual gig on Facebook called WSO ISOLATION FESTIVAL. It will involve 30+ musicians and poets all playing songs in THEIR homes and beaming them straight into YOURS.
Loads of people asking about it, so here are answers to the main questions.
1. WHAT IS ‘WE SHALL OVERCOME’?
WSO started in May 2015 as a response from the music community to the worst excesses of austerity. Since then our organisers have run more than 1100 gigs raising an estimated £500.000 worth of food, cash, warm clothing and toiletries for food banks, homeless outreach, soup kitchens, crisis centres, youth projects and refugee support, every penny of which went straight to the front line.
2. WHAT IS WSO ISOLATION FESTIVAL?
It is an 12-hour online festival run through a Facebook group here- WSO ISOLATION FESTIVAL- SAT APRIL 11th 2020– where you can see 30+ artists perform in their homes from midday to midnight on Saturday April 11th.
3. WHAT IS IT FOR?
We raise our help at gigs, and thanks to Covid-19 there aren’t any. Our main hub in Ashton-under-Lyne provides 60 packed lunches per day to Greater Manchester’s homeless as well as working 24/7 to provide shelter for some very vulnerable people. We are running a GoFundMe page for voluntary donations and we ask you help if you can.
4. HOW DOES IT WORK?
From midday on Saturday April 11th we will have 20 minute sets from each artist, and when their stage time comes they will become the pinned post at the top of the group. When they finish, their post will be unpinned and the next act will take ‘the stage’. All you need to do is put the kettle on and enjoy music from our kitchen to yours.
5. CAN YOU TELL US HOW YOU PLAN TO GET 30+ ARTISTS TO DELIVER A SET TO A TIMETABLE WITHOUT THE WHOLE THING DESCENDING INTO A SHAMBLES?
No. Because I haven’t tried it yet. But when I do, and if it works, I will happily share the mechanics of it so that you can run similar events while we are in lockdown.
6. IS THERE NEW SOFTWARE INVOLVED?
No. Strictly Old School hard graft and organisation. Hopefully, like a mighty swan, it will appear to glide seamlessly through troubled waters, while I paddle like f*** beneath the surface.
7. SO WHAT DO I DO?
You join the group. Everything will happen in there. And at midday on Saturday April 11th, you turn up and cheer us on while we try to build bridges up and down the land and raise spirits in these darkest of days.
Oh, and SHARE THE HELL OUT OF POSTS LIKE THESE!!!
8. SO WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTING TO ACHIEVE?
We’ll, aside from raising much needed funds for We Shall Overcome, we are at a unique moment in history. There are no gigs. If we focus all our collective energies on THIS one, we could get a global audience of….well, who knows? But it will take EVERYONE working at it to achieve this, from our artists hitting their fan base, to you guys hitting ‘Share’. Only TOGETHER can we make this work, only TOGETHER can we get to the other side in one piece still smiling.
It will come as no surprise to any of us when the country is finally put into lockdown. Even if they still allow small events, most people will likely avoid them in the short to medium term, so as fundraisers, they won’t be much use anyway.
So at WSO Central we’ve hatched a plan to get us through it.
At some point over the coming days we will be announcing an event we’re calling the #WSOIsolationFestival. This will be initially an all day online gig in which we use a Facebook event page to broadcast short sets by multiple performers who will all have an allocated time to play. Each set will be posted to the page either pre-recorded, or live, and we will compere it centrally.
In this way people up and down the land can watch the whole thing from the safety of their homes, and the artists can work from rehearsal space or wherever so everyone stays safe.
Folk can comment on threads, catch up if they missed something, encourage the acts, and get direct contact to online merch etc if we share you links.
In return we ask you donate to a new GoFundMe page set up to keep Big Sis ticking over with her incredible work in Ashton-under-Lyne; because Pauline needs gigs to fund those packed lunches and rehousing campaigns, and without the ability to run those shows we all lose.
This is the link:
gf.me/u/xq7g4d
More news as soon as we have it, but we can do this. We can get through this current crisis together, and we can emerge stronger and more determined than ever.
May Day Festival Of Solidarity, the celebration of International Workers Day put together by myself and Tony Wright of The Hurriers, returns to Old School House, Barnsley on Sunday May 3rd.
As always we aim to bring you the finest in live music, radical poetry and speakers all at an affordable price. This year we are headlined by Glasgow’s antifa heroes The Wakes with a stunning supporting cast including Dakka Skanks, Jess Silk, Eight Rounds Rapid, Steve White & The Protest Family, Naomi Bedford & Paul Simmonds, Chuck SJ Hay, Parson’s Lot and Del Scott Miller with The Hurriers and myself completing the line-up. When you add the rhymes for our times of comperes Poetry On The Picket Line and speakers from Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign and the BFAWU, you have a ready-made classic.
Joe Solo 