bon santé!

Libraries. For All. Forever: Read and Shout Festival 19th March 2011.

Too busy reading and shouting.

Forgive me for being uncharacteristically sycophantic, but this weekend might just go down in my memory as one of the best ever. Before I go any further, yes I am most definitely, on this occasion, biased.  My lovely friend and bandmate, Matthew Stead, had organised a gig to end all gigs – if you’re a library or indiepop fan that is.

If you have had your eye even half on the news, you’ll be well aware of the cuts the Conservative government are currently making and proposing, apparently because of the deficit left behind by the previous Labour government. Now, I do not claim to be a politician, and will not don the hat in some left-leaning rant about what is right and what is wrong, but one thing I can speak passionately about is libraries.  As a child, growing up on the Isle of Man, libraries were a solace for me. Like many small towns, the idea that there is ‘nothing to do’ was rife amongst teenagers and young people, and I could have gone one of two ways.  Litter the park with my mates on a Friday night, or spend my time in the library. And, being the repressed geek that I was, I chose the library. This gave me a world in which to escape to – and I’d like to think of a library as one massive book in itself. A place in which you can lose yourself, find yourself, be educated and inspired.

This is why the proposed cuts to library services across the country have made me intensely irate, and generally speaking I’m not an irate person. So, it was with great delight that I was ridiculously proud to be involved with the amazing READ AND SHOUT festival, which took place at West Norwood Library this Saturday to protest the library cuts.

The weekend had already got off to a fantastic, if not slightly muted start. On Friday, Matthew, Hannah of Owl and Mouse and I all got together in Paddington to greet the most endearing man in indiepop, Jens Lekman, from the Heathrow Express. Everything was going nicely, and we were tucking into some food at a local pub, when Jens realised his phone had gone walkabout. To cut a long story short, it was stolen, by some cretin too pointless to give writing space to.  This incident caused us to divert to a nearby police station, and made Jens late for a very special gig he was putting on. However, we refused to let this spoil things, and, trying to cheer Jens up by such frippery as ‘what’s your favourite band?’ (he still hasn’t given a definitive answer!), we set off downhearted but not done for to Seven Sisters, where we were treated, considering the circumstances, to the most beautifully intimate performance by him at a fan’s house.

Fast forward to 3am, and Matt and I rather tipsily departed, conscious of the big day ahead.

So to Saturday, and I arrived, violin in hand, immensely excited about not only being involved which such a fantastic event, but lucky enough to also be a part of it, playing with A Fine Day For Sailing.

I spent a lot of the day hither and thither, and so therefore managed only snapshots of the majority of bands; although still close enough when on the front desk to hear everybody.  I have to say, again, biased but I believe fairly – that everyone blew me away. It’s often a cliched stereotype that indie kids are nice, but I couldn’t have believed it more on Saturday.  Not a sad face amongst the crowd, and the sort of community spirit that is exactly why closing libraries is such a bad idea;  everyone rallied together in support of this cause, both bands and audience.

While all bands were excellent, my highlights had to be The Leaf Library and A Little Orchestra, the latter of whom gave a wonderful orchestral rendition of Laura Palmer’s Theme from Twin Peaks (a personal favourite).  Of course I can’t get away without mentioning Jens also, who, having given a pitch perfect gig the night before, surprised us all again by showing he’s capable of both quiet and loud. Your imaginary aeroplane dance around the stage was lovely.

Thank you to EVERYBODY who came along, either in a band, audience, DJ or volunteer capacity. Your support was overwhelming, and the nice things people said about our band, A Fine Day For Sailing had me really quite emotional. Thank you specifically to Matt, Abby, my bandmates and the library staff, without whom this really couldn’t have come together as professionally as it did. LIBRARIES, FOR ALL, FOREVER!