Posts Tagged ‘peter gabriel’
The Voice Project supports victims in Central Africa
Posted on September 10th, 2012 in News, Recent Posts by Songlines Intern.
What do you get when a man with a few famous friends uses Karinthy’s Six Degrees of Separation to send a message (and a song) around the world? You get the Voice Project, a charity that aims to support the victims of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The charity came about when Hunter Heaney heard groups of widows and rape victims writing and singing songs of a style called dwog paco whilst working at an Internally Displaced Person’s camp in northern Uganda. These songs encouraged child soldiers who had escaped Kony’s LRA to return home and be forgiven for the atrocities they were forced to commit. Taking inspiration from the women’s groups and the increasing success in their mission, Heaney, along with friends Anna Gabriel (daughter of Peter) and Chris Holmes of indie band Ashtar Command, set out to bring more exposure to dwog paco and the issue facing the women’s groups in North Uganda.
The project revolves around the idea of ‘cover chains’, whereby one artist will cover another, who will then go on to cover a third artist and so on. Artists involved with the project so far include Angélique Kidjo, Emmanuel Jal, Peter Gabriel and Billy Bragg among others, as well as many choirs in Uganda singing in both Acoli and Luo languages.
The Voice Project take their cue from Olivier Urbain, author of Music and Conflict Transformation, who says ‘The real question is why has it taken so long? It is high time for the human brain and heart to join forces to explore and apply the power of music for peaceful and effective conflict transformation.’ The project says that they apply this principles to their mission, ‘utilizing the power of music to affect positive social change, alleviate suffering and promote human rights around the globe.’
For more information and to support the project, please visit the Voice Project website.
And to whet your appetite, here’s a video of South Sudanese former child soldier Emmanuel Jal’s a capella version of ‘Road to Zion’.
Hippity Hoppity Farm Festival (or Hop Farm, as it’s more commonly known)
Posted on April 1st, 2012 in Recent Posts by Sophie Marie Atkinson.
Peter Gabriel’s band the New Blood Orchestra will make their only UK festival appearance of the summer alongside Bob Dylan, Damien Rice, Primal Scream, Suede, new sensation Lianne la Havas and Patti Smith at the Hop Farm Festival from June 29 to July 1.
The five-year old festival prides itself on being independent and has no VIP areas and a back-to-basics style. Yet, regardless, the Kent-based festival still attract a stellar lineup each year. Past acts have included Prince, Manu Chao, Morrissey, Paul Weller, Neil Young, Noah and the Whale, Laura Marling, Johnny Flynn, British Sea Power, Guillemots, Rufus Wainwright, Mumford and Sons, Los Lobos, Seasick Steve, Tuung, Afro Celt Sound System, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble…!
The festival will have four music stages this year including the Camp Acoustic stage and Buskers Boulevard as well as more new, exciting additions to be announced in due course.
Hop Farm Music Festival prides itself on offering great value for money for festival goers with no booking fee, no parking charge, no camping charge and no charge for children under 12. The festival is also offering the first 10,000 customers even better value with a special weekend ticket price of just £150 which includes a 3 day ticket plus 4 days camping and parking.
For more details and full festival line up, visit www.hopfarmfestival.com.
CueSongs launches invite-only beta – ‘The one-stop music licensing hub’
Posted on February 21st, 2012 in News, Recent Posts by Songlines Intern.
The brainchild of Ed Averdieck (formerly with Nokia Music and OD2) and musician Peter Gabriel, CueSongs launched an invite-only beta in late January 2012 in an attempt to save an industry currently in freefall.
With the ever-increasing ease of illegal file sharing across social networks and complications over music licensing, artists are in a constant battle to maintain rights to their work and most importantly make a living from its sale. CueSongs is the latest in a string of proposals to tackle this problem of growing severity, where artists themselves decide to whom their music is available and for what price. Largely aimed at material used by websites and digital businesses, Ed Averdieck stated CueSongs’ intentions:
“Only a relatively small proportion of copyrights earn licensing and synchronization income at the moment. But as the world’s marketing spend shifts online, we believe that, of the many millions of websites and digital businesses that exist today, a significant proportion of them would licence commercially released music if it was reasonably priced and easy to access.”
The issues surrounding media copyright have dominated the news pages in recent weeks, notably via the Wikipedia-led Internet ‘blackout’ on January 18 2012 against the proposed US SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) bill and the questionable shutdown of leading file-sharing site Megaupload a day later.
Ready to go music rights
CueSongs aims to offer a simple way for anyone to find well-known music recordings and immediately purchase the right to use them in digital media, e.g. on their website, on Facebook, Youtube, in apps and general online advertising.
Peter Gabriel expressed the benefit CueSongs can have directly for artists:
“Young and minority interest artists will be able to get their work in front of people all over the world looking to license something interesting and different. Successful artists will find that a lot of their catalogue that is now rarely touched can generate a lot of use, with easy access and the right price”
It is most refreshing to hear of an industry-led attempt to simplify digital music copyright before it gets completely out of hand. Already possessing music licenced by a wide range of major and independent rights holders including Sony Music & Real World, CueSongs clearly has the support of the music industry and hopefully the public alike.
Finding a middle ground between the far too sweeping terms under SOPA, ACTA etc, and the millions illegally using and downloading music would seem the proactive approach to the problem, and most importantly the one that will aid the artists themselves.
Find out more about CueSongs: http://www.cuesongs.com
WOMAD Sicily 2012 (July 5-8 2012)
Posted on February 13th, 2012 in Recent Posts by Songlines Intern.
On Thursday February 10 Peter Gabriel formally introduced this year’s WOMAD Sicily festival to the press at the Italina Cultural Institute, London.
Joined by Sicilian musician Roy Paci and members of the Sicilian tourism board, a Q&A session took place on the four-day event that looks sure to be one of the highlights of this year’s festival calendar.
Now in its 15th year on the idyllic unclouded skies of Sicily off the southern tip of Italy, the city of Palermo’s open air Tearo di Verdura will play host to this globally renowned event. Surrounded by a rich tapestry of historic architecture, the festival takes place on an island where cross-cultural integration from both West and East are embedded in its history and ethos.
Now in its 30th year, WOMAD itself continues to expand throughout the world under Peter Gabriel’s watchful eye. Performing there himself in 2004, Gabriel describes Sicily as “a magical place” and is “pleased to re-invite the world to the island.” With sincere adoration shown towards the Italian governmental support for the event, a great working partnership has clearly been established.
Questioned on the future of WOMAD, operations and events director Chris Smith stated his interest in the East, with even Siberia thrown in the mix as a possible future destination! Cooperation between WOMAD, tourism and government is evidently crucial, with Smith commenting, “we will go anywhere if the partnership works.”
So far confirmed acts include The Portico Quartet, Hanggai and Seun Kuti & Egypt 80.
More information about the festival can be found at www.womad.org
