More help for homeless via music
Four years ago, punk rockers from all across the region united together to help the homeless at Christmas with their Newcastle version of Ralph McTell’s hit, Streets of London.
The idea of a CD to raise funds for Newcastle’s People’s Kitchen was the brainchild of punk couple Tony and Karen Houghton from Blyth. The pair by day are artists and by night adopt the characters of Sewer Rat and Karen Khaos where they front their punk covers band.
Using their network of contacts in the music industry, the pair recruited singers from other local punk bands to record a few lines Band-Aid style. Every aspect of the recording was carried out free of charge by local businesses and all proceeds from the sale of the CD went directly to The People’s Kitchen totalling around £2000.
Now however, Tony and Karen have found a batch of the CD’s hidden in a cupboard and hope to sell these to raise much needed funds to help the vulnerable people of Newcastle by again donating to The People’s Kitchen.
“We’ve seen that Sam Fender has released Winter Song to help the homeless and although we haven’t got the same fanbase as him, we would like to encourage everybody to buy a copy to help people sleeping rough in the snow and rain. It makes you realise how lucky we all are with our warm homes and well stocked food cupboards,” said Tony.
As well as the Pretty Anarchists providing vocals and music for the single, bands from all across the North East provided their singers for the recording.
Singers from the following bands were involved:
Logoz from Ashington, Tyneside band, The V’s, Billingham based, Zeitgeist 77, Sunderland’s Spitfire Bullets, Gateshead based The Band for Disease Control and Prevention and Cramlington’s All Out Attack.
Radio Northumberland’s New Wave with Newman Show is promoting the CD which also includes a punk version of Fairy Tale of Newcastle and a track written by Karen with guitar accompaniment by Cramlington musician Michael Oliver about a real homeless person called Tommy No Shoes.
The CD, costing £5 for three tracks is now available by sending a stamped addressed envelope to 16 Coburg Street Blyth NE24 2EG then donating via https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/PKCD
The video can be seen here:
The People’s Kitchen supports hundreds of homeless and vulnerable people across the city every day. The charity has been operating for more than 30 years serving up to 175 meals every session, cooking everything from scratch. It is run entirely by volunteers with no government funding and no one being paid for their work. As well as providing nourishing food, The People’s Kitchen also provides a “friends” welfare service and signposting to other agencies to help those in need of help.
This year, demand for their services has grown significantly due to the pandemic and the charity has had to radically change the way it operates to protect its volunteers and the people who rely heavily on them.
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