…using songs, singing & noise on the demo
Great workshop at the march weekend with Isa Suarez and devised some ‘sound interventions’ for the march – see instructions below and youtube link
One proposal is that we get together at the very start of the march and teach people songs, chants and noise ideas and then have a specific pre-arranged time when everyone sings and encourages all those around them to join in – so that if the sound instigators are scattered though the march, we still get a good outburst of voices at, say exactly 3 o’clock. More suggestions for songs and imaginative chanting etc would be great –
We are having a follow up meeting on:
Friday 18th March, at: 7pm, at: The Really Free School, The Hand and Racquet – 48 Whitcomb Street, London, WC2H 7HA
Link to workshop material..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GejzXD7IHDM
songs and noises:
1. making a Kettle noise – in two parts – (can be small or large groups) where one group makes a whistling kettle sound and the other makes bubbling noises – who knows, it might boil! If you can’t whistle, you can make a good kettle noise with a PE teacher/carnival whistle
2. singing an adapted version of the chorus of the pop song: ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ (original by the Bangles):
‘All the people on the street
Say way-oh, way-oh
(wa-ey-oh way-oh)
Walk like an Egyptian!’
can just be sung as whole chorus or ‘way-oh’ lines can be divided into two parts if you get time to practice
3. singing this anti-cuts chant in three parts:
‘Get out, get out
We know what you’re about
Cuts, job losses..
Money for the bosses!’
first group sings: ‘Get out, get out’ continuously throughout
second group sings: ‘We know what you’re about’
third group sings: ‘Cuts, job losses.. money for the bosses!’
4. Experiment with making noises as a chorus that reflect the emotions you feel about the cuts and maybe about being held up on march – very unsettling sounds when lots of people join in together –
artsagainstcuts 
I like all of the songs proposed except for the kettle noise song. It is not appropriate and it is not funny. Protestors were injured in the last march in which the police kettled. I am going on the march because I am anti the way the cuts are impacting on public services/ the arts, and I am scared after seeing the news that there may be kettling tactics. I want a peaceful protest that draws attention to the issues. I do not want to do anything that would make light of kettling or taunt the police, because it just adds fuel to the fire. I would like to be able to make my views known on the issues without being part of a crowd that chants this. We are not going on a march about anti-kettling, as atrocious as it is- in fact some of the police there may even be facing job cuts themselves- I think the songs should draw attention to the fundamental reason we are there- to protest and draw attention to the government’s ideological destruction of; the NHS, cuts in education funding, thousands of job losses in the public sector, dismantling arts funding…..etc.
Hi there – points definitely taken – but actually the intention with the workshop was very much to give people a way of being empowered though using their voices creatively even if they find themselves in a situation they are feeling anxious about, in solidarity x
to be performed outside parliament, tax dodgers and banks (w/ claps and stomps) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IStlBOX9F4o
Lyrics to a brilliant song about wealth by the Destroyers…
‘where has the money gone?’
Maybe at least the chorus is sing-able on demo?
CHORUS:
Where has the money gone?
Where did it go?
Where has the money gone?
Were DID the money – go?
LYRICS:
crossing Rockerfella plaza
from the Wall Street Christmas meal
where the algorithm forecasts
had nothing to reveal
De la Villehuchet despondent
sees Prometheus looks down
“I stole the golden flame
Bernie Madoff stole the crown”
Where has they money gone
where did it go
where has the money gone
where did the money go?
back in his headquarters
on the 22nd floor
he dismisses the cleaners early
and bolts the office door
a waste bin for his blood
pills to ease the pain
a parcel knife to take his life
and dispatch the shame
“take away the shame!” he cried
“for I am all at sea
and I haven’t got a compass
for this catastrophe
a hurricane of accusations
rages on and on
all asking the same question”
Where has they money gone
where did it go
where has the money gone
where did the money go
dawn returns upon his beat
through the cold streets of Manhattan
stirring homeless hobos’ sleep
like a copper with his baton
but thieves don’t sleep in doorways
nor beg out in the street
they breakfast like Prometheus
in Madoff’s penthouse suite
CHORUS:
Where has the money gone?
Where did it go?
Where has the money gone?
Were DID the money – go?