This October’s Oxjam, Oxfam’s month of music dedicated to fighting poverty, was the biggest and best yet, with 23 city-wide events across the UK added to the mix. Oxjam’s Joe Benmakhlouf has strong hopes for his local ‘Takeover event’.

In the mid nineties the media spotlight spent much of its time directed on the American hip-hop scene’s infamous east coast-west coast rivalry. A decade on, the intensity of this rivalry has dwindled into, at worse, a friendly competiveness. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for my nation’s musical hot-spots, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

In these cities, the distain for one another’s respective musical backdrops is growing at a frightening rate. This has lead to growing numbers of impartial gig goers, like myself, wondering if anything could stop the heated rivalry that exists along Scotland’s central belt. Thankfully, waiting in the wings, was a possible white flag; Oxfam’s 2009 Oxjam music festival’s Takeover weekend.

The trouble started with the dates: while Glasgow were to have their big events on Saturday and Sunday, 24-25 October, Edinburgh’s team chose to hold their Takeover event on Friday 23rd. Was the unsynchronised schedule some sort of sign?

 

With this quandary ringing in my brain, I journeyed that Friday to an Oxfam Shop on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. But any sounds in my head were soon replaced with the expectant buzz from the crowd awaiting the afternoon acoustic set, marking the beginning of the city-wide musicical extravaganza. The combined musicianship of Neil Pennycook (Meursault) and Scott Hutchison (Frightened Rabbit) set the bar very high from the outset. Start as you mean to go on was the case for the nation’s capital; and the day continued with the same success throughout a multitude of Edinburgh’s finest venues. 

The next day, I stood in Glasgow’s Blackfriars venue, watching a triumphant set from local hip-hop, pop, electro rockers The LaFontaines. The east coast-west coast music rift alarm was then unexpectedly set off, when the charismatic frontman rapper, Kerr Okan, recounted how he recently hurt his toe. Initially stating he banged his foot on a radiator - then admitting he was, “shot in the hood”; his “hood” being the west side Glasgow suburb of Motherwell.

I immediately recalled the incident when US west coast star Tupac Shakur was first shot on a trip to an east coast recording studio in 1994… I felt Kerr’s tale was a warning. To take my mind off what might lie ahead, I went to find solace in the multiple venues of Glasgow’s flagship event. I was treated to a variety of exciting music showcasing the west coast’s finest talents. Like everyone in attendance, I was extremely impressed with what I saw and had a great night!

The next day, guiltily realising that I entirely forgotten about my hope of Oxjam healing Scotland’s music rift, I waited to see who the Glasgow regional team had secured for their Sunday secret gig in the Brunswick Hotel’s penthouse suite; it was Scott from Frightened Rabbit- again!

This was a sign of hope. After the man played another great set, it became clear to me that Oxjam had made the first steps in building bridges in the divide. Oxjam has showed that both cities share the same good taste in music. But much more importantly it highlighted another common ground; the desire to help fight against poverty and injustice.

Together the regions have a combined fundraising total of over £10,000. Oxjam has laid great foundations in Scotland this year. Maybe one day flagship events held over the Takeover Weekend will run simultaneously in each city with the same bill. Until then, we will just take it one band at a time.

Find out more: Oxjam

Tags: Oxjam

This entry was posted by Youssef Benmakhlouf on November 3rd, 2009 at 2:58 pm and is filed under General, News Blog, You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.