Manchester’s music makes the world go around?

Richard Casson explains how Manchester’s musicians are supporting Oxfam in the “Capital of the North”.

“The Fab Four were one of the first bands to help raise awareness of Oxfam’s work” Chris Martin hands + black marker pen = Make Trade Fair logo Oxfam Soundcheck

This October, we saw the first ever Oxjam – a month lon music festival in aid of Oxfam. Oxjam was a tremendous success, and reminded us that many musicians, producers and promoters strongly support Oxfam’s work to put an end to poverty. At the campaigns office here in Manchester, we’ve also been working with the music industry (in fact we’ve been at it for a while!), to build a music network called Soundcheck.

Soundcheck is for musicians, promoters, producers and DJs (and just about anyone else involved in the music industry in and around Manchester) who want to use their music to speak out and make some noise about the issues and campaigns that Oxfam works on. Set up between Oxfam staff and volunteers, Soundcheck is about building long-term relationships with the Manchester music scene, keeping musical folks clued-up about campaigns, and making it easier for gig-goers to show support for Oxfam’s work.

In Manchester, with its varied and ever-expanding music scene, keeping in touch with musicians and promoters means we’ve had plenty of events to go along to. With invaluable support from the Manchester Oxfam Activist Group we’ve been able to help with stewarding at Cohesion Live’ (a festival in support of Manchester Aid to Kosovo), and have put on campaign stalls at In The City and at Night and Day’s event for World AIDS Day. By going along to events we get the opportunity to talk to a receptive audience about Oxfam’s work, and a chance to sign people up to campaigns and tell them about Soundcheck. And, sometimes, when our campaign batteries are a little run-down, we even allow ourselves a bit of a break to check out the bands performing and help prop up the bar!

Soundcheck and Oxjam aren’t the first occasions where Oxfam has sought the help of musicians to help raise awareness of its work. The relationship goes back to 1963, when The Beatles helped bring attention to the Hunger £Million Campaign, and has continued to grow until today where we’ve seen well known bands, such as Badly Drawn Boy and Kasabian, voicing support for Oxfam’s work. Through working with socially conscious musicians, and building on their enthusiasm to create a more just world, there are big opportunities to get people to take action. Gigs can attract hundreds if not thousands of music lovers - put that together with national and even international tours and you’ve got the potential to reach a huge audience. The mind boggles to think how many people have gone to a Coldplay gig to see the Make Trade Fair logo tattooed in black marker pen on the back of Chris Martin’s hands.

So, if you haven’t checked out the Soundcheck website yet, point your browser in the direction of www.oxfamsoundcheck.org.uk, and if you live in or around Manchester then keep your eyes peeled for gigs by Soundcheck artists. We’ve even got a MySpace profile set up, so if you’ve not got Soundcheck added to your list of friends already then what are you waiting for? Head to myspace.com/oxfamsoundcheck.