We Won't Let Covid Beat Us!

'Mute Your Mics '

This song 'Mute Your Mics' was inspired by the lyrics of a poem choir member Sheila Pearson wrote following our end of term party back in September.

Our fabulous, hard working Choir Leader Sarah (and others), thought it would be great to turn it into a song for the choir to sing and so she set about composing the accompanying tune. The song was then introduced on a Thursday evening Zoom choir practice at the beginning of November with the promise of turning it into a video.

Sarah then laid down the challenge to choir members to record themselves at home over the next 10 days (no pressure there then!), with the aid of the song parts she'd recorded separately - hopefully with as many choir members as possible being able to contribute.

Recordings were then sent for editing to Freddie Hinsley, who also added some percussion down at Ocularo Ltd in Manchester, where it was all put together with the additional help of Video Editor Marc Gallagher.

A big thank you to everyone who contributed and made this possible - not least Sarah Gray who has worked tirelessly to support and encourage us.

- We Won't Let Covid Beat Us!

Singing Once Again With Harbour Lights

Former Choir Member Issy, re-connects via Zoom

It’s been lovely to see you all again albeit on Zoom over the last few weeks. Everyone looks well and no one has changed. Sarah asked me to say a few words about where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing over the last 3 years.

Some of you will remember that I was a member of Harbour Lights until I moved to Clacton-on-sea, Essex in June 2017 because of David’s job. Well I fully intended to join a choir there and even made contact with one but never quite made it as work and family commitments got in the way. As some of you may remember our intended reunion at the Water Aid concert in London didn’t happen for the same reasons.

Since then I’ve taken redundancy from the CAB after 30 years and worked for an education charity for a while but enjoyed my enforced summer in the garden (furlough) so much that I’m now semi-retired, albeit working part time back in one CAB and volunteering at another.

When the first lockdown happened I joined a Zoom choir which closed not long afterwards, so was really pleased when Maureen mentioned that Harbour Lights was operating on Zoom, hence my recent muscling in. It was lovely to see so many new members and to know how much the choir has gone from strength to strength under Sarah’s fantastic leadership – I’m sure there’s lots of other people beavering away in the background that have helped to bring this about too.

Lockdown and Zoom, has made us realise that working in the South doesn’t have to mean living in the South anymore, so we are seriously considering a return to living up North one day soon.

If and when that happens Harbour Lights will be my first port of call.

Issy Abbot, November 2020

Oi Musica Collaborative Production

We are SO EXCITED to share this new piece of work co-created with Karine Polwart and the Soundhouse CHOIR!

A true collaboration, with 150 people taking part to share a message ahead of COP26 - the UN Climate Change Conference that is coming to Glasgow in November 2021.

Want to join a huge, collective musical response to COP26? Find out more at www.oimusica.co.uk/cop26

Music video by Stephan Talneau & Heather Longwell Films - featuring Manuela Benini, Brass, Aye? and a host of excellent musicians, singers & performers!

Colin Steele Marcus Britton Olivia Furness Heather Macleod Roddy Dickson Jordan Ferguson Tim Lane George Francis Philip Cardwell Barny Barnold Dempsey Eilidh Graham Jay Niine Kérim Sangrar @Shelby Johnston Jack Myles Xian Parr Cian Morton Richard Harry Scott Ferguson Euan Allardice Gemma Love Gaynor Barradell Mee-Ching Ho Ruth Kappe Aideen Shields Lindsey Black Peter Britton Jennifer Elliot Mary Walters

Song & lyrics by Karine Polwart Choral arrangement by Heather MacLeod Brass, drums & percussion arranged by Oi Musica (Marcus Britton & Olivia Furness) Produced by Marty Hailey at Metro 13 Music Core band recorded at Chamber Studio

We are grateful to partners WEAll - Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll Scotland) and funders Creative Scotland

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License 2020. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/