Last Friday Liverpool SSAW (School Students Against War) held their first fundraising event – a gig in a city centre venue, the Casa.
Nearly 100 people attended the gig where five local bands played under a banner bearing the slogan ‘Hands Up For Peace’ (covered in hand prints of people who want to see the end to war) which had been made by members of the organisation.

First to play were ‘Our Special Guests’ who were the youngest band. Despite their lead singer being on a family holiday in Edinburgh, they managed to pull off covers of classic songs as well as a few they had written themselves.

In contrast, next up was Alun Parry, possibly the oldest person in the whole place but still a huge favourite (‘Tyro’ later dedicated one of their songs to him…) with his political folk songs.

‘In Memory’ then brought yet another style to the proceedings – Hardcore Metal, where the first mosh pits of the evening began to break out. They gave it their all and the outcome certainly reflected that.

Their friends ‘Kawada’, who have played in the legendary Cavern Club four times already this year, followed, showing their support for the anti-war movement. Their acoustic style rock was crowd pleaser.

Finally, ‘Tyro’ gave the night a finish to remember, beginning with well-known sing-along songs such as ‘Teenage Kicks’ and ‘Monster’. This was their first ever gig but they already have a strong fan base and many original songs.

After the event, Anna (aged 13) who had helped organise the affair said “It was a great event, proving that young people do care about current situation in the Middle East. We were really happy with the amount of money that we raised and hope that it has encouraged people to get involved with SSAW and come to the demo in September. Plus, there was great mosh pit!”

The planning was not without hitches– the lack of a drum kit until the day before the event being just one- but in the end everything ran smoothly and to schedule with over £300 being raised. The money will be put towards publicising the September 23rd demo at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester as well as subsidising people to travel there.