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SSAW (School Students Against War) Gig

Lucy Gettings | 01.09.2006 23:05 | March 18 Anti War Protest | Liverpool

Liverpool School Students Against War had a gig on Friday 1st Sept... here is a review.

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.

Lucy Gettings
- e-mail: lucygettings@aol.com
- Homepage: http://groups.myspace.com/liverpoolssaw

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

The gig

01.09.2006 23:48

Speaking on behalf of Tyro, I would like to say we thoroughly enjoyed playing for SSAW, and would like to thank eveyone who made it possible for us to play there and kick some arse.
I wish you good luck with your organisation, and you reach your goal. Also, another gig soon? We have to, it was so fun. ;)

Bryan Beckett - Bassist for Tyro
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/tyrotheband


Fantastic!

02.09.2006 12:37

You guys are doing a brilliant job, and your enthusiasm puts many of the older guard to shame. Especially well done on getting the article up so quickly!

Tom


watch out kids!

02.09.2006 17:06

yeah, good to see such passion but watch out for the vampires in the SWP who are behind Stop the War

keep it real


well done from scotland

03.09.2006 19:42

A BIG well done from SSAW Scotland. good luck with building for the labour party conference. love from north of the border.
see you in manchester
patrick (joint convenor of SSAW Scotland)

Patrick


Superbly organised, nice one

03.09.2006 19:47

Just wanted to say well done to everyone who organised this. Tremendous turnout, very well organised, and raised a few bob too I believe.

Some great young bands on as well.

Oh and Lucy, for the record I wasn't the oldest one there ;-)

Cheek! lol

Alun Parry
- Homepage: http://www.parrysongs.co.uk


To Alun Parry...

04.09.2006 01:38

Thankyou =D
and sorry, i hope you weren't insulted by me saying that...
but you were loved (see all the comments on myspace.com/tyrotheband)

and thankyou to everyone else for your nice comments too =)

Lucy Gettings


Don't worry, not offended

04.09.2006 02:35

Lucy

No not at all. I was amused by it! Made me laugh. Besides you weren't FAR wrong lol.

Great gig. Kudos to all involved. Good writeup of the gig too!

All the best

Al 8-)

Alun Parry
- Homepage: http://www.parrysongs.co.uk