Bread & Roses Song & Spoken Word Award

THE Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) and Culture Matters are pleased to announce the second edition of their successful Songwriting and Spoken Word Award.   The Musicians’ Union is also sponsoring and supporting the Award this time.

The Award is now open for submissions. The new Award is a practical example of cultural democracy, with the aim of encouraging musicians and performers to write material meaningful to working class people and communities, and to encourage those communities to develop and practice their creativity.

There is a £100 cash prize for each of the top five entries.  The judges will be drawn from practising performers, the CWU, the Musician's Union, and members of Culture Matters.

Dave Ward, General Secretary of the CWU, said:

I welcome this continuing partnership with Culture Matters. The arts and culture generally are vital to the labour movement, and working class communities across the country. We want to build on the grassroots DIY ethic started by punk music, celebrate the new opportunities for working class people to write songs, make music and perform spoken word, and encourage contributions from people who might otherwise not consider entering competitions.

We are sponsoring this Award because we want to encourage our members in the CWU, and working people everywhere, to express themselves creatively on themes that matter to them as workers and which help develop understanding of the cultural struggle for a better world.

So get writing and get performing, and send your entries in!

Attila the Stockbroker, one of the judges, said:

This new Award is a great idea. There’s a real need to encourage younger and emerging performers to write and perform songs and poetry that mean something to ordinary working- class people rather than the mind-numbingly bland rubbish force-fed us by the mainstream music business and media.

Get involved – and encourage people you know to get involved!

Submission Guidelines and Award Rules:

Entry is open to all, regardless of trade union membership. The submission guidelines are as follows:

Entries should broadly deal with any aspect of working-class life, communities, culture and concerns.

Entries can be from solo or duo artists/performers, and are actively encouraged from grassroots, younger and emerging performers.

Entries should consist of one song or performance of original material, in English, whether previously published or not.

Entries should be submitted as audio or live/pre-recorded video files (MP3/4 format or video) via email. All entries will be judged equally, but some video entries may be also selected to feature on the Culture Matters YouTube channel, which is currently in development.

Entry is free and is open to all residents of Great Britain, regardless of trade union membership.

Culture Matters will fund five prizes of £100 each.

All entries will remain the copyright of the entrant, but CWU and Culture Matters will have the right to publish them online and in other media.

The organisers accept no responsibility for entries that are incorrectly submitted or not delivered due to technical faults.

By entering the Award, entrants agree to accept and be bound by the rules of the Award and the decisions of the judges.

Due to the likely volume of entries, the organisers regret that they cannot enter into correspondence with individual entrants.

Entries should be sent via email to: entriesculturematters@gmail.com

The deadline for receipt of submissions is midnight on March 2nd 2019. When emailing submissions, please provide your full name, postal address and phone number.

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Andrew (Andy) Wilson - The Northern Voices Poet - An Obituary

It is with sadness that we have to report the death of the Dukinfield poet, Andy Wilson, who died in Tameside Hospital on 2nd March aged 63 years.

A factory worker for many years, Andy, worked for James North in Hyde and was also a union shop steward. He last worked as a supervisor for Boris Buckley`s a textile manufacturer on Whitelands Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. After working for the company for 20 years, he was made redundant in his late fifties. A former pupil of Crescent Road, secondary modern school, he was a well known figure in Dukinfield and in his local pub the Albion, which stands at the junction of Oxford Road and Birch Lane.

As a writer of poetry, he was also a well known figure among the circle of poets(People`s Performance) who met regularly in the upstairs room of the Q inn in Stalybridge. The group which was set up by Jan Malpas, a poet from Hollingworth, gave recitals and produced an anthology of poems entitled 'Poetry Live' and a CD (People Perform Poetry) of local poets reciting their verses. For a number of years, Andy wrote poems for Northern Voices magazine about themes as varied as Viagra, 'Ode to a Beer Pump', 'Ode to a Flea', 'Dieting on the Dole', and the 'Taproom Q.C'. He was also a great fan of the music and lyrics of Bob Dylan and in particular, the Canadian poet, musician, and songwriter, Leonard Cohen. Cohen is on record as saying that a prominent influence on him, had been the Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca.

About four years ago, Andy, was diagnosed with bowel cancer, which in turn, led to other health complications. Despite his health problems, he could still be seen on occasions walking to the pub for a few pints with his mates. He was a genuine character who will be sadly missed by his many friends and his family. His funeral takes place on Tuesday 15th March at Dukinfield Crematorium, at 2.00 pm.

"Burn in the shadow of the mill,
Put to the loom to brake their will,
They toiled all day from dawn to dusk
And lived on sweat and cotton dust,
But in their country`s hour of need
They left the loom to go and bleed,
And in a field where poppies grew,
They gave their lives for me and you,
No more toiling at the loom
or dancing to the gaffers tune,
They lie with comrade cold and still,
Like empty bobbins in the mill."

Children of the Mill - A poem by Andrew A. Wilson.