Hit The
North

A northern winter is one of the most depressing and foreboding environments one can endure. Sunset is at 4pm, and for anyone working a day job, that means the only light you see for the most is part synthesised. It is perhaps the most boring of times for a youth in a small town; you can sit and freeze on a park bench until midnight or sit at home rotting in self-pity. I spent a percentage of my early teens doing both of those things like a sad little shit, but I guess it was just because of the mundanity of life.

Writing songs and playing in bands with friends was my form of escapism. However shit the music was at that time it was something I clinged onto intensely because it was and still is my only love (other than probably clothes). Within the first week of forming a band with some school friends I was instantly addicted, young and naive the feeling of bonding over music was like medicine and my normally introverted thoughts could suddenly be amplified to the max. We were all about 13/14 and the first people that allowed us to make any noise publicly were Gig and Waka at the Golden Lion, we were young and all the music we played then was jammed or half-finished, but they were encouraging and gave us a platform to express ourselves freely without any complaints.

Fast forward a couple of years and I’d formed Working Mens Club with Jake and Giulia, we also played our very first shows at the Lion. It was with WMC that I had my first experience of touring the UK… in the most dire venues you could imagine. Those first tours were my first real insight into how special the Lion and The Trades are and how lucky I am to have those venues on my doorstep.

The Trades is a venue I have just mentioned, but all the gigs I played from the age of 13 to 17 were with the hope that someday I would be able to perform there. Going to music college was an opportunity to connect myself with industry types, but the funniest thing about it was that it just connected me with people in a 4 mile radius of my house: Mal Campbell at the Trades Club and Jake Bogacki, two people I really have to thank for where I am now. It was going to college in Manchester that also made me realise how special the place I come from is. The network of venues throughout the Calder Valley are open to people from all walks of life. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are, what you identify as, or what colour your skin is, the creatives, landlords and locals all live and work among each other symbiotically (for the most part), and that’s what is so great about our community.

The thing I think we have to remember is that unity is the most powerful thing we have as a society. It’s so easy to ignore other people’s hardships and struggle, when everything’s alright in your life, but what about when it’s not? Everyone felt some form of struggle as a result of this pandemic, but the constant reassuring factor was that we were all locked down together and everyone had to make sacrifices out of their control because of it. What people need to do now is wake up and realise that when there is strife, we need to take care of one another and do something to try and overcome the struggle (like working together to find a vaccine).

Not only do we need to accept each other but remember that we all fucking exist. Why are people living out of cardboard boxes on the streets of London.. the capital city of the “United Kingdom” whilst Boris Johnson is reinvesting 16 Billion pounds on arms… half of the people living on our streets being veterans? A lot of normal people feel forgotten and are therefore vulnerable and easy to manipulate. It’s about time we tried to be all-inclusive as a society, rather than being so divisive and remember that there is always hope if we unite and we look after one another but also talk to each other on a passive level even if we don’t agree. Communication is the most powerful tool we have, and I think creatives need to dig deep once again to use their voice. Not necessarily politically but socially. Music brings people together, and that is something we need now more than ever: togetherness.