Page 29 - Community Living Magazine 34-3

INTErVIEW INTErVIEW

A VISIoN “So it was, right lads, let’s knock this has been a failure of people, Each one was given
three minutes to
out as quickly as possible because then
including commissioners,
for THE we’ll record our next album during the to deconstruct the current system make a pitch for
rest of the day”. Which is just what
funding. Paul gave
and replace it with something better.
they did.
the pitch about Gig
’gIg SocIETy’ The band dissolved in 2012. “Michael It has also been hard to get through to Buddies – and won!
After three days
staff. “There is a hard core of people
the drummer said I’m 50. I want to who get it but a majority of support of hard work he
Paul Richards has already retire”. It seemed to be a good time workers are just going along with the says he went
started and run several for everyone to call it a day and they system”. Radical change is the solution home absolutely
he would like see: “They say that
shattered and his
ended with a gig in Trafalgar Square
successful projects, notably the as part of the Olympics celebrations. making cultural change is like trying to partner asked,
Stay Up Late Campaign. Now he stop a super tanker. Well, you can do “So how much
has another project, Gig Buddies, which has really taken off, Taken root that if you use torpedoes!” did you win?”
Meanwhile, Stay Up Late had already
The answer was
as he told Seán Kelly taken root. Paul says the band had What has changed, Paul thinks, is that just £2,000,
always realised that by the time they the campaign has increased discontent but it was a start.
went on stage many members of the with the current state of affairs. Southdown’s
audience had gone home. They knew He quotes a recent survey in director Aideen
“ e are calling this Three members of the band had that people had to go home with their Hertfordshire. “They did this surprise Jones persuaded
Wour vision for the learning disabilities and two did not. staff because shifts were coming to an audit at 8.30 in the evening. the Board of
Gig Society! I know it’s a Paul says, “There weren’t any other end and it was time for ‘handover’. Social workers went round to see Trustees to award
terrible pun, but we are bands around like us at the time”. Paul jokes that they were pleased to what was going on and 61 per cent £5,000 so suddenly
doing it in spite of the Big The band soon got a residency at the know that it wasn’t the quality of the of people were ready for bed. £2K had become
Society because it is how Blue Camel, an ‘inclusive club’. music that was sending people home. Calderdale did the same thing and £7K! Paul then
communities should behave”. Paul says that at first he was unsure. Heavy Load briefly took to asking if the got the same results”. Stay Up Late managed to get
Paul Richards is speaking “I was in another band and band could go onstage and play did their own survey of nearly 200 some additional
about Gig Buddies. You may rehearsing three times a week. earlier in the evening. “But we soon people which shows better results, funding from East
know Paul as the bass player Heavy Load was just this out-pouring stuck to our guns and went on later, not so surprising perhaps since many and West Sussex
of Punk Legends’ ‘Heavy of sheer joy and bedlam! It took me even if we were playing to no-one. respondents might well be supporters Councils and soon
Load’, or as the Director of a little while to adjust. We realised We were a punk band!” of the campaign. Nearly three quarters had enough to Paul Richards: “Matching is really important. It’s based on
the Stay Up Late Campaign we were just having such great fun. of people with learning disabilities who employ a member getting to know people and it’s not something you can do
and Charity, or most recently I suppose that’s the moment you just A crystallising moment came after responded said that they could stay out of staff part-time. online with an app. People need to really share an interest.
you may know him from embrace that chaos and think this Heavy Load did a mainstream gig in after 10pm (48 per cent with support Madeline started It’s not just a dating agency without the sex”.
promoting Gig Buddies, is great”. a regular music pub with two other and 24 per cent who didn’t need on two days a Photo: Seán Kelly
a Stay Up Late project. mainstream bands. The band was support). Depressingly, however, week. Now she is
The band played at the Beautiful concerned about how they would be the great majority of respondents said the full time manager
I met Paul in Brighton and it turns out to Octopus Club and other disability received and to start with the audience they knew other people who could and has an assistant and admin like great fun it can also deliver some
be an interesting time for him and the and inclusive clubs. Then Jerry were like, “What the …??”. But by the not stay out after 10pm. Paul says he support. Stay Up Late has just passed ‘meaty’ outcomes in terms of mental
project. On the one hand some of Gig Rothwell made a movie about them. end everyone was converted, singing hopes that Stay Up Late is making this its third birthday and there are now 70 and physical well-being.
Buddies’ core funding has been cut by “He followed us around for two and a along and linking arms. For the band it nasty boil bigger. “With all this successful matchings across Sussex.
East Sussex. Only recently this would half years. I didn’t believe it was ever was a great achievement. “Afterwards discontent maybe it will burst!”. What’s your gig?
have meant the end of the project going to happen and still, looking back we were all having a drink and a chat, Paul says the matching is really The project has also been widening its
but there are now plans to work with on it, I can’t quite believe it did”. a post-gig post-mortem. Michael had Positive focus important. It’s based on getting to know remit so it is not just about rock ‘n roll.
partners to develop up to 20 new Gig half a pint of beer left and his Paul is keen to keep a positive focus people and it’s not something you can The question, “What’s your gig?” can
Buddies projects on a social franchise From low-key beginnings Heavy Load support worker came up and said, and for the campaign to shine a light do online with an app. People need to now encompass answers that include
basis. Paul seems to have a calm and went on to play in Berlin, New York, ‘Come on, drink up, it’s time to go on where people have got it right. really share an interest. “It’s not just a going to church, going for walks,
even philosophical approach to the Denmark, a squat in Copenhagen and home’. That was the moment that He cites Gettalife, a small organisation dating agency without the sex”. photography and just about any other
whole thing. It occurs to me that he twice at the Glastonbury Festival. Stay Up Late started”. which will provide 24-hour cover with interest. One man with learning
is a rather Zen Punk! three people doing long shifts which The new Gig Buddies projects will be disabilities has been going with a
They were commissioned to write Paul emphasises that people don’t have means they can support the person developed through social franchising. buddy to visit Sussex chapels.
Rock ’n roll the theme tune for a Channel 4 to stay up late. “I always say we don’t doing whatever they want to do, This means that they will be run
How did it all start? The answer as programme called Cast-Offs. Paul met care what time people go to bed but whether it’s sleeping or going out. and funded independently and the Meanwhile new Gig Buddies projects
you might expect has everything to do the producers in a hipster café who we do if they have no choice”. current staff will provide the know-how. are threatening to break out all
with rock ‘n roll. Paul was originally a told him, “We want noise, anarchy, The Stay Up Late campaign led almost This should mean that the results will over. Paul expects ten new projects to
support worker for Southdown Housing chaos. Music like you don’t hear on Is it working? Are people staying up inevitably to Gig Buddies. How could look quite different in different places, start within the next year and
in Brighton. Jim, a guy with learning TV normally’. I said, “Yes, we can late? “At the moment if I am honest I people stay up late? By having a friend with different solutions based on that includes new projects in
disabilities, had started a band. do that”. One of the producers said, would say it is probably not working. with the same interests who would local knowledge. Portsmouth, Scotland and even in
The first bass guitarist left and Paul, “I love your can-do attitude”. I said, We are facing the biggest challenge go out with them. Paul developed the Sydney in Australia.
who didn’t play bass but, just like “Well, you’ve just sort of described yet with the cuts”. But he points out idea at a Brighton conference looking Meanwhile the whole project is being
Noel Redding with the Jimi Hendrix what we can do. If you’d asked for that the problem of people going at ideas to make the city better for its researched by RIPFA (Research in Paul clearly has a restless appetite for
Experience, or Kim Deal with the anything else…”. Heavy Load found home at 8.30pm existed when the residents. Several hundred people Practice for Adults). Paul feels the change and development – who knows
Pixies, took it up because he wanted to themselves with a day in the studio to movie was made in 2006, two years attended and assisted in the need for academic evidence to back what this Zen Punk manager and his
join the band. record just 19 seconds of music. before the global crisis. He says there development of 27 different ideas. his view that while the project looks colleagues will come up with next?

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