Autumn Concert For Palestine
In the Autumn of 2006, Concert for Palestine together with Sheffield PSC and Yorksire Palestine Cultural Exchange, are proud to present a concert to brighten the prospect of Autumn , and after the event, to light up your memory.
Local folk and political artist Roy Bailey, together with Martin Simpson, one of the greatest and most accomplished folk guitarists in the world today, have kindly donated their time so all profit from this concert can go to the children's projects.
Youc anow view pictures of this concert as it is going on
Place, Time and Tickets...
Date: 17 October 2006
Time: Doors open 7:00
Place : Memorial Hall, Sheffield City Hall
Tickets available from: Sheffield City Hall or Tickets at Sheffield PSC dot org dot uk
About the performers
ROY began his singing career in a skiffle group in 1958. For forty years he has sung in folk clubs, concerts and festivals the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales and from Sydney to Vancouver, from Cape Town to Stockholm.
Sheffield PSC congratulate Roy on his recent courageous and principled stand in returning his MBE (awarded to him in 2000 in recognition of his contribution to folk music) in protest at Government foreign policy in the Middle East and beyond. Roy has made a statement (see his website) explaining the reasons for his decision, which has been supported both within and outside the folk music world.
The following letter, from members of Sheffield PSC was published in the Shefield Telegraph on Spetember 1st 2006:
'We write to congratulate Roy Bailey for his courageous and principled stand (News, August 25th 2006) in returning his MBE in protest at Labour government policy in the Middle East. Roy Bailey says that he can no longer accept as an honour an MBE recommended by a Prime Minister whose foreign policies are so discredited. He is right, and Roy's stance shows once again that he identifies, both in his music and his actions, with all those who struggle against oppression and injustice.
Roy Bailey, together with fellow musician Martin Simpson, is also taking a positive step to express solidarity with those who continue to suffer in Palestine and elsewhere. On October 17th he and Martin Simpson will be performing at a concert4palestine, at the Memorial Hall in Sheffield. Roy and Martin are both performing entirerely free of charge at the concert, which will raise funds for children's centres in Palestinian refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. These camps are now in the tenth week of military attacks by Israel; attacks which show no sign of stopping and which the whole international community, including 'our' government, is simply ignoring. Please come along to the concert and show your support to Roy for his action, as well as having a fantastic night out.'
His career has been hailed as representing "the very soul of folk's working class ideals... a triumphal homage to the grass roots folk scene as a radical alternative to the mainstream music industry." Read more (opens in new window)
Martin Simpson has been praised as a world class performer: " His performances elicit powerful emotions and subtle, understated beauty...sheer mastery of the acoustic guitar...A Master Musician." Guitar Player
He presents, says Ken Hunt, in an appreciation, a world-class paradox....
Whether as a soloist or accompanist, he is a guitarist that breathes the rare air that only an Olympian pantheon of guitarists get to breathe, yet, figuratively speaking, he has the Lincolnshire soil and Mississippi mud beneath those well-kept nails. What needs no equivocation is what he does on the metal-strung acoustic guitar. Martin has a command of the instrument and the imaginative powers to do it justice. And regardless of whose instrument he plays, the voice that emerges from the guitar could be nobody else's. (from an appreciation by Ken Hunt. Read more...)