For one night only: Alice at Craigroyston

Craigroyston Community High School will be staging ‘Alice in Wonderland’ TONIGHT at 7pm.

Marie McGarrol, drama worker at Craigroyston Community High School, said: “Craigroyston Community High School’s senior Drama club is putting on a public performance of Alice in Wonderland at the school tonight at 7pm, adult tickets £2, children’s tickets £1.50. The students involved would really appreciate any external support as the school as not seen a performance of this nature for many years. Please could you pass this email on to your colleagues that work in the area”.

For further information contact Craigroyston Community High School:

Telephone:      0131 477 7801
Email:         Admin@craigroyston.edin.sch.uk
Web Address:      www.craigroyston.edin.sch.uk

Arise, Sir Baldrick!

At last, a ‘cunning plan’ has come together – and in British honours system hierarchy Baldrick now outranks his master Blackadder! Blackadder actor Tony Robinson has been knighted while his co-star Rowan Atkinson receives a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Among the other well-known names to receive honours are Adele, Rob Brydon, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, Clare Balding, golfer Paul Lawrie and former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell, but the majority of recipients are unsung heroes – of the 1,180 people who appear on the Birthday Honours list, almost three-quarters are people who are actively engaged in charitable or voluntary work within their local communities.

BirthdayHonoursList2013

Listen up … local radio for North Edinburgh?

A Local Radio Station?

Various people have suggested that a local radio station for Muirhouse/West Pilton/Drylaw and the surrounding area might be a positive development. Some of the positive aspects of this proposal might be:

Training opportunities for local people in radio and media (with possible links between local high school and Edinburgh College)
Opportunities for local bands and individuals to gain experience produce demos and be given air time
Opportunities for local projects to get their information across to the local communities
Slots throughout the week with different types of themes ie music, younger and older audiences, new migrant communities etc
An overall increase in artistic and creative activity in the area

Interestd? An initial meeting has been organised to discuss the possibility of creating a local radio station, and will take place on

Wednesday 12 June at 5pm

in North Edinburgh Arts Centre

15A Pennywell Court, Edinburgh, EH4 4TZ.

All welcome

Location: http://www.northedinburgharts.co.uk/locate.php

Allan Hosey

Community Learning & Development Worker, West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre

Phone 0131-551-3194

Allan.Hosey@ea.edin.sch.uk

Sign up for Street Dance Summer Mix

Kick start your summer and join us for this five day Street Dance Summer Mix!

Learn the latest moves from your favourite artists, be introduced to new and exciting styles including Street Jazz, Street Dance and Hip Hop styles including, house, locking and krump. You will also take part in a taster ballet session and a free stage make up session.

Street Dance Summer Mix is a great way to either improve your dancing and performance skills or give them a kick start. If you are aged between 12 – 17 and looking for an intensive week of classes to keep you entertained, this is the place for you!

Classes 10am – 3pm, Monday – Friday

(Studio sharing on Friday at 2pm for Family and Friends)

To apply please contact Roz Lynch by June 21^st 2013

Rosalind.lynch@edinburghcollege.ac.uk

Must bring packed lunch.

Citadel double bill for Leith Festival

Citadel Arts Group is presenting a double bill of environmentally friendly plays during Leith Festival, which gets underway this weekend.

‘The Junk Food Vampire’ which features four Leith school pupils who delighted audiences in Citadel’s 2012 Leith Festival show, and ‘Granny was a Rock Star’ which uses humour, pathos and song to drive home the importance of recycling and explores cross generation friendship between two Leith teenagers and the older lady whose veggies they were trying to nick!

Two shows for all the family for the price of one!

Venue: The Granary, The Shore, Leith

Dates: Wed 12 June 7.30pm, Fri 14 June 2pm and Sat 15 June 7.30pm

The Granary are offering a 20% meal deal to our ticket holders so why not make it a night out with a healthy meal – no junk food of course!

Tickets@ £7/£5 from lizhare@blueyonder.co.uk or 0131 337 8570

Sing out with The Piltones!

Listen to this!! ‘take a look‘

This song was written by a group of local women who sing at the PCHP project. It is performed by them and a group of P7 girls from Granton Primary School.

They have formed a group ‘The Piltones’ that anyone can join. They meet on a Tuesday morning from 9.30 – 11 to sing their favourite songs and have a chat. Anyone can jon – get in touch on 0131 551 1671

http://www.pchp.org.uk/the-piltones/

Info: Ann Confrey

New course will take music into communities

Edinburgh College is blazing a trail by offering Scotland’s first further education course in Music for Wellbeing, which promotes the enormous benefits of taking music into the community.

Research shows that music can have a wide range of health and social benefits, such as improving communication, managing stress, expressing feelings, enhancing memory – and even alleviating pain and promoting physical rehabilitation.

Jess Abrams, an American-born community musician, youth worker and singer, is leading the new course in Music For Wellbeing, which starts in August. Jess (pictured below, far left) said: “This is a fast-growing sector and will appeal to people with a love of music who want to use music as part of their livelihood.”

Community music projects take place in a range of settings, including arts centres, community centres, schools, hospitals and residential homes.

“There can be considerable social benefits for people taking part in community music projects, such as learning to create music as part of a group and working with others. Music can elicit emotion from people and we need to understand and manage that better. Playing music in a group is a feel good experience and triggers the same pleasure centres in the brain as eating chocolate. And as well as the health and social benefits, participants might learn some musical skills too!”

There are just 16 places available on the one-year course, a National Progression Award delivered with Skills Development Scotland that covers a very broad range of skills.

Jon Buglass, Head of Creative Industries at Edinburgh College, said the course was designed to widen the employment opportunities open to musicians. “We realised there were limited options – you might be in a function band or if you’re lucky, make it as a rock star. Yet there are lots of opportunities in community music – but no course to prepare people for that. It seemed sensible to design a course directly linked to employment opportunities.”

Mr Buglass developed the course with colleagues and SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority). Although several Scottish universities offer modules in community music as part of broader courses, this is the first time an entire course in Scotland has been devoted to this specific area – and the first community music course offered by a college in Scotland.

“If you have well-developed musical skills, that’s great – but this course might also appeal to community and youth workers as it is as much about taking music into the community by using different personal skills,” said Jess. “You need to show confidence, leadership, team-working – and perhaps most importantly, to be able to build a rapport and relationships with different groups of people.

“Historically, community musicians have come up through a more grassroots approach to the field, but as the sector expands there is a growing demand for training. There is great value in learning by doing and the course will have a very strong work experience element. Students will spend at least 100 hours on placement, learning from people already working in community music.”

“There will be a strong emphasis on ‘before, during and after’,” added Jess. “Planning and designing community music sessions, workshops and events, evaluating their success and where improvements might be made as well as reflecting on our own practice.”

Jess, who is also the Development Manager for the Edinburgh Youth Music Forum, an organisation that works to support community musicians in continuing professional development, hopes the course can act as a catalyst to encourage even greater interest in community music. Jess Abrams has a long connection with North Edinburgh – some readers may remember Jess from her involvement in the acclaimed ‘Oyster Wars’ community drama production staged at North Edinburgh Arts back in June 2003.

Stevi Manning, Principal Officer Arts and Learning at City of Edinburgh Council, said: “This is an exciting new course offering fresh opportunities for people in Edinburgh who have a passion for music – and want to help others to both share that passion and benefit from it.”

To express an interest in the course, email info@edinburghcollege.ac.uk or apply online at www.edinburghcollege.ac.uk

Granton next door neighbours band launch first CD

Two next door neighbours from Granton are part of a band who will be launching their first CD next Saturday (11 May, 7.30pm) at Hendersons St John’s on the corner of Princes St and Lothian Road.

Kite and the Crane are an indie-folk band who write songs about beauty in the everyday. North Edinburgh residents might well recognise some local scenes mentioned in their songs, especially in ‘Lights across the way’ which is about watching the planes coming in over the Firth of Forth.

Songwriter Hannah Kitchen said, “We’re really excited about launching our first 5 track CD and would love folk from North Edinburgh to make it along. Many of the songs were inspired by, written, practiced and recorded in North Edinburgh – thanks sometimes to the patience of our neighbours!”

Tickets are £4 or £3.50 concession from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/219051
You can listen to and download ‘Lights across the way’ at www.kiteandthecrane.co.uk

And a song for May Day

North Edinburgh activist Willie Black has been immortalised in song!

Lifelong socialist Willie (pictured below), who’s from Granton, hit the national headlines back in March when he famously harangued DWP minister Iain Duncan Smith at an Edinburgh hotel. The story made the national news broadcasts and proved to be a big internet hit, and the incident has now been captured in ‘The Ratbag Song’, which you can hear here:

It’s thought unlikely that Citizen Smart, the song’s composer and performer, will be appearing on ‘The Voice’ any time soon!

Edinburgh College students hit the right notes

Students Hit the Right Notes When It Comes To Music Business

Inspiring Edinburgh College students are hosting an event in the capital to showcase the culmination of a year’s worth of work. As part of the HND Music Business course students were required to set up their own independent record labels, scout for new artists and host a single launch party to showcase the results of final year project.

To highlight the artists and some of the most exciting new labels emerging on the east coast, the launch event will be held

this Friday 3 May at The Underground in Teviot Row

Seven independent record labels have been set up by the HND Music Business students, who hand picked artists from across Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Colin McGregor, from Edinburgh, is a student on the course and he will release a single titled ‘September Weekend’ by Glasgow band The Maybes. Colin, who says that the experience has been a real eye opener, will launch the single through his independent record label, Offtrack Records.

He said: “It has been a great experience working towards the single launch and setting up our own record label has been rather surreal. As I have a lot of experience performing, I began this course to get a more rounded knowledge of the music industry and it has been a huge learning curve for me. Edinburgh College has given us real working life experience in that we have had to do everything from setting up our own official record labels and talent scouting for artists to marketing, finance and management.”

During the course, students gain invaluable experience of how an established record label operates, giving them a vast amount of inside knowledge of the music industry.

Singles from each of the artists were recorded at the state-of-the-art CRE:8 Studios at Edinburgh College’s Milton Road campus and they were released simultaneously on Monday (29 April) and are now available for download through iTunes.

The tracks were produced, mixed and mastered by former students from the College’s Sound Production course, and engineered by current Sound Production students facilitating a unique collaborative approach to establishing the labels.

Paul Turnbull, Music Business lecturer at Edinburgh College said: “We constantly strive to provide students with projects that will bring together a variety of disciplines and different strains of knowledge. The students have done an outstanding job in what they have achieved so far and I know the launch night will be a huge success. The experience the students have gained will ensure that students have the relevant knowledge to be successful in the industry.”

Edinburgh College has its own record label, Feast, which was created by three lecturers in late 2010 and is synonymous with the Feast Blog which strives to promote new independent music in Edinburgh and across Scotland. Feast was born through an initiative called Bright Ideas and was set up as a sustainable business from an educational perspective – giving past and present students invaluable experience for future employment opportunities.

Those on the label and at the college have access to its vibrant creative centre which has outstanding facilities for students and musicians, sound engineers and TV Producers and has already been used to host London punk rock band The King Blues amongst others.

The modern fully equipped auditorium allows performance space for gigs, films and other events. Through this affiliation with Feast, the courses at Edinburgh College bring together managers, musicians, bands, engineers and even the filming students in line with education to create original music and videos.

Students at Edinburgh College benefit from study and performance opportunities unrivalled in the sector. Previous students have performed live at the O2 Arena and collaborated in a concert with Jon Lord at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh while recent students have attended master classes in music and sound production with the producer of Oasis.

Students are assisted to find employment through a partnership with ‘Music for Scotland’ or provided with the opportunity to start their own business in a college commercial incubator unit.