No More Page 3! – International Women’s Day 2014

I’m writing this in retrospective as this event actually happened in March earlier in the year. International women’s day was approaching and my friend Sheleagh Llewelyn, who is also in one of the choirs I run, showed me the “No More Page 3” campaign chorus. http://nomorepage3.org/  I listened to it a few times and then thought that actually it would be great to see if anyone wanted to sing this as part of International women’s day. I spread the word that I would be having rehearsals after normal choir practice on Thursday evenings and a regular group of around 20 singers from 2 groups came along and worked hard at learning the song from memory. This group included men too! I also asked a few musicians to play for this, Ruth Bradshaw – my sister, Jimmy Ottley a cellist and music teacher/performer and Steve Garrett http://.www.feMANism.org.uk     Chapter Arts Centre kindly allowed us to sing in their café area on “women’s” day and our singing was filmed by Jon Ratigan (http://www.jonratigan.com/Shows.html)  – see video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou30ETL0Ptc This was so that we could send it as support to the “No More Page 3” campaign itself. People who got involved were really pleased to have the opportunity to amplify this issue with their voices – I was ever so glad to have them as part of it too – it wouldn’t have the same impact with just me! Look closely and you can see Frankie Armstrong singing with us too. We actually began the performance in Chapter with myself Frankie and Pauline Marching into Chapter singing the “March of the Women” (Music by Ethel Smyth, words by Cicely Hamilton in 1910) – the anthem of the women’s suffrage movement in the UK. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_March_of_the_Women This “Protest” sing was a small interlude in a day that myself, Frankie and Pauline Down put on in Cardiff to celebrate “International Women’s Day” 2014. We lead voice workshops in the afternoon where we taught various songs highlighting the strength of women in overcoming various barriers and had around 35 participants – including men, and then we did a concert in the evening where we performed a variety of our trio songs (Myself, Frankie and Pauline) as well as some of the songs learnt during the afternoon’s workshop as well as other invited performers. Sheleagh – who has worked for “Safer Wales” and various other community support organizations over the years did a very entertaining and informative speech about the issues surrounding “Page 3”. Mary Anne Roberts and her daughter Ashling of “Domestic Violins” performed some very lovely songs from Trinidad. The Cardiff Canton and Chapter Singers performed a few songs too. The whole event was a great success and the proceeds were then donated to Women’s Aid Cardiff. Another great outcome of the day was that the trio – Myself, Frankie and Pauline, realized that we actually sang very well together and have been performing together ever since!