Phoenix Connects
On Tuesday 17th September Phoenix Project members welcomed guests to the Smokehouse, South Street, Ipswich for their showcase event!
In the run up to Phoenix Connects group members met to help with planning and preparations and to rehearse songs for the Connected Voices Phoenix Choir! Carl, Jon and Winston also had the experience of spending a day in the recording studio at South Street. Carl recorded one of his own songs ‘Never Go Back’, Winston recorded the Buddy Holly classic ‘Heartbeat’ and Jon Fuller worked with Mandy and Donna to arrange and record a version of ‘Love Song’ - a song originally by Lesley Duncan, later recorded by Elton John. The video below was made to accompany the song from artwork created in February at True Thoughts creative sessions.
In the studio at South Street: Jake (Punch Studios), Carl, Winston, Jon, Donna & Mandy
The daytime open studio event attracted guests from community organisations including Inside Out, Project CACHSF, the Hive, Ipswich Museum and Ipswich Community Media. Phoenix members did a brilliant job of hosting - showing guests around the venue and talking to them about the Phoenix Project’s creative and media work. Using the lovely iMacs in South Street’s Media Lab, Phoenix Connects also presented artwork, interviews, DJ mixes, and podcast recordings produced by participants from linked community initiatives via an online dashboard - a one-stop hub for accessing interviews, audio recordings, and other ace content made at South Street.
The evening event went really well with poetry readings by Christine and Michelle and freestyle spoken word performances by Gary (Cheese & Ham Sandwich) and Jeremy (a very moving tribute to John King). Len (aka Johnny Cash) performed ‘Ring of Fire’ whilst Winston entertained us with some spontaneous jokes and a karaoke performance of ‘So Far Away’ (Dire Straits). Carl sung and played a short set of his favourite songs (with backing vocals by Jeremy and Karl) and an the night was topped and tailed with an original musical performance by Jon Fuller. We were treated to a rendition of ‘Born in the NHS’ written specially for the event by Bruce, a world premier of recent studio recordings by Phoenix members and a version of ‘Lean on Me’ by the Connected Voices Phoenix Choir.
Our partners at Ipswich Community Media have written a fantastic blog post about Phoenix Connects and it’s role in connecting communities at South Street. It also talks about the importance of creativity for positive mental health outcomes! Project Trustee, Cad Taylor recorded interviews at the event which went out on air on BBC Radio Suffolk on 18th September.