The Kids are Alright

Listening to BBC London 94.9 breakfast show, I was shocked to hear a report this morning which says 44% of people think children are "feral" and "like animals". Last year my business sponsored the Sound Skool project, giving music courses for young people with problems. The course allowed youngsters not in education or training to attend music courses. Many had all manner of problems, but by the end of term, we'd seen a complete change in their demeanour and self confidence. The problem is not the young people but a society which gives up on them. The project finished in May, because we couldn't secure a second year of funding. Says it all really.

Deputy Mayor of Barnet Visits Sound Skool Project in Mill Hill

The Sound Skool project in Mill Hill has been helping young people develop their musical talents. Deputy Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Lisa Rutter, visited the project to see what was going on and meet some of the young people involved, as part of Youth Music week. She also popped in to see a Rock United Workshop and see some young people recording a track at Mill Hill Music Complex Studios. All activitues were part of Youth Music Week in Barnet and were free for the Youngsters involved of Youth Music Week.

Rock United are now taking bookings for their Xmas courses. Sound Skool are also looking for young people aged 14-18 to take part in their next 10 week course.

and now for something completely different.

Do you remember the good old days? The days before Lynne Hillan took over the Leadership of Barnet Council and we didn't have to wage war every single day on library closures, sneaky allowance rises, excessive secrecy and highly paid consultants who deliver nothing? Well, it seems so long since I did a blog about the other things in life, I thought I'd just touch on a few little things which have made life worth living.

First off - did you see the Jools Holland show last night. He nicked my joke - http://barneteye.blogspot.com/2010/09/which-milliband.html -  anyway off to see the SMB tomorrow, and they look in top form. Their rendition of "The Joker" was superb. Next time you want to nick my jokes Jules, at least give me a ticket for the show.

Next up - today is a day of great personal achievement for me. 4 years ago a consultant advised me that I needed a back operation. He suggested that maybe some physio would help. I saw a superb physiotherapist - Julie Gear - who advised me, amongst other things to lose some weight and exercise more regularly. Since then I've been going to the gym every single day of the week (apart from Thursday when I play 5 - a - side at Powerleague). One of the targets I set myself was to row 2km in under 7.30 on a concept II rower. Today, four years later, I hit my target for the first time. I guess I need a new target now. I still have back pain sometimes, but I am nowhere near the state I was then.

Next up, a source of great pride to me is the Sound Skool music project at my business, Mill Hill Music Complex - check these photos of week three of the course -  it is great to see young people learning, developing and acquiring new skills whilst thoroughly enjoying themselves. The course is 10 weeks, it has five options music production, MC'ing, DJ'ing, Live instruments and vocal skills. The courses are free for young people aged 14-18 not in education, employment or training. They are funded by Youth Music and run by YMCA.

I'm off now to finish off some mixes for the new album by my band, The False Dots. Enjoy your evening and if you haven't already, please sign the library petition. It's not all gloom though

We need to do more for young people

What are you truly proud of that you've done this year? Well of all the things I've done, the one I'm proudest of is helping to set up the YMCA/Youth Music Sound Skool project. This provides free music courses for young people not in education or training. We also offer employment opportunities to the graduates from the courses. The courses are ten weeks long and cover the following - DJ'ing, MC'ing, Live Instruments, Music Production and Singing. Please watch this video clip. This is our end of course showcase gig. None of these kids had been in a studio before they started the course. Most had low self esteem, were shy and a bit withdrawn (not that you'd guess it from this). During the course they've gained skills, self esteem and made friends. Some are now looking at getting back into education. Youth Music who sponsored the project were blown away with how much we'd achieved with a tiny amount of funding. I must pay tribute to Simon Gordon of Sound Skool who put the project together, recruited the tutors and kept the show going. We are now looking at funding for year two. I'd like to expand the project to other locations. When I attended the showcase, it moved me so much to see how  the young people had come on. Some people believe that the way to deal with young people with issues is discipline and some people believe the solution is creativity. I believe in the latter and I have seen the promised land. Watch the videoa and tell me what you think?

ASBO culture - why fixing it matters

I was interested to hear Kenneth Clarkes comments about the prison service. I must say it surprised me to hear this from a Conservative minister. It won't surprise readers of this blog to hear that I agree with Mr Clarke. Of all the senior Tories, he's the one who seems most competent and most switched on.

We've been having a little debate here about the value of ASBO's, especially for young people. There have been comments in the local paper about a story of a youngster suffering from ADHD, who was given an ASBO. Several comments were left about this which I had to take issue with. As a sufferer of a syndrome (dyslexia) that many ill informed pundits claim doesn't even exist, I find myself drawn to support the ADHD/ASBO kid. When I was 12 years old I was having a terrible time at school. I just thought I was thick and my teachers agreed. I responded by causing trouble. I'm not going to go into what I used to get up to in too much detail, but to summarise, I engaged in extremely destructive and self destructive behaviour. Luckily I wasn't as stupid as they thought and I rarely got caught (especially for the worst things). When I was 14 I discovered Punk rock music and then had something to channel my frustration in to. I started to write songs. Here's one of my earliest efforts

The Mill Hill Song

Nothing to do, Nothing to see,

Nothing for you, Nothing for me,

Mill Hill Mill Hill, it's lovely

No nightspots, No dayspots,

No fun, Just shops,

Mill Hill Mill Hill, it's lovely

I wonder how many 14 year olds still feel like that. Let me give you an example of what sort of person I was when I wrote it. Pete Conway, who formed the False Dots with me, brought down an American Guitarist who was about 21 and had roadied with the Sex Pistols. He was a great player and Pete thought he could transform us into a proper band. We had a little jam and then he asked to here one of our songs. I said "Lets play the Mill Hill Song". We did and he said "That aint a proper song buddy". I took off my Hofner Galaxy guitar and hit him around the head with it, knocking him out and leaving him lying in a pool of blood. When he finally came around, I told him to "F**K off" which he immediately did. It seemed to me at the time like a perfectly reasonable thing to do (although I now feel terrible about it). What would you do with a 15 year old who thinks that decapitating people for criticising his songs is a reasonable response? I saw the guy about five years later, when I had calmed down and went up to apologise. He saw me coming and ran for his life. If you are reading this Wayne, I am truly sorry.

Sadly that wasn't a totally isolated incident. When I was 18 I moved to Sweden to be with my then Girlfriend. I had no baggage, and for six months lead a completely sober existence. I realised the error of my ways. I read a lot and came to see that violence was only ever a problem, that is why I now abhor it. That is why I see ASBO boy and think "what chances has he been given to change". I wonder if he was given a beautiful Swedish girlfriend, a stack of great books and the chance to play and write music, whether we may see a different side of him? I certainly think that if he was given a reason to be sober and a break from his mates in a positive constructive environment  it would do him no harm at all. People have left comments saying "You live in leafy Mill Hill, what do you know about street life". Well I've spent the last two years of my life helping to set up a music project for young people not in education or training, in association with the YMCA. This provides an opportunity for troubled young people to experience the opportunity to make music. It is free for them. Today we rolled it out to another group of extremely disturbed youngsters. To give you some flavour, three attended a session, accompanied by nine social workers, teachers etc. They were difficult kids, but got something very positive from the day. I see these kids and I say to myself "if we don't help them now, it will be too late". The one thing many commentators seem to miss is this. These ASBO kids don't disappear. They have their own kids, who will often be even more disconnected. Fixing the problems matter more than anything. They are not a sub class. They bleed the same colour blood as you or I. They feel bad when bad things happen. They feel good when they have good things in their lives. Often they don't even know why they cause trouble. They are so emotionally scarred that they mistrust people who wish to help them.  I have every sympathy for the people who's lives they affect in a negative way, but abandoning them and hoping they disappear is not an option. It's not just an issue for "The Council" or "Social Workers". It is an issue for all of us. That is why we should support charities such as YMCA which work at the sharp end of the deal.

Unless these organisations get support from the people in this country who can afford it, I doubt that the cycle will ever be broken. If it isn't fixed then don't be surprised if trouble comes to your doorstep.

Want to help a few young people have a better life?

Check out this video. This is one of the Sound Skool taster sessions, we've been running at our studios for young people aged between 14-18 who are not in full time education or training. This session was run in association with First Rung, an organisation committed to helping young people. The Sound School project is run by the YMCA. It provides accredited 10 week courses for young people, to help get them into education or training.



My business, Mill Hill Music Complex is a sponsor of the project (before you ask, this means I've stuck my hand in my pocket to help get it going). We've got funding for 1 year from the Youth Music fund. If you are well off and have a spare £30,000 or so, you could fund year 2 for us and change a lot of young peoples lives. If you've got a bit less, you can still help and if you've got a bit more you could help us expand the program beyond the five courses we currently run (band skills, Music Production, MCing, DJing and Vocal skills).


The group you see in the video had never been in a studio before and they wrote and recorded the track, assisted by our staff and MOBO award winner Pat Leacock in one three hour session. It is an anti knife crime song. If you can help in any  way (fund a year of the project, buy us some equipment, give us a donation, anything will be appreciated) THEN CLICK HERE TO EMAIL ME - I will put you in touch with Marcella at YMCA who administers the project. If you know of a young person aged 14-18 who would benefit from joining a course, we are now recruiting for September, so please email me. If you can help in any way at all, get in touch - I didn't start this blog to plug my business (I do that on this blog - http://millhillmusiccomplex.blogspot.com/ ) but I am very proud of the project and I wanted to share it's work with you and see if any of you can help us or we can help you.

As the Song says "Together we can make it change". Unlike many projects, we have minimal administrative overheads and most of our publicity is either free or by taster sessions. The only money we've spent advertising the project is on printing costs. It's all down to commitment and hard work

Atoning for my misspent youth

It's fair to say that most people are not the same when they are 47 as when they are 17. I like to think I've grown up a little bit (god you must think, what was he like then?). In truth, I was pretty awful. aged 14 I threw myself lock, stock and two smoking barrells into Punk Rock, its ethics and its morality. I had the morals of a polecat (and probably the personal hygene to match). Strangely this never really seemed to put too many young ladies off. In my early teens, when I was at Finchley Catholic High School, the best source of local girls was St Michaels Catholic Grammar School down the road. Many of these girls got the 221 bus home with us. Often we'd congregate around Tally Ho corner and try and entice them with bags of chips or other suitable culinary delights. These early attempts were invariably doomed to failure. As the scruffiest and most objectionable kid at the school, with a poor acedemic record, I wasn't really at the games with the aspiring and clever young ladies at St Michaels. Then one day a miracle occurred. Bill Grundy decided to interview the Sex Pistols on the Today program.

All of a sudden, being a smelly oaf was cool. Pete Conway and myself, decided that this was an opportunity far too good to be missed and took our complete lack of musical talent seriously. We formed the False Dots. We were in a band. All of a sudden the ladies who had crossed the road and held up their noses, started to find us interesting. All of a sudden, the fact we were skint, scruffy and objectionable didn't matter. Sadly the school I was attending didn't quite see my charm in the same way and I headed on over to Orange Hill Senior High School. This had the added advantage of the girls being on site. Through circumstance and other reasons I won't go into right now, I ended up spending a lot of time hanging around with a few young ladies who lived in various squats in the Kings Cross/ Notting Hill area. Given that this would have not gone down too well at home, I kept this all rather quiet.

Although my grades improved at school as I developed better coping strategies for my dyslexia, my lyfestyle choices didn't help my grades. Band rehearsals, attending gigs and hanging around dinghy flats seemed far more attractive than actually working. I had a handy stream of spare cash from my rehearsal studio and other schemes I'd cooked up, so the paper round could be dispensed with. As the bands local fame and notoriety increased, we enjoyed a halcyon period where life was a complete scream. Life seemed to be one long party. All of those snobby girls from St Michaels now chased us. We didn't have to do anything at all. As an aside, let me share a little secret with you, which sometimes makes me giggle. Mike Freer's much feared favourite henchwoman Vanessa Gearson was a snobby St Michaels girl. She was credited with killing Iain Duncan-Smith's leadership of the Tory party. I get the feeling she doesn't like me and I've often wondered why? Anyway, I digress.

As with all parties, sooner or later they come to an end. In my case, this happened in 1984. The band was on the verge of major success, but we split up. I'd managed to have a steady relationship for two years at the time and this went as well. As if all of this wasn't bad enough, my health went. Oddly enough it wasn't my poor lifestyle which done for me, but a misprescription of a drug. When you wake up one morning throwing up blood uncontrollably, you know you are in trouble. When you spend six weeks in bed, you know things are serious. Now how does a brush with the grim reaper affect you?

It affected me in a rather strange way. I stopped drinking for six months. I started madly practicing the guitar for three hours a day. I started trying to write proper songs. I started to formulate a plan for my studio, to build it into the best studio in North West London.

So why is all of this relevent? What's it all got to do with the price of fish? Well on Tuesday night we had the first session of Sound Skool, a project run by YMCA at our studios. It gives young people aged 14-18, who are not in education, training or employment the opportunity to undertake a 10 week accredited course in Music Production, DJ'ing, MC'ing Singing or Band Skills. It's completely free and is held on a Tuesday evening between 5pm and 8pm. The courses are fully booked (in fact well over subscribed).

You can find out more about the Sound Skool project here -  http://www.facebook.com/soundskool
We are now looking for candidates for our next set of courses starting in September. If you are 14-18, not in education or training and have 3 hours free on a Tuesday night, get in touch.

I've got many things wrong in my life. I've made a stack of mistakes, but there are some things I am truly proud of. Helping to get the Sound Skool project off the ground is one of them. The great thing about running your own company is you can spend your profits on what the hell you like. I urge everyone who has their own business to put a little bit back into the community. The pictures on the blog are just a few of the young people who came down on Tuesday evening. To me that's a source of pride. When your dyslexic kids start misbehaving, coming home mashed, playing music you detest, talk to them, help them, advise them. When I started my band, my Dad let me have the use of one of his garages to rehearse in. He told me to rent it out and make a bit of money from other bands. I daresay he wouldn't of approved of much of what happened, he wasn't stupid, but he turned a blind eye. He ran me to hospital when I was bleeding to death, I probably knocked ten years off his life one way or another. He never saw the success we became, but we were turning the corner when he died in 1987. I believe that wherever he is, he's a bit proud of what we've done. I just know I'm lucky to have had such a wise father. I can't say thanks to him for what he did, but I can live in a spirit he would have liked. Have fun, enjoy life and give something back

Andrew Dismore needs your cash !

As the Tory/Lib Dem cuts start to bite people on the public payroll, one man is fighting back. He believes he was the first victim of the dodgy policies of the new government. That man is former MP for Hendon, Andrew Dismore.

He believes that incompetence at Barnet Council lead to him being cheated out of his rightful place in the house of commons. He lost the Hendon seat by 105 votes. Mr Dismore has evidence that all sorts of things happened to voters who were unable to cast votes for him. He has until Thursday to launch a legal challenge. He only has one small problem. He hasn't got the cash necessary to launch the case. Lawyers have told him that it will be a six figure sum.

Now I don't want any naughty wags leaving comments that maybe he could sell his second home and fund the case out of the profits or take out a debenture against future expense claims. Anyway if you have a cool quarter of a million pounds to spare and fancy helping Andrew challenge the result, he'd be absolutely chuffed to hear from you. You can can contact Mr Dismore on 0208 202 2154 or email admin@hendonlabourparty.com.

If you have a quarter of a million to spare and you don't want to help Andrew Dismore challenge the decision, you can click on the "EMAIL ME" link in my profile and you could help fund a youth project run by YMCA for disadvantaged children aged 14-18 to develop music related skills and I'll put you in touch with Marcella at the YMCA  who runs the project and would be endebted for ever for your generosity. Even if you only have £10 she'd appreciate it.

Great things happening in Barnet - Sound Skool Launch

There are some great things happening in the Barnet music scene. Check out this video for the launch of Sound Skool. This is an innovative project for young people interested in music (aged 14-18) who are not in full time education, training or employment. There is more about Sound Skool on the Sound Skool facebook page. The launch party was a great day. YMCA are leading the project and it has been funded by Youth Music. Barnet Homes and Barnet College are also partners.  The Hendon Times also came down to record the event for posterity. Enjoy

Music in the London Borough of Barnet - Barnet Beat Facebook site

I just got an email from Simon Gordon, who runs Sound Skool, which is a company that provides music courses for young people. He's launched a Barnet Beat facebook page. Simon has launched the site to encourage people to share information about music, gigs and other events in the London Borough of Barnet. Simon has asked me to give the site a plug on my blog, which I'm more than happy to do.

Please check out the Barnet Beat Facebook site -
http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=barnet+beat&init=quick#!/group.php?gid=322751712809

Strangely enough, when I first started blogging, I was trying to do what Simon is doing with the Facebook site - ie trying to publicise music in Barnet. I got a bit distracted. I hope the Barnet Beat facebook page is a bit more successful.

Barnet Beat is a loose and informal consortium of people, companies, schools, colleges and Barnet Council, etc, all with an interest in promoting music in the London Borough of Barnet.

Barnet's got talent !!!!! The Barnet Beat weekend

As some of my readers may know, I run a music rehearsal and recording studio in Mill Hill. Barnet Youth services organised the "Barnet Beat Weekend" this weekend. We were pleased to take part and we staged an open day, with various activities taking places for free at the studios. Amongst the main activities, we had Sound Skool doing a DJ skills workshop, Rock United doing one of their Rock School's and Drumsense showing off their program.

For the Sound Skool sessions, teenagers came down and were able to try Beat matching, Scratching and drop mixing. For Rock United, musicians came down, were schooled in the art of playing in a band and finished off recording a song. Drumsense explained the various programs they have on offer. We had over 50 teenagers turn up for the various activities during the day. They all seemed to enjoy the activities and it was great to see so many young people engaged in positive activities.

The program was organised by Barnet Youth Services, although we put our own program together. Lloyd Gee who organises Barnet Youth Services came down to check out the activities at the studio and told me what was going on elsewhere in the Borough.

I would say that generally Education and Youth services are one area Barnet does pretty well. The Beat Weekend had all sorts of activities at a whole host of venues. I don't know what arrangements other providers had with Barnet, but we funded all of our activities ourselves, so we weren't "being subsides" at all. I would like to see a far greater emphasis on sports and arts for young people. One of the reasons I run my business is specifically to encourage young people to participate in useful activities. I was explaining to Lloyd that many of the facilities we provide for young people we run at a loss (these being partially subsidised by other activities at the studio). In the long run I believe that these pay off as once young people become engaged with music, they stay with it and as they can afford to use other services.

I'm in a lucky position that it's my own business and I can make the rules. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing how young people can develop and flourish, when given the opportunity. Two of our customers have developed their careers at our studio and gone on to huge international acclaim. Both Kate Nash and Amy Winehouse used our facilities before they had deals. One of the best feelings was seeing Amy Winehouse on Top of the Pops for the first time, playing a guitar she'd bought from our shop the week before. Kate still uses our facilities and I think she enjoys the down to earth atmosphere we provide.

We've got a couple of other up and coming artists at the moment who I fully expect to be talked about in the same breath as Amy and Kate in a few years time. Maybe a few of the people who took part in the Barnet Beat weekend will get a taste for music or find a previously hidden talent. I sincerely hope so.