MaK events are always a document of the times.We have always been proud to be associated with MaK. Aside for the great work they do in Kosova, they have brought together the Manchester music community.
Guy Garvey, Elbow
A third of MaK’s income comes from the Manchester music industry. Projects benefit from the financial support and outreach generated from music events.
Badly Drawn Boy sits with the artists from ‘Ten” and sings in a Manchester Park
Launch of ‘Ten’ at Union Chapel, Badly Drawn Boy performs with The Travelling Band
Union Chapel gets on it’s feet to dance for the last song of the night
Pam Dawes and Saranda Bogujevci talk about Manchester Aid to Kosovo
A third of MaK’s income comes from the Manchester music industry. Projects benefit from the financial support and outreach generated from music events.MaK’s first concert was held at the Trafford Centre in April 1999 as our convoy left Manchester for the Albanian refugee camps. MaK presented its first record, Helen’s ‘Let Love Live Again’. Our relationship with the Manchester Music industry grew. Two albums of critically acclaimed Manchester Music have been produced with 50% exclusive tracks.
Early in 2001, the release of the MaK (Manchester Aid to Kosovo) compilation, ‘Cohesion’, (Feb 2001, exec producer Pam Dawes), gave many music fans outside of this rainy Northern city the first chance to hear the then little known group Elbow. The band donated the sublime, previously unheard, ‘Scattered Black and Whites’, whilst other emerging Manchester legends Doves gave the album ‘Valley’. Rare and exclusive tracks were presented by iconic artists including New Order, Ian Brown and Andy Votel. At the launch Badly Drawn Boy who had donated a remix of a rare early recording, auctioned both his first gold disk (The Hour of Bewilderbeast) and beloved woolly hat, played for MaK, and agreed to be MaK patron.
In the intervening years Doves, Elbow plus a host of other notable names included on that first album at the start of their careers (I Am Kloot, Badly Drawn Boy, Mr Scruff for example) have supported Manchester Aid in helping recovery from ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.
10 years on and follow up compilation ‘Ten′ sees the now familiar voices of Guy Garvey and Jimi Goodwin surrounded by a new group of emerging Manchester artists. This 18 track album, curated by The Travelling Band’s Jo Dudderidge, demonstrates how the poetic grandeur from the likes of Garvey, Goodwin et al has influenced a u-turn in the city’s musical output. Where the grey, overcoat of ‘dance–miserabilism’ has been cast aside, not to reveal a post-Oasis hangover, but in fact a deep, warmly humorous and slyly experimental slew of artists intent on reclaiming the Manchester music scene for themselves. From the skittering, heart stopping afro-folk of Josephine Oniyama’s ‘Fun In The Dark’ through to the gorgeous slow-core balladry of The Travelling Band’s ‘Hindsight’, ‘Ten’ is littered with countless gems, each a gateway to understanding how Manchester found a new voice for itself in the late 00’s.
Manchester Music has funded much of the work of MaK (approximately a third of it’s total income) enabling it to create the 22 acre Manchester Peace Park in NE Kosovo at the request of children medically evacuated to Manchester. One of these children, Jehona Bogujevci, who survived the massacre of her family, went on to study graphics in Manchester. The artwork for ‘Ten’ is Jehona’s first commission since her graduation.
MAK is involved in art, education, ecology, sport and human rights as well as the Peace Park and music projects. The new republic of Kosovo remains the poorest country in Europe and its young people lack freedom to travel. So in 2009 The Travelling Band became one of the first British bands to perform in Kosovo when the band had helped lead ‘Ten’ the tenth anniversary of the tragic events in Podujeva, Kosovo perpetrated on March 28, 1999. Playing at the Peace Park, in theatres, cafes, on the streets and even on horse drawn wagons, with the aim to inspire Kosovo musicians around them to get out, go public and make it happen.
MAK has proved that linking recovery and creativity creates strength, opportunity and of course, great music. The Travelling Band input, focusing on beauty and creativity, contributed to a dignified and uplifting remembrance day. Jo Dudderidge now leads MaK’s music development.
To coincide with the release of ‘Ten’ (4/4/11), there were two launch events (Deaf Institute, Manchester and Union Chapel, London) featuring, in some capacity or other, the majority of artists featured on the album including a performance from MAK patron Badly Drawn Boy. Many of the presented artists went on to present ‘Ten’ in support of the Flaming Lips at the Eden Project in 2011. Due to success of the biome based ‘Manchester’ stage, MaK musicians were invited to return to play at the the Eden Sessions in 2012.
Calling all musicians! Could you write a song, perform a gig, busk, or donate recordings, royalties or memorabilia and help complete the Manchester Peace Park in Kosovo.
