I've been mixing with celebrities today.
Well one to be exact.
Billy Bragg.
I went to one of his Jail Guitar Doors events in a South West prison.
He is leading an initiative to take guitars into prisons to inspire and encourage prisoners to use music constructively to escape their surroundings (not literally of course) and express themselves in a way that does not get them into trouble.
The session was attended by about 40 prisoners and he talked and sang to them. He explained how he uses playing and singing to calm himself when he is feeling edgy. He used the example of when he is watching West Ham play, wondering how the match is going to go and if they will win (no wonder he's so good - he must have had a lot of practice! Watching West Ham is enough to make anyone edgy).
He also encouraged them to write songs as well as play and after performing several himself finished with this one.
Afterwards I was chatting to several prisoners, and got talking about - yes you've guessed it - football!
Anyway, turns out one of them is the uncle of a current Premiership player (it wouldn't be fair to either of them to name him). He was clearly very proud of the connection.
Small world huh?
5 comments:
With the credit crunch and all that and West Ham at the forefront of it all, poor old Billy might not have anything to Bragg about soon!!
Sorry
(well he shouldn't have a stupid name!?!?!?!)
The same thought occurred to me..... I thought it churlish to point it out to him though
Teaching prisoners how to play music to calm their fevered brows. What a load of b*****ks. What about this Billy Brag bloke doing something for the deprived in our society. Do these prisoners need music lessons? After all most of them have been on the "fiddle" during their days of freedom. If the price of fuel and food rises much more there will be a queue of older people waiting to go into prison to get three good meals a day, plenty of warmth and even someone to talk to! As the head of the Royale family said "Music my Ass"
Hi Derek,
As you probably know, I used to work with offenders, including prisoners. I sought to work in a way that helped them to change their lives. I was always clear that one of the primary reasons for doing this was to reduce the number of victims and potential victims of crime in our society. It's not about making excuses for offending - quite the contrary. But any of us who have ever tried to make a big change in our lives - whatever that change might be - know that sustaining change is one of the most difficult things to do. I think what Billy is trying to do is show the men they have options - they can do things differently. His West Ham analolgy might have been a little frivolous but the message wasn't. He was trying to show them that we all get angry or fristrated or let down - it's what you do about it that matters.
I saw men with tears in their eyes as they were watching him. If being touched in that way puts them on a path to dealing with difficulties in life differently and more constructively then that is all to the good as far as I'm concerned.
It's been a while since I was last in a prison. This visit reminded me as I looked around how saddened I always feel about the damaged lives (prisoners and victims)and the lack of fulfilled potential.
I guess what I am saying is I have a true belief (backed up by lots of evidence) that punishment alone rarely effects long lasting change and that facing the consequences of our actions needs to be coupled with support to change and do things differently in the future.
Well said Georgie. I wrote my letter in haste and after reading your reply I can repent in leisure
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