Music not War

The other day I met with Rob Williams the CEO of War Child. He invited me to their office in Kentish Town and I met some of their 30 + staff. With aid projects in six countries (seven soon with Yemen) and an annual budget in excess of £10 million reaching out to over 100,000 children, they are a very different organisation to the one Bill Leeson and I founded. But I am happy to see that music is still central to the charity as a fundraising tool. This year Coldplay, Frank Turner, Florence + The Machine and many others are playing small venues for War Child. As director of the Pavarotti Music Centre I became convinced that music is not only a great fundraiser, but an important part of aid work. Composer Nigel Osborne, who worked with me at the Pavarotti Music Centre said, "We brought bread and music to battered Mostar. We went into a place that craved both something to eat and some kind of expression of life. Politicians always lie but music tells the truth. We were going to feed people, and recover the message of peace and democracy which is inherent in all good music." Simon Glinn, CEO of Buxton Opera House, who worked for us in Mostar and helped organise rock concerts and festivals in Sarajevo has said, "I'm not sure I'd do it like that now, but people of our age then probably would. If one was to paste a philosophy on to that madness, which was brave and lucky, I'd say just that this was about solidarity, multiculturalism and, well, the fundamental principles of good rock'n'roll." Amen to that. Lots more about music and war and music in war in 'Left Field'. Published by Unbound and distributed by Penguin Books - only a few weeks to publication. www.davidwilson.org.uk

A music 'echo'

Nigel Osborne was central to our work at the Pavarotti Music Centre. He initiated the schools programme there and played a lead role in the introduction of music therapy in Bosnia Herzegovina. 16 years after I left the centre Nigel continues with his great work. He tells me that this BBC report on his music workshops with Syrian refugee children in the Bekaa Valley provides “a few echoes from our former lives”. Certainly an echo for me, but for you Nigel, a positive and living rythmic beat that is a long way from being an echo.

David Bowie & War Child

How David Bowie helped War Child. Between September 1994 and February 1997 Brian Eno and his wife Anthea organised three exhibitions and auctions for the charity. The first was 'Little Pieces from Big Stars'. It included Paul McCartney's driftwood carving and Linda’s photographs, Bono's music box containing sunglasses, Charlie Watts' drawing of a hotel telephone, Billy Bragg's brass rubbing and Pete Townsend's model of a Rickenbacker guitar. David Bowie exhibited 17 computer-generated prints. This was followed nine months later by ‘Pagan Fun Wear’, described by Brian as being one of the ‘all-time weird events in London’s recent cultural history’. The idea was to model costumes which would then be sold at auction. Iggy Pop designed penis sheaths; Jarvis Cocker modelled his own shoes; John Squire designed his own underwear; Brian, his coat and pants; Dave Stewart, a bikini and mac. David Bowie contributed ‘Victim Fashion’ which consisted of a model wrapped up in bandages. The third event, ‘Milestones’, held in February 1997 involved, as Brian put it, ‘the usual suspects’. Pavarotti sent a handkerchief on which he’d drawn Enrico Caruso. Graham Cox of Blur did a homage to Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. Paul McCartney, a drawing of Buddy Holly, aged 60. Bono’s inspiration was Frank Sinatra – a music box containing Jack Daniels, shot glasses and a blue napkin. It was signed ‘To Frank, Love, Bono’. Sinéad O’Connor’s tribute was to Bob Marley. Brian contributed his musical dedication to the Velvet Underground and David Bowie's dedication was to the Walker Brothers. As well as contributing to all three fundraisers David Bowie was a patron of War Child. All this is covered in "Left Field". Geat and brave final recording from Bowie here Lazarus

Uncle Karl

A Christmas story from 'Left Field'. "A regular guest at our house was Karl Henrik Køster, a Danish neurosurgeon who’d met my father in Bergen-Belsen when they were both serving in the RAMC. They became close friends and my sisters and I called him Uncle Karl. Because he always came to stay in December, this large man with his deep voice and Nordic accent was Father Christmas, though now I realise he looked more like Karl Marx. Uncle Karl always arrived with a large bottle of Cherry Heering, a Danish liqueur, and gifts for us children. I remember the nine-inch-high brightly-painted wooden soldier with its red tunic and blue trousers. It had moveable arms and a detachable lance which was quickly lost. Karl Henrik was a surgeon at Copenhagen’s Bispebjerg hospital. After operating on a wounded member of the Resistance, medical students asked him to help hide 40 Jews while their escape by boat to Sweden was organised. But how to get them into the hospital? Karl Henrik organised a ‘funeral’ with dark cars, black clothes and flowers. 140 turned up and all of them had to be hidden. He then arranged for ambulances to take them to the coast. In all, he and his hospital saved 2,000 Jews. Then their luck ran out. One day, when leaving his apartment he passed the Gestapo on the stairs. They asked him where Dr Køster could be found. As he left the building he passed the body of a medical student shot in the back. He then followed the same route as those he had helped save and escaped by boat to Sweden. He made his way to the UK and joined the British army. His wife Doris was at home and the Gestapo imprisoned her … The last my father knew of Karl was when he heard from a mutual friend that he had, as my father put it, ‘taken up with his secretary’. He had no idea what happened to poor Doris. Karl committed suicide in the 1980s and didn’t live to see the 1998 Disney film made about his life, Miracle at Midnight, directed by Ken Cameron which starred Sam Waterson as Karl and Mia Farrow as Doris. I recently came across words of his explaining why he acted as he did. ‘It was the natural thing to do. I would have helped any group of Danes being persecuted. The Germans picking on the Jews made as much sense to me as picking on redheads.’ " 

Jeremy Corbyn

I met Jeremy Corbyn in my local pub this evening. He talked about his day in Brussels and I told him about my day at Unbound. I said 'Left Field' was being published soon and that he features in several chapters. He was involved in helping me instigate an enquiry at our local hospital when a neighbour committed suicide. In the chapter 'Ships at Sea' I explained that my politics had been summed up in a lifetime's opposition to joining any parliamentary party, but that I had now had to add a postscript. Because of him, I have joined the Labour Party. He has accepted a copy of the book and wants to attend the launch. It's not too late for you to pledge your copy and, if bought before the end of the year, your name will be printed in the book.

Behind God's Back

In 1994 Anne Aylor wrote 'Behind God's Back' after visiting War Child's operations in Mostar. The New Republic asked to publish it, but wanted the article to focus on the charity's mobile bakery which was feeding the besieged town. She felt the whole piece was important and so, 20 years later, it will appear in 'Left Field'. Here is an excerpt: “I meet Hamid, the official responsible for food distribution in the city. Over whiskey, he explains his view of the conflict. ‘Before the war the mosques were empty. Even now, after all this talk of us “Muslims”, there are still only a few old women there at prayer time. The bridge was our life and they took that from us. They took what was most important. This war has nothing to do with religion. When you hear the muezzin call, you can tell the time.’ He adds, ‘I used to live in West Mostar, close to the cathedral. I loved that cathedral and I loved its clock. I used to look out at it from my flat. When the clock stopped because some idiot damaged the building, I was very sad because I couldn’t tell the time any more. It removed something important in my life. You know,’ he said, ‘that clock on the cathedral and the call to prayer from the mosque are one and the same.'  

Questions for Tony Benn's son

1. Is your leader a 'terrorist sympathiser'?
2. The Lancet estimated that, "as of July, 2006, there have been 654,965 excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war, which corresponds to 2·5% of the population in the study area.” Do you accept these figures and if so, do you worry about your responsibility for supporting the UK's involvement in this carnage?
3. Why did you support the sanctions against Iraq prior to the 2003 occupation. When former UN Humanitarian Coordinators in Iraq Hans von Sponeck and Denis Halliday described their effect as a 'genocide' of children, were they talking rubbish?
4. Are you aware that many of the bombs dropped on Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya contained depleted uranium. Have you asked the Ministry of Defence whether these 'cancer-inducing' components are to be used in any forthcoming Syria bombing?
5. I often dream about my dad. I wake up smiling. Do you have the same experience?