SING4SANE - Houses Of Parliament

Melissa James

Melissa James
Helen Whately MP (Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health)
Luciana Berger MP
James Morris MP
Eugenie Arrowsmith
Marjore Wallace - SANE
Stephen Clift - Sidney de Haan Arts & Health Centre

Date - 30th October 2017
Venue - The Jubilee Room, Houses Of Parliament, London, UK

Video - Live Again

MPs gathered alongside mental health experts and supporters in the Houses of Parliament last week to talk (and sing) in support of SING4SANE. The project has been brought to life by singer-songwriter Melissa James, whose “pop-up” performances bond together an inclusive choir in the most unlikely places. In February 2017 she brought together a thirty strong choir at Caffe Nero in Heathrow Airport. It was a dramatic concert that illustrated that mental health issues can strike at the heart of any community. There are pinch points in all of lives and the stresses that revolve around travel and work can sometimes be masked by the busyness of our lives. No where can life be more stressful (nor fast paced) than the Houses of Parliament. Mental Health has been brought to the fore by our parliamentarians in recent months and the event was opened by talks from Helen Whately MP and Luciana Berger MP.

Helen Whately MP

"Mental illness should not be seen as an inevitable part of life. The current state of mental health treatment would simply never be accepted for a physical condition. I've pledged to take on the unacceptable lack of progress in tackling young people’s mental health. I joined MPs from all parties in swearing to tackle mental illness."
Helen Whately MP

Luciana Berger MP

"In my role as President of the Labour Campaign for Mental Health I have visited many services and organisations across the country. There is clearly a huge appetite out there, to work together to improve our mental health services."
Luciana Berger MP

Eugenie Arrowsmith

Melissa James and Eugenie Arrowsmith spoke to the audience about the pressures they have felt being musicians and vocalists. Arrowsmith was signed to Virgin 10 as a teen, and after making an album that cost more than £500,000, she watched as her work was ultimately locked away in a vault at EMI. Through no fault of her own the work she had put her life and soul into had been taken out her hands. Although the struggle of those years took it toll on Eugenie it didn't quell her desire and she is about to release music again after 20 years, this time on her own label.

“The pressures of the music industry, combined with the desire to be a working artist, are often at odds with each other. I constantly question whether agreeing to particular performances, or keeping-up with demands of social media posts, are really necessary if I am not fully stable and am not feeling mentally well. It does mean making sacrifices, which in turn can lead to feelings of guilt and uncertainty about your abilities as an artist and performer. The difficulty in feeling unable to speak about it doesn’t help. Singing with others who understand does somehow help to silently ease the pressure.”
Melissa James

Jonathon Holder

The Parliamentary Big Sing was a great success bringing together politicians from opposing parties to sing as one. Jonathon Holder on guitar accompanied choirs from Goresbrook School (Dagenham) and the George Green School (Isle of Dogs). Several talented singers bolstered the ranks, including composer Ross Lorriane and ex-Birmingham Cathedral chorister Hilgrove Kendrick. They demonstrated that there is great power being part of a collective. With everyone in the Jubilee Room braced shoulder to shoulder they sang for each other, and for the wellbeing of everyone who still suffers far beyond the confines of Westminster. You are not alone they sang, it is time to Live Again.

“The coming together was spine-tingling, I was overwhelmed to see people singing to raise awareness of such an important issue, because mental health matters to them.” Melissa James

Ross Lorraine

During the summer of 2017 members of the public joined Melissa James in a Big Sing at London’s celebrated RAK Studios. The recorded single, Live Again, sees all sale proceeds go to the mental health charity SANE. Live Again is planned for re-release in early November. It will be available to download via i-Tunes, Google Play and Amazon and other online music retailers.

Will Amor

Assistant to Helen Whately MP

“I wrote ‘Live Again’ a couple of years ago about someone close to me who was going through a difficult time,” Melissa explains.  “For me, this song was really about showing my vulnerabilities, and people often come to me saying because of that, they get it. For some people, it makes them cry.
“It’s about isolation, and so it made sense to use it as a tool to create feelings of togetherness by getting people to sing together.”

James Morris MP

Marjorie Wallace CBE (SANE), James Morris MP, Eugenie Arrowsmith and Sephen Clift (Sidney de Haan Arts & Health Centre) joined Melissa James in a panel discussion. The packed audience listened with emboldened hearts but were also chastened by the realities that face Mental Health services throughout the UK. Nothing can dispute that we need to come together, to listen to each other and to celebrate with voices that have found their life once again.

Marjorie Wallace

“It’s fantastic that Melissa has created this event to bring the SING4SANE initiative to this important audience. Singing can set the mind and spirit free, and help people who experience mental health problems.”
Marjorie Wallace CBE, founder and chief executive of SANE

Margaret Edwards SANE

SANE was established in 1986 to improve the quality of life for people affected by mental illness, following the overwhelming public response to a series of articles published in The Times entitled The Forgotten Illness. Written by the charity’s founder and chief executive, Marjorie Wallace, the articles exposed the neglect of people suffering from mental illness and the poverty of services and information for individuals and families.

Jonathan Robinson SANE

SANE's vision has remained consistent throughout its history: to raise public awareness, excite research, and bring more effective professional treatment and compassionate care to everyone affected by mental illness.
SANE Website

Stephen Clift is Professor of Health Education in the Faculty of Health and Social Care, Canterbury Christ Church University, and Research Director of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health. He has worked in the field of health promotion and public health for over twenty-five years, and has made contributions to research, practice and training on HIV/AIDS prevention, sex education, international travel and health and the health promoting school. His current interests relate to arts and heath and particularly the potential value of group singing for health and wellbeing. He is one of the founding editors of  Arts & Health: An international journal for research, policy and practice  and Honorary President of the  Singing Hospitals International Network.

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Melissa James - Stripped Back, almost

Melissa James

Melissa James - vocal/voice
 Arthur Lea - piano
Jack Ross - guitar

Venue - LIBRARY, private members club, 112 St Martin’s Lane, London, WC2N 4BD
Date - 19th October 2015
Current Album - Stripped Back (Soon to be released)

Arthur Lea

See next at -
22nd November 2015 - Green Note, London, UK
16th March 2015 - Southbank Centre Free Stage, London, UK

London is full of hidden treasures at this moment in time and new venue LIBRARY fits firmly on that shelf.  It is a joy to reacquaint oneself also with those previously unearthed gems and Melissa James is as talented and uncomplicated as you could wish for in a hunt for faceted beauty.

To see our world through a strangers eyes is also a gift and I had the pleasure of accompanying Bosnia and Herzegovina artist Sara Lerota to this gig. It was billed as an album launch but it was in reality a stepping stone in reaching Melissa James imminent album 'Stripped Back'. The music is recorded, mixed and mastered but not yet officially released. This will happen in March 2016 but in the meantime you can still help James fund the project through her Pledgemusic campaign.



Jack Ross

Stripped Back is the latest release from soulful-folk singer Melissa James. It was Melissa’s 2012 release, Day Dawns, that first showcased her stories told through song and her blend of styles which melt her soul spirit with folk, country, jazz and blues. The album was hugely welcomed, having been met with rave reviews and a top 10 position in the EuroAmericana Chart.

Drawing upon the soulful sounds of her youth and her latter day music influences, Melissa’s songs chart growth and hurt; success through adversity. It’s bringing to the fore the tales that are built into her own life as well as those lives and influences that have surrounded her. And this can be heard no more evidently than in her current project entitled Stripped Back. Recorded in July and August this year, these acoustic sessions, recorded live, candidly expose the vulnerability in her voice, with nothing more than guitar or piano as a bed for it to rest on allowing the listener space to become lost in the stories behind the music and her voice.

Sara Lerota

Although Melissa James was as advertised, stripped back, vocally it would be more accurate to think of purity rather than nakedness. The richness of her voice creates seeping pools of colour in the mind, the density of which are saturated so much they have the tangibility of an impasto. It shows a surety in desire and a fineness in delivery. Her voice is those slivers of light that you see slicing through a young copse, sharps of green or those trailing fine threads teased from a seamstress' box.

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Big Up Tom Robinson & Melissa James

Tom Robinson

My last gig before the summer break was a modest but brilliant gig by two singers who I have since developed a healthy respect for. Hosted by Melissa James and supported by Kaz Simmons, this was the launch of the 'Gig in a Gallery' series of events to raise awareness and funds for the Small Steps Project. Now 3 months on, (30/10/2013) we found that the ball which Melissa James had got rolling in July was now a boulder of Indiana Jones chasing proportions. Here and now at the Queen of Hoxton James had organised a charity night that featured the likes of Orlando Seale and the Swell, Danni Nicholls, Sarah Bleach, Vincent Burke, Ardie Collins, Dean Atta, Lux Lisbon, Swami Baracus and the headliner Tom Robinson.

Orlando Seale

All the creative people performing tonight were part of a song writing group called 'Strictly Vanilla' who had spent a weekend together at Bore Place, Kent this time last year. The brainchild of Tom Robinson who wrapped his fatherly arms around them and fostered an environment in which they flourished artistically and collaboratively.

Danni Nicholls

I'm setting my stall out early to say that although I sketched nearly everyone who performed I couldn't include them all here. We had a brief 20 minutes to grow accustomed to each act with its new music, style and a whole range of shapes, ages and genres. While we were at our freshest, Orlando Seale and his Swell, swashbuckled themselves straight into our gunnels, with Seale's dark piercing eyes it is near impossible to you look anywhere else. Sarah Bennington saved us from shipwrecking ourselves on his shores with her flute which charmed us away from his hypnotic gaze.

Vincent Burke

Where Seale foppishly raked us with curly locks our second performer had a direct steely presence that was perfectly projected through her serene chiselled visage. With the paint still wet on her debut album release 'A Little Redemption' Danni Nicholls gave us a short 2 tune set which culminated with a penetrating 'Jolene' and a guest appearance from rapper Swami Baracus who stamped his own modern footprint on the 2013 crowd

Leslie Baldock

While Sarah Bleach played her 3 tunes I grabbed the opportunity to draw a fascinating gentleman in front of me who was holding a copy of Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell closely to his bosom. Dressed in vertical stripes and leather jacket he looked like a cross between an American football umpire and a well maintained Fonz. He turned out to be Orlando Seale uberfan Leslie Baldock, who like many of the crowd who packed out the venue, had come to experience their favourite performer but stayed on to hear the rest because the night's menu was plentiful. That's not to say we didn't tire and lag a little in places. However successful, 10 acts takes some concentrating and devotion, even diehards like 'Gig in a Gallery' regulars Dr & Mrs Fizzy stretched a leg or two, to ward off acoustic cramp.



Ardie Collins

One of my favourites to draw and hear was Vincent Burke, he tumbled out of the 50's in appearance but his deadpan tune 'He paid to have himself murdered' is relevant and humorous in any era, a real delight for anyone afflicted with dryhumouritus, like myself. Some people would also like his 'Stronger than a mountain' and I count myself in that camp too.



Dean Atta - Performance Poet

"The Key to quality is quantity" was anoraked Tom Robinson's quote to the audience. Here before us was the man who released 365 songs in one year, Ardie Collins. Unfortunately this self-effacing songwriter left us 363 tunes short and despite his simmering wit I imagine there's much more to come from under his heavy fringe.

Lux Lisbon's Stuart Rook

Just as I thought I had hit my sketching summit with Burke we were entertained and socially pricked by spikey poet Dean Atta. I often lose track of words while drawing so I cannot vouch so clearly for his content but I can for the sentiment and his pulsating energy which seemed to leap directly onto my page.


Melissa James

The train containing all these performers was rattling along at a runaway pace but took a total right angle turn with Lux Lisbon whose roaring aggressive stance certainly knocked me from my feet and into the lap of the charming singer Kaz Simmons who rested beside me. The juxtaposition with the earlier folk-flavoured bias was refreshing and you cannot doubt the commitment of frontman Stuart Rook who pogoed and ranted until his face turned a healthy puce. Who would get him so hot under the collar? It seems three scallywags from the Bullingdon Club, bullyboys Osborne, Johnson and Cameron.



Swami Baracus

"She sings the blues in the way it's supposed to be sung" was what Tom Robinson said as he announced her arrival. Melissa James gave us what we wanted, a gutsy 4 song set with the absolute standout being 'Don't keep yourself down', which was the best of the whole night and featured the man who would now follow in her steps, the ninth act this evening, Swami Baracus. Who was entertaining for me as an artist with his Halloween inspired black and orange combo, ritualistic rapping hand gestures and rapid fire delivery. Pow!

I never thought I would hear the call to arms 'Big Up Tom Robinson'. It reminded me of a gig in Westminster Reference Library with the jazz group Polar Bear and an unnamed rapper who called to the audience, "Yeah you in the periodicals, wave your hands in the air man!". But Mr Baracus was right, Big Up Tom Robinson, who discarded his dark green anorak, his translucent rimmed specs and got sweaty with the rest of us.

Big Up too to Melissa James.

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Melissa James - Gallery in a Gig

Melissa James

Life imitating art or vice versa, you take your pick. Either way this was an offer I couldn't refuse.
If you find yourself in an Art Gallery that served wine, surrounded by beautiful pictures of birds, musical script and amongst friends you're virtually guaranteed a good time. Add the potent ingredient of Melissa James and it could almost be a fool proof hit.

Ross Lorraine - Keys

We all have a self destruct button though. Last Thursday (24/07/2013) I was the guest of gig addicts Dr and Mrs Fizzy alongside their classy chaperone Sarah Hadland. Despite everything panning out perfectly in the sweet evening air of Bethnal Green that said button was pressed. Wine went flying, glass after glass hitting the Café floor but everything calmed with Melissa James' opening gambit. Aptly titled 'Don't You Keep Yourself Down' (Free download Here) it stopped our reckless behaviour and reduced the imbibing rate just in time.



Giorgos Paphitis - guitar

Supporting the charity Small Steps Project this was the first in a series of gigs in Galleries across London. A tour that suits two of my strongest passions but what impressed me most of was the lightness of sound and sentiment from Melissa James herself. It would be easily to overcook the theme particularly in this café environment too. Like her songs James has a beautiful lingering sound that lives with you well after the event itself. Connoisseur Dr Fizzy explained to me that James is his bedtime choice...' a voice that lifts me into the arms of Orpheus'.

Rowland Sutherland - Flute

Melissa James was joined on the warm lit stage of the Café Gallery by Giorgos Paphitis (Guitar), Ross Lorraine (Keys) and Rowland Sutherland (Flute). It was particularly the entry of the latter for 'Precious Time' that lifted our eyes to the skylight above. We saw the birds hanging high in London's hazy blue and we escaped the capital's clayed feet. Not for long! Enticing us back into her embrace we submersed ourselves in 'Old Mother London' once again. A haunting song, co-written with Tom Robinson, we hope they will perform it together for their final Gig in a Gallery event at The Queen of Hoxton on the 30th October 2013.

Kaz Simmons

London spilled in around us on this eve and our support singer, Kaz Simmons, danced barefoot with her too. Inspired by the radio station London 94.9, she treated us to the wonderful self penned 'For the Love of the Big L' and if by magic a siren from the Old Ford Road elbowed itself into the venue and joined in the celebration.  Adding a little Brazilian spice to the evening Simmons said her farewells with 'Teco-Teco' and we stopped ourselves from dancing amongst the cafe's tables with difficulty. There was a huge sigh of relief from the waitress though, not because of the sheer embarrassment of mine and Dr Fizzy's imminent gyrating but because she didn't want to mop up another bottle of wine from the floor.


Check out Melissa James' GIG IN A GALLERY tour here and her beautiful flowing songs at her website -
www.melissa-james.com

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