testing... testing... one two three

Wondering what the craic is?! Well, gather round by my side, I'll build a wee fire and we shall talk, sing, laugh, play and share stories...

Born and raised in the peaks of rural NW County Durham, I grew up in a little colliery cottage in the fields, full of music and songs*. It was through folk music that I learned about the world; about my own personal, local, national and world socio-political history, about our traditions and culture, and crucially, it is how I learned of life, love and loss.

I have sung since I could speak and was raised in a family who nourished me with music. This has remained a life long passion and I count my blessings that my life's passion has also become the the tools of my life's work. 

I became chronically ill as a young child and I spent the best part of a decade very ill; often bed-bound or a wheelchair user. Although I will always have health issues, I manage my conditions well and my disabilities remain mostly hidden. My ongoing experiences of managing long term health issues and navigating the many challenges, predjudices and struggles that this entails have given me great strength and as the years pass I recognise and appreciate this more and more.

Having experienced and observed huge life challenges myself, I understand and can empathise with the many battles faced by others.  My experiences have shaped me, my politics and my views  and I believe in embracing life and living it to the fullest, being the best that we can be and trying to shape, create and carve out a better world for those who will follow in our footsteps, for we only have one chance at life - we have not a moment to waste.

I am hugely independent and work very hard to remain so. Like so many others who manage chronic health conditions and all this entails, I refuse to let them define me - or my life. I prefer always to focus on the positives and my abilities, actively channelling my energies into positive passtimes, relationships and work - both professional and voluntary, through my active and ongoing involvement in social justice, environmental and political campaigning.

Despite not attending school full time until college age, I worked hard and went on to study Folk and Traditonal Music at Newcastle University/Sage Gateshead. I am honoured to have been taught by and worked with some incredible folk musicians including; Alistair, Johnny, Louisa, Chris, Maggie, Sandra, Kathryn, Desi, Stuart, Catriona... to name but a few, and later life, work and music gave me the honour of working and singing with the inimitable Benny, Jude, Dave, Bex , Andrea, Katherine and Geraldine, all of whom have all been positive influences in my work and music. Thank you. 

I have worked within community music and education since graduating and my main focus during this time (strangely enough for a musician!) has not been on my own musical performance work and practice, but on using my music and voice in other ways; developing my education, community engagement and production work and focusing on positive social justice and grassroots political campaigning.

I have worked incredibly hard to carve out a career for myself in what is an increasingly challenging, insecure, precarious, exploitative and undervalued sector. Contrary to popular belief; music is not play, it is hour upon countless hour of dedication, research, study, learning, listening, compositon, practice, remembering, reflecting, rehearsal, performance and the expenditure of untold energies and emotions.

My work and music has taken me on some incredible journeys, to some amazing places and I have been honoured to have met, worked and sang with some wonderful people. I am proud of the contrasting chapters of my story, the many lessons learned,  hurdles overcome and the many friends I have made, loved, lost and discovered along the way. I am hugely grateful to those who have nurtured and supported me along my journey, sharing their love, life, lessons, wisdom, expertise and experience - for they have given me wings to fly. Your belief is my strength.

As always, I sing for my ancestors and those who came before and for those still yet to come, for they are our future. And I sing especially for my father Michael, my star above.

Bethany Elen   x 

*this may sound idyllic, however, situated on the highest points in NW Durham, we were often snowed in for 3 months of the year, huddled round our wee coal fire...

These are crazy times... and as I move into my 8th month of working remotely and online I feel an ecclectic mix of being energised, equipt and enraged to engage with whatever is thrown my way over coming weeks... everyone is struggling to fathom what the future will hold. One thing is for certain, there was and never will be a 'getting back to normal'. As I said way back in April, we are still months away from returning to any semblance of what we once knew...

In the meantime, we must work together to collaborate, create and pave a new way of working, one that is safe, inclusive, supportive and truly accessible for all.

Online activities and remote learning are not for everyone. The lucky, skilled and privileged may relish at such provisions, whilst thousands more may struggle to engage, lacking the confidence, experience and training to utilise and access such opportunites. The UK goverment's handling of the coronavirus crisis has unmasked the brutal reality of the extent of the inequalites that blight our society and my heart goes out to those affected most from this crisis.

Now more than ever our communities need art and culture to not only thrive, but to simply survive. When government fails, the arts will prevail. So onwards we must go...

JANUARY 23RD 2020 - I have known and loved dearly many people with 'Dementia' - an 'umbrella' term often applied erroneously, all too often misunderstood and misjudged. So when I was asked to lead the development and delivery of Dementia Friendly Community Choirs by Colin Robson of Durham County Council and Belinda Williams of the Alzheimers Society as part of their Dementia Friendly Communities initiative, I relished the opportunity.  I myself, as someone who has numerous chronic conditions and hidden disabilites, advocate more than anything the right for everyone - irrespective of their illness, conditions or diagnosis - to engage in our communities and wider society. What is needed however to accomplish this task successfully, is education, knowlege, understanding, support, empathy and compassion. (No small order...!)

Despite my own decade of experience working with all manner of people, from every walk of life, I was unprepared to the extent of which this work (developing and leading three Dementia Friendly Choirs), would move, emote, evoke and affect me. In my one of the first pilot sessions delivered last springtime in a rural East Durham community centre, an elderly woman brought from a nearby carehome appeared to be asleep for the duration of our time together. However, towards the end of the session as I began to lead a song,  one which she evidently knew, it struck such a chord that she sat bolt upright, eyes wide, full of life, and sang at the top of her voice. The song ended and she sank back into her chair and within seconds she was asleep once more, her recent movement merely a memory. However, hearing that song stirred something deep inside and I saw the inpact, effect and power with my own eyes, in hers, and it melted my heart.

Last week, during our first session of Forget Me Notes at Ushaw, one of our wonderful singers 'B' spoke of her love of poetry. She is living with pronounced Dementia. Her carer mentioned that 'B' liked the Wordsworth poem and began the first line "I wandered lonely as a cloud" ... I continued: " "That floats on high o'er vales and hills"... B sprang to life and picked up where I had left; "When all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils...  beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way". Her recitation of the poem was possibly one of the most moving, beautiful moments of recent memory and one I shall cherish forever. To see, hear, feel the emotion, passion that those lyrical words evoked, both in myself, in 'B', in the others present, was true magic. This week at Ushaw, during our session she broke into song "morning has broken like the first morning, blackbird has spoken, like the first bird... praise for the singing" - indeed.

During this week's session I began singing 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' and 'H' who sits usually eyes closed, swaying and humming to the music, opened her eyes wide. As she watched me and listened, her wide eyes burned into my soul. The joy that music brought in the all too fleeting moment when our eyes, minds and hearts connect cannot be replicated nor replaced. I felt and I still feel, that I am truly blessed for music moves like nothing else can and I am humbled to have the opportunity to share such magical, momentous moments with others through my work and music.

My Grandad Tombo would have been so proud of me! Ed Pickford and the Elliots of Birtley as a (self-proclaimed!) "warm up" act?!? I almost floated away like a balloon and burst with pride, not bad for a lass from Stanley, ehy? Or rather, how very fitting that I should be sat there, that day, singing songs of political and social struggle - from the coalfields to the mills, suffragettes to the slave trade - the miner's hall rang out with the sound of voices joined in song. As I sat and waited for the Elliots to begin, a hand appeared over my shoulder... I turned to see a kindly gentleman's face smiling and in his outstretched hand, a Werther's Original sweet! How thoughtful of him, I observed. He was sat with his friend and they told me of the time they came to Redhills when they were young men, after the second world war; "we used to come here every week of the classes, you should have seen the place, full to the rafters!" I met some wonderful new friends, who took me for dinner and told me of their life and work with the WAPC - to be around such incredible and inspiring women was like a dream... The colliery banners were displayed with pride and it was a rare opportunity to see them up close, such beautiful tapestries, woven of so much more than merely cloth, truly the fabric of our communities.

As I finished the set with "The Red Flag" my heart soared. I will never forget the voices of those joining me in song, the sunshine through the beautiful stained glass windows and the smell of the rich, dark wood... I was truly home.

- OCTOBER 2015