The Sheffield Scenester

It was a slow start at ‘The Grapes’….probably due the clash with the England v USA world cup match. However the benefit gig went ahead anyway, it was just a shame more people couldn’t attend.

I first met up with Andy Whitehouse the organiser of the event to understand what the benefit was about…. Sam’s family has been persecuted by the Mugabe regime forcing Sam and his family to seek asylum in Britain…although his sisters have been granted asylum, Sam remains in limbo. This event is to highlight Sam’s plight of having been refused asylum once and granted no appeal date, even though the appeal was launched three years ago.

Andy Whitehouse started the proceedings off, unfortunately there was only nine in the audience, so the line up of artists was changed. His first song was ‘Water Mark’, followed by ‘Where the River Ends’, ‘Come Over Here’, ‘Souls’ and his last one was ‘Still Be Waiting’ It was a good start to the night…as Andy engaged with the audience and sang with passion and enthusiasm.

Connor Nutt took to the stage next. He is a singer songwriter and performed ‘Internet Friends’, ‘Eighth Step’, ’Freedom’ ’Metal Shell’ and the last one was ‘The Meadows’. ‘Eighth Step’ was a poignant song about the sort of issues we skirt around out of politeness. ‘The Meadows’ was a fictitious story wrote about a herd of cows thoughts on the way to slaughter… ending rather amusingly with a cow hiding under a tree and escaping slaughter!

Sam arrived after the first two artists had performed. He put up a banner at the back of the stage highlighting his plight to stay in Sheffield and Stay Safe. He was introduced to the audience by Andy Whitehouse who was a member of the asylum seekers “Assist”(Asylum Seekers Support Initiative Short Term) group to help raise money for their plights. The asylum seekers like Sam cannot work, cannot claim any benefit so they have no income and do volunteer work to stay active.

As the next performer started to set up…the football had now finished so more people ventured into The Grapes to listen to this outstanding acoustic performance by local artists, all in aid of Sam Musarika.

Grace Petrie started with a song called ‘Black And Blue’ a one sided love song with serious undertones depicting a loved one beaten by her partner. Next song was ‘Vauxhall Cavalier’ comical words about a much loved car. ’ Fire Flies’ was dedicated to her uncle who was in the audience . ‘How Long Has It Been’ was about ex-partners . ‘Inspector Morse’ was a song about hating and non conforming at work. ‘Farewell To Welfare’ was about the sense that we are losing our rights as society ceases to show care for those in need.

All Grace’s songs were personal ,from the heart and showed life experiences.

John T Angle sang eccentric songs with catchy jingles. Titles include;

‘Little Cock’, ‘This Window’, ‘Last Night I Dreamt I Fired My Deathray Again’ , ‘The Time Lake’( based on Dr. Who), ‘Dragons’ (Talking to dragons) and lastly ‘Put Your Winter On’ a comical view of changing clothes over the seasons.

It was now Sam’s turn to take to the stage; He very kindly thanked people for coming and supporting his campaign , he explains it is very frustrating not receiving any answers to his appeals and not knowing what the future holds for him . I have to say…the audience were captivated on hearing his predicament and applauded his forthright and honest speech.

Matt Wale was next…and my instant observation was that he was so tall he had to stoop over the microphone to sing! His set had a unique twist as he provided music from both a harmonica and guitar.

His songs included ‘Out On The Weekend’, ‘Twenty Ton Truck’, ‘Sweet Zombie Jesus’, ‘My So Called Life’, ‘I Don’t Feel Like Walking Around’, ‘You Me And Everyone We Know’ ,‘ Oh F*** Me At 22’, ‘Falsom Prison Blues’ and his own favourite song ‘Proper English’.

Matt Wale is an engaging Americana influenced singer song writer with his own view of life.

By the end of Matt’s performance the room was full of people sat on the floor crossed legged just captivated by the whole performance. It was a very varied and interesting night, where everyone enjoyed themselves. Let’s hope the night was a total success and Sam is given his appeal as soon as possible. On one last note…Andy would like to thank The Grapes for supporting this event in various ways.

Written and Photographed by Malcolm White (with thanks to Andy Whitehouse for his additions)