GO WITH THE FLOW YOUTH CONCERTS We are taking the bull by the horn on a new wave of community events aimed at young people on a massive UK community incentive “THINK BEFORE YOU DRINK”...... DRINK H20 AND GO WITH THE FLOW, the incentive is aimed at reclaiming the identities youthful spirit and mischievous playfulness that made young people, well, young people… by offering pilot workshops and a concert in 40 towns by July 2010 and if successful, we will launch a nationwide website and multi-town, multi-community album launch party, that will also make way for a magnificent youth concert combining all the towns and young people from dozens of cities towns and rural villages. Young Reading musicians have become event planners to organise and perform at their own music concerts around the UK to highlight a new anti drink campaign aimed at young people. The event, called “GO WITH THE FLOW” was the idea of 20 year old Marvin Morgan [Von Dutch],a musician and rapper, who came to England 4 years ago from Holland and found music made it easier for him to make friends and bridge cultural gaps. Marvin got together with over 20 volunteers of all ages to support the concert which has taken months to organise with the help of CHANTS [Children’s Harmonies Against Nations Turmoil’s]. The Initial project was funded by a Give A Child A Chance Grant through Berkshire Community Foundation, which enabled a group of young people to attend workshops and rehearse with much needed equipment, so successful was this project that once it had come to a close Marvin decided to continue with the only direction the project could realistically go, bigger and better Marvin’s new project was to organise a string of events to celebrate and unite the diverse community in Reading and make them aware of the drinking issues that surround many young people, the idea soon developed and Marvin soon realised he had a tour on his hands. Says Marvin: “It was and will remain to be a tough fight, but the young people who are involved are willing committed and dedicated to take this showcase from town to town until we become one strong voice. Marvin was then joined by RnB/ Rap sensations SOUTH FINESS who offered to assist in the tour and Chants creative team were present to record music tracks for the tour. Marvin’s specially written track, dedicated to his uncle; a fatality to an alcohol related incident brings the strong message home. A resulting video will be used to encourage other young people to avoid getting into trouble through drink. Marvin says: “The best part of the preparation was getting everyone’s ideas onto paper then developing it into a showpiece and then rehearsing it, I’ve always wanted to get into the music industry and know I feel like we have created our own little industry within the industry, its a good good, feeling.” Chants Enterprise challenges people aged between 13 and 25 to identify an issue of concern and gives them practical help and guidance to ‘highlight the campaign. It has not gone unnoticed for its hard work picking up numerous awards including Best Entrepreneur of the year 2008, best voluntary organisation, and staff even picked up best volunteers within a Organisation, Chants have been awarded at parliament for their work as well as had two mini bio-documentaries filmed on them, not to mention launched the South West England’s ITV fixers campaign a year ago. Anthony Charles, Chants studios executive producer, says: “Chants is all about young people setting the agenda, planning the aproach and changing views, opinions, attitudes and stereotypes. We want to give young people the chance to decide what they want to do and to help them develop realistic life changing outcomes from their own projects, I’ve seen how involved and committed they are when what they’re doing means something special, what Chants offers on top of that is continuity, a sense of belonging and the belief and respect that young people need to see they can make a difference and that one day they will understand that they may be the countries loudest voice. What we can achieve through music we hope will warrant young people not getting such bad press.” We have urged young people from every background to support and take part in the events and wew have been inundated with calls from artists from all music genres and at all levels in the music industry wanting to be part of the showcase, the tour has even got the attention of up and coming UK singing sensation Pierre Lewis, www.myspace.com/pierreofficialmusic www.youtube.com/pierreofficial who will be touring with the concert. Funds raised at the showcases will go towards workshops for community groups and charities for preparation for bigger events in the towns and cities the tour is visiting. If you would like to get involved in the “GO WITH THE FLOW CONCERTS” please email mychants@hotmail.co.uk. Or call 01189 580 019 07811 215 235