‘Only You’ A song by the Crisis Skylight songwriters group & Michael Omer

Hear the Crisis Skylight Croydon Singers perform at ‘A Classic Christmas’ on 13th December

The Crisis Skylight Croydon Singers are a group of Crisis members who join the Crisis weekly singing classes. Led by professional singer and vocal coach Niki Carless, the group is made up of people who are currently homeless or who have experienced homelessness in the last three years, plus Crisis staff members and community volunteers.

Crisis Skylight Croydon Singers will be performing at LMP’s ‘A Classic Christmas’ concert on Friday 13 December 2019. a song written by their members with composer Michael Omer and Tegan Eldridge during a songwriting workshop. You can read all about the Crisis workshop below.

‘Only You’ Music & Lyrics by Shakeel Ahmed, Sean d’Cruz, Donna Gordon, Rhodad Nakabiri, Luke Smith, Gary Vaughan, Kayleigh White, and Tegan Eldridge | Arranging & Scoring by Michael Omer

‘Only You’ – A song by the Crisis Skylight songwriters group

Written by Tegan Eldridge, Development and Outreach Manager – LMP

Following on from a successful six weeks programme at Crisis, titled ‘Making Music with LMP’, Michael Omer and I were delighted to be heading back to Crisis Skylight in Croydon to work with the members again. Unlike the three-week session at Crisis last Christmas, this time we had a little more breathing room and the time to come up with some creative and meaningful song material over the course of six weeks, with the aim of performing the final song at the LMP Christmas concert at St John’s Upper Norwood. We were greeted with a few friendly faces from previous weeks, as well as some members that were totally new and hadn’t been part of a project like this before.

Armed with our experience from last year and delighted to be met with such a fantastic and imaginative group of people, Michael and I got stuck in straight away with exploring themes and topics for the song. We began by thinking about different elements of a song, and what it is that makes a song successful. It was brilliant to engage in such interesting conversation about approaches to song writing, and all the members were so forthcoming and understanding with the ideas they were putting forward. We spent quite a lot of time conceptualising the song and trying to focus on ‘emotion’ and ‘feeling’ as some of the most important features of what we were producing. The group shared stories about what moves them, things that they are really engaged and inspired by, and we heard some unique experiences from some of the members. At the end of the second week, seemingly keen on setting the group ‘homework’, Michael asked us all to bring in a few lines and bring them to the next session.

When we came back the following week, we focused on a title for our song taking inspiration from the material that had begun to come together. The members of the session were incredibly forthcoming with their contributions, and we had a board brimming full of themes and ideas. Gradually, a common idea seemed to emerge:

“Mother Nature crying out, she’s on bended knee…”

“Is the heart of the planet dying killing me?”

The most popular title was ‘Holding On to Tomorrow’, linking ideas about the future of humanity and holding onto hope with thoughts about the environment and the future of the planet that we all call home.

By the third and fourth week, the creativity of the group was really flowing! People were so generous with their thoughts and emotions, and it was striking to see the quality of the material that was coming forward. One member sent us a fantastic recording of a whole piece that she had recorded, with a very catchy melody for the chorus and the recurring text ‘Only You’ – we were immediately taken with it and this is the tune you will hear in the chorus of the final version this evening. Another member sent us some brilliant recordings of his improvisations on piano – again, this tune stuck and is now the introduction to the final song.

Tegan Eldridge

Going with our theme of saving the planet and our environment, we now had some fantastic snippets of text from the members that were starting to come together. Some of these you may recognise…

“Only you can make the world a better place, only you can put a smile on your face”

“We sing out for our future, we shout for the unheard”

By the final few sessions, members were bringing in whole verses and some beautifully written text. The text and melody for the first two verses is virtually unchanged and was brought in and sung to me by one of the members. We then worked out how we would make it work harmonically and how the verse and chorus fitted together and we were away. This song is well and truly written by the members of Crisis – Michael and I hardly had to lift a finger (that is, until you get to the technical aspects of all the arranging and scoring – thank you, Michael!)

There was no telling how these sessions would go, and I was struck by the openness of everyone that we were lucky enough to work with. If you aren’t aware of the amazing work that takes place at Crisis, I would strongly encourage you take the time to find out what they do and how you can get involved. The people who wrote this song, and the Skylight Singers you’ll see performing this evening, are amongst the most resilient and inspiring people you will encounter. So please, listen to the words of this song, and if you can, give generously at the end of the concert, so others out there can benefit from the brilliant work of Crisis, and we can all help end homelessness together.

My thanks must go to Denise Keane, and the other staff from Crisis, for their endless support and welcome. Crisis Skylight Croydon is a living, breathing testament to the transformative power of participation in the arts, an area which is so obviously valued in the work they do there. Through music, poetry, drama, dance and theatre, they build confidence, shape social skills, improve emotional wellbeing and provide positive ways to express difficult emotions. I’d like to say a final thank you to Michael, for his dynamism, musicality and boundless compassion during this amazing six weeks of working with Crisis.

A Classic Christmas – 7pm, Friday 13 December

St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood

Christmas would not be Christmas without the London Mozart Players’ annual family Christmas concert at St John’s. We’ve got a programme packed full of your festive favourites as well as a few surprises, but do book early as this concert always sells out. Put on that Christmas jumper, dig out that Santa hat and join us for what will be an unforgettable evening guaranteed to get you singing along!

Tickets £5-£36

70% of tickets already sold – Don’t miss out on tickets, book yours in advance via Eventbrite.

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