Musicians band together to lift spirits with live streams
MUSICIANS, music lovers and entertainment-seekers are uniting in response to gigs being cancelled or postponed, with many announcing live streams in place of events to keep everybody’s spirits up.
Set up by local musician Kiya Ashton with the help of fellow musician Jay Taylor, the Musicians’ Live-Streaming Community public Facebook group, aims to cheer everyone up by setting up live gigs from the comfort of their own homes, while talking to their audience and taking song requests.
‘I knew a couple of people who were already doing gigs and streaming them and thought what a brilliant idea,’ said Miss Ashton.
‘I’d been feeling really down the last couple of days and on Sunday I was watching some gigs that really cheered me up. If it offered me this then I wanted it to be something that everyone could access in one place and hopefully cheer them up too.’
The group, which was created last Monday has nearly 200 members and sees live Facebook streamed performances from a variety of musicians, including Guernsey Youth & Community Theatre singers, Stretchy’s Damaged Disco and Mike Meinke, as well as from Miss Ashton and Mr Taylor themselves.
She added that although the sound quality of performing at home often differed from performance to performance, she hoped the benefits of having that connectivity with others came across.
‘The sound can be a little dodgy,’ she said. ‘From Jay performing quite punchy music to me performing a more delicate acoustic set it can be completely different to what it could sound like and depends on what genre and equipment people have at home.
‘Really it’s just about the experience and the interaction with others.
‘We’re a small island quite isolated from the rest of the world, it would be sad if with the number of people who are staying at home, for whatever reason, we were to lose our sense of community.’
With difficult times ahead, she added the group would be there to help everyone get through it.
‘The States have mentioned mental health and it is a big thing at the moment with what’s going on,’ she said.
‘There’s lots of support out there and I’ve seen the rainbows that people have been displaying, so this is our chance to support one another, we have the platform, so why not use it to get through this together.’
. To watch the live performances, see the schedule of who is performing when or to get involved, visit https://bit.ly/2wBaVL5.
