THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING!

Well it seems never right now that there was never a more pertinant sentence ever written and I must say this month has left me with a whole bunch of very mixed feelings. There seems to be a pendulum swinging emotionally, metaphorically and literally, which is actually 3 pendulums and you have to have your wits about you because they all move at different speeds.

Wonderful things have happened at Camden Calling this month, the short film about us by Anna Edwards was screened at Sheffield Doc Fest on the 9th & 11th of June and has been crtiqued by Cine Vue as being a stand out music documentary. We had a wonderful time in Sheffield and were also treated to an evening at the Sheffield Fringe Festival where we saw some amazing short films. It was really cool to take some of the team to something totally different and the films were both entertaining and really very touching. Jonny & Al were also recognised in the street over the weekend by a lovely lady called Rachel who was really interested in Camden Calling. Hello Rachel we hope to see you in London soon! The film seemed to be really well recieved, and I think Dekay & The D'Mans did an excellent job in putting themselves personally under quite a microscope to promote the work everyone at Camden Calling is doing. The benefits of any exposure to them personally are deserved and will greatly enhance Camden Calling, trickling down throughout the organization to eventually put everyone in the spotlight. If hard work by all is maintained, and boy are we working hard.

We have met some really special people this month including Dom from choosemymusic.org who has written the first in what we hope to be a wonderful series of interviews and features on Camden Calling and the artists involved. I would like to say a massive thanks to Jordan at Recharged Radio for that introduction. I was staggered to find that the piece got more hits in 2 days than the site normally gets in a week, and that there seemed to be some pretty lively debate going on. For my part I think this is wonderful.

The radio show LOCKED ON is launching on the 25th July and we are steaming ahead with the next batch of research and recording. The biggest suprise of this project so far has been todays wonderful research and personal contributions from a member of the group who has until now been very very shy to contribute and become part of the team. He has totally proved himself today as being worth his weight in gold [he is a big boy] and I am so thrilled that he has come out of his shell and shared his beautiful writing with us.

Friday 24th June is the big day for us launching the stall in Camden Market and my hope is that this will be a stream of income that will make Camden Calling financially secure. That over time may mean I can also give up on the dreaded night shifts and zombie days.

So from really dark days in December, of thinking Camden Calling was doing a little swan song, those of you following the blog will note that every month since I have had really positive and uplifting news to share. Be that from directly within Camden Calling or from the projects and opportunities members are chasing outside of Camden Calling. All of it all year has been bish bosh wham bam here we go, and it has been truely wonderful and exciting to be a part of or witness to.

So why then am I sitting here typing and feeling somewhat sad and somewhat exhausted. I guess because in order to make these things happen I have had to make some tough decisions. Had to allow other people to make decisions for me /us, and had to push everyone really to step up a gear and prove how serious we are about making this work. This is the challenge, STEP UP / GRASP OPPORTUNITY / BE PROFESSIONAL / THINK AHEAD / THINK OF THE BIGGER PICTURE, and oh yeah we are still one big happy family. Well I believe we can achieve all of those things, because I believe Camden Calling members can do it together if we work together. I have many different hats to wear when running this craziness and I guess people are gonna have to move with the times and understand quick changes are the new black.

A member of Camden Calling leaving for the wrong reasons is always a bad thing, there is no joy in my own percieved failure. There is no fanfare and marching band as there were when Chris and Jerry went off to chase and find beautiful dreams. When somebody leaves because of an unrealistic expectation of what this project can do, when they have an unrealistic expectation of what I can do as one person, and cannot embrace the changes happening or grasp opportunities with both hands. When I sit back and realise they do want to make the same changes within our own micro-society and the wider community that I do. That change for them is not something they can embrace. So we wave really sadly goodbye to Pete, and brace ourselves for the next lap. Pete has been a truely magnificent member of Camden Calling, I am pleased to count him as a friend and I understand that for him the changes happening to us are not comfortable. He is thank goodness still cheering from the sidelines and we are as he says "growing with each show and just trying to get the feeling right". Pete it was a pleasure to take you on part of our journey...........................but the TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING.