SOUTHWARK REBEL WOMEN is a new song written & recorded by Dragon Café Singers, for International Women's Day 2021, celebrating 6 inspiring Southwark women. We are grateful for support from SOUTHWARK COUNCIL NEIGHBOURHOODS FUND for this work.
The Dragon Café is the flagship project of The Mental Fight Club, a charity set up by Sarah Wheeler.
Join Vivien & The Dragon Café Singers for a free online event 5-6PM, 8-3-21 (International Women's Day) hosted by Team London Bridge. All welcome: www.teamlondonbridge.co.uk/events/2021…-womens-day
This song was written collaboratively, and remotely, during 2020/21.
All vocals recorded on Zoom, or by singers using their own devices. Southwark-based songwriter Daniel O'Byrne collaborated with the choir & its leader Vivien Ellis, and Glenn Keiles, to create the song
SOLOISTS:
Clemmie Franks: Ada
Victoria Couper: Octavia
Sally Davies: Evelyn
Gina Foster: Una
Vivien Ellis: Sarah
Caroline Moore: ‘Unrecorded’
CHOIR:
Alpa Raja 
Amanda Lee 
Asha Patel
B.G.
Bharti Vyas
Carol Vincent
Caroline Moore 
Chris Taylor 
Daniel O'Byrne
Debbie Mortimer
Elaine Brown
Ingrid Glass 
Jacqueline Loncke
Jenny 
John Apling
Karen J 
Lorraine Marcia Davies 
Nisha Belgrave 
Nuala H 
Patricia Howlett
Phil Baird 
Stafford Blake 
Susan Koksal 
Vickie Pryde 
Yvonne Gordon 

Glenn Keiles: recording, mixing, arranging, bass, keyboards.
Daniel O'Byrne: guitars
Ian Palmer: drums
Maryasha Keiles: cello & backing vocals
OCTAVIA HILL(1838-1920)Social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the C19th. One of the three founders of the National Trust. Blue plaque at Red Cross Garden, Southwark marks the place where Octavia established a garden, hall & cottages.
ADA SALTER(1866-1942)One of the first women councillors in London, first woman mayor in London & first Labour woman mayor in the UK. Ada is celebrated in her birthplace of Bermondsey, where a garden is named after her in Southwark Park, with a statue in tribute to her on the riverfront alongside her husband Alfred & daughter Joyce.
EVELYN SHARP (1869-1955) was a key figure in two major British women's suffrage societies, the militant Women's Social and Political Union & the United Suffragists. She helped found the latter & became editor of Votes for Women during the First World War. She helped to set up & run a social café, The United Suffragist’s Women’s Club, at 92 Borough Rd Southwark, for the wellbeing of local women in WW1. She wrote a book of vignettes of suffragettes, 'Rebel Women', which inspired this song.
UNA MARSON(1905-1965) Jamaican feminist, activist, poet, playwright and radio producer.
She became the first black woman to be employed by the BBC during World War II. In 1942 she became producer of the programme Calling the West Indies, turning it into Caribbean Voices, an important forum for Caribbean literary work. A blue plaque dedicated to Una Marson is situated at 16 Brunswick Park Camberwell. archive.voice-online.co.uk/article/bbc…female-star
SARAH WHEELER(1964-2016)was a mental health rights activist who lived in Southwark. She founded The Mental Fight Club, a charity promoting creative activities for mental wellbeing. The MFC continues her work with two projects, The Dragon Café, a creative café for mental wellbeing, & RE:CREATE Psychiatry, which seeks to improve the rights of users of the mental health system. In In 2015 awarded the Honorary Liberty of the Old Metropolitan Borough of Southwark at the Southwark Civic Awards in recognition of her contribution to local life.
Vivien dedicates this song to the incredible staff team who  over the years have helped bring Sarah's vision, The Dragon Cafe, & this project, to fruition.

Southwark Rebel Women

10,000 Reason

Lyrics
A Warm Enough Christmas	    
copyright Daniel D. O’Byrne 24th December 2022

Prices rising, not surprising eggs are getting rarer
It’s December Twenty-Twenty-two
Look it’s snowing, oven’s glowing, turkeys run for cover
It’s December Twenty-Twenty-two

Here now for me and for you
A warm enough Christmas may do
A warm enough Christmas may do

Extra layers, football players diving in the desert
It’s December Twenty-Twenty-two
Noses dripping, Messi’s skipping. Had his Christmas early
It’s December Twenty-Twenty-two

Here now for me and for you
A warm enough Christmas may do
A warm enough Christmas may do

Phones are ringing, choirs are singing “In the Bleak Mid-winter” 
It’s December Twenty-Twenty-two
Uncle’s funny saving money turning off the heating
It’s December Twenty-Twenty-two

Here now for me and for you
A warm enough Christmas may do
A warm enough Christmas may do
A warm enough Christmas may do [repeat]

A Warm Enough Christmas (Christmas 2022)

There is a full animation at 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr29FRi5Pe8

This was written up on the tiny Isle of North Uist in the Hebrides. A stunning place of machair sands, lochs and mountains. The fragility of the landscape humbled us almost as much as the welcome we received. The name of the house we stayed in was called Creagan Na Mara, which means the stones of the sea, as the house itself was built from the stones found along the shoreline. It was almost surrounded by a sea loch, and the seal in the film really did pop up just meters from our back door!

A Warm Enough Christmas (Christmas 2022)

Daniel Dave O'Byrne

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