Young Producers is a new project for young people who have taken part in Making Tracks, supported by the Arts Patron Trust. Our first 2 Young Producers Helen and Johnny are collaborating to put on a gig involving other young people and will be blogging about the process.

Helen’s Blog #5:

The day of the gig has arrived!

It was a later start than the previous two days, but everyone still came with the same mindset to put their all in to everything they did.

We got cracking with ‘Everybody Needs Music’, because I expressed my concerns about harmonising.

After some more thought on it, I decided to go on to the keyboard instead. The part was trickier than I had expected, and the tempo to which I was playing changed during the song. I felt like between harmonising and playing the keyboard, I didn’t give my best performance to the song; which was a real pity, as it was my favourite one.

It was really frustrating that I was unable to play the keyboard part perfectly on the night, but I had to remind myself that I am human, and humans make mistakes; and I’d only played my part twice before the live performance.

We then rehearsed ‘Phoenix’, and ‘Strive’; which both went well, before the soloists rehearsed their tracks.

By this point, I was feeling really stressed out, and wish I had been able to enjoy the rehearsals more.

It was time for the performance, and I felt a little calmer. Johnny and I went up to introduce the event, and it went well, even though we had never rehearsed what we were going to say. We then started the gig with ‘Phoenix’.

In the rehearsals, this hadn’t gone very well, but the performance sounded fine.

Paradox then went on to perform his two tracks, which were brilliant. His second track; ‘work like that’ was especially good, as he got the audience involved by getting them to join in on parts of the chorus.

We then moved on to ‘Strive’; which again, went really well. I hope Louisa was pleased with it, because she did amazingly.

Next, it was Nirobi, who performed 3 tracks. As always, she was wonderful. My favourite track of hers was ‘Parallel Universe’; it’s still stuck in my head!

Then, we performed ‘Everybody Needs Music’ which went really well; even though I felt like I’d messed up on the keyboard.

I was feeling flustered again after messing up, and then said the ‘thank you’s to everyone, totally having missed out Pedro’s solo tracks.

Despite my mess up, Pedro went on stage and performed three amazing tracks, as if nothing had happened. I found I really related to some of his lyrics, and really enjoyed hearing his tracks. I guess that’s just part of performing; but it was so nice to see how everyone had grown and progressed during their time with the Irene Taylor Trust, and how, ironically, I was one of the first making tracks participants performing that night, but people who’d started their journey later than me seemed less nervous and more professional.

However, I wasn’t ashamed, or embarrassed, I was just really happy for everyone else, and felt so privileged to have seen parts of their journeys.

This is what the Irene Taylor Trust is all about; not numbers and statistics, but being a platform for music lovers to develop both their musical ability, and their ability to make themselves a better future.

We all experience ‘Breakthrough’ moments, but the Irene Taylor Trust have provided me with some of my favourite ones. I couldn’t be more proud, and happy for all the performers, for breaking through all the obstacles.

I’d just like to say a few ‘thank you’s

Firstly, to the Arts Patron’s Trust, for funding and supporting the Young Producers project, and to all the performers and project team. But also, to the people working really hard behind the scenes, like everyone at the Irene Taylor Trust, in particular; Jake, Lauren and Luke. Also, thank you to everyone who came, and does/ has supported the Irene Taylor Trust; you have helped change, in my case even save, lives.