“It’s a choir like no other. We do really funky things in really funky places.”
Helen Sheard first heard about Commoners Choir in 2014, before a single note had been sung in anger.
She was going gig to gig with The Reluctant Ramblers, a walking group set up by Oysterband singer John Jones. One day, a fellow trekker, Boff Whalley of the disbanded Chumbawamba, told her about his plans to start a very different kind of choir.
“It sounded fun. I asked him if I had to read music. He said “absolutely not”. So that was it. I decided I was in.”
The Manifesto came first, a charismatic commitment to amplifying socio-political awareness while pursuing maximum fun and adventure. Its final statement says it all:
WE’LL BE PECULIAR, MEMORABLE, FEISTY, CELEBRATORY, WITTY, ANGRY AND WELCOMING.
Soon after, the choir had its first get-together, with around 15 members in attendance.
“Our very first gig was on Kinder Plateau, to an audience of two startled hikers. It was to commemorate the Kinder Mass Trespass. We only had two songs. One was called Get Off your Arse. It was the most beautiful day.”
It’s no exaggeration to say that Commoners Choir was, from the very start, life-changing for Helen.
“I was quite ill with PTSD. With the choir I had two hours in the whole week when my brain stopped, just for two hours, because I had to concentrate so hard on singing and learning the tunes. I knew then that it was possible to actually switch off from some of the PTSD symptoms.”
The choir has since become a way of life for Helen, a place where she has been able to meet “a really diverse group of people who are passionate about what they do”. It has given her exposure to people, places, experiences and, of course, songs that she would never have had if it wasn’t for her involvement with the choir.
“We sang at a Mark Thomas gig in Salford Quays. That was hilarious. The song we were singing was against the council’s anti-swearing ban. Boff wrote a song that had nothing but swear words, ancient and modern. The Manchester Evening News picked it up and put it on their social media, but every single word of the song was bleeped out.”
Commoners Choir are a politically-charged and socially-motivated bunch, which is not surprising given Boff’s background with Chumbawamba, the band who once famously drenched John Prescott with an ice bucket in solidarity with striking dockers.
The choir have a conscience and are proud of it, doing what they can for those in most need and singing from the rooftops about the injustices they perceive in the world. The Tories have, unsurprisingly, been the target of much vitriol.
“We’ve done gigs raising money for food banks where one of our choir cooked on stage while we sang and then we fed the audience. We’ve done tours where we fed the audience innumerable cakes. We also walked from Skelmanthorpe to the centre of Manchester in 2019 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre.”
On that occasion, one of Helen’s fellow singers made a replica of the Skelmanthorpe flag (which was originally produced secretly in Huddersfield in 1819 to honour the victims), and they all walked across the Pennines with it. It took three days.
The choir’s political protestations can certainly be full-blooded affairs. They are unashamedly committed to the cause. But their initiatives are often executed with wit, charm, sentiment or nuance as well.
“We sing a song called Three Boats. It came from one of my ideas about refugees drowning in the Mediterranean. It’s really heart-rending and to be on stage singing and see people in the audience crying because of the music is really something.”
The challenge of Covid and lockdown restrictions pushed the choir to new realms of creative thinking. They were, of course, up to the task.
“We did a great song in lockdown. Boff put it all together. It was collaborative, which was a beautiful thing. We all recorded it individually, because we couldn’t meet, then we sent him the video and the sound and he put it all together.”
“We also did sketchbooks. Around 30 to 40 of us bought a little A5 sketchbook and every two weeks we posted it to the next person on the list. Each person would do something creative in your sketchbook then pass it on.”.
Helen’s sketchbook starts with a Marcus Aurelius quote. The subsequent pages are a vibrant, jumbled assortment of tracings, sketches, slogans, rubbings and recipes. It’s an interesting representation of their collective minds. Boff drew chairs for everyone. Helen’s chair picture was of the loo – “the best seat in the house”.
This year, they’ve been as busy as ever. In April, they teamed up with the West Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra for a performance honouring New York punk icons Ramones.
“We’ve also just been to Jura. We sang a special song to commemorate the 75th anniversary of George Orwell writing 1984, on the clifftop above the house where he wrote it. Then in the evening, we walked to the beach where the K Foundation burned a million pounds.”
The choir is stacked with various talents and interests. They have wild swimmers, a chef, writers who produce a ‘zine every month called Commontary, award-winning filmmakers. But the essential lineage running through it all is a liberal, free approach to collaboration.
While Boff is undoubtedly the fire-starter, Helen tells me there is no sense of hierarchy. Far from it. “He is absolutely a man with no ego.” Everyone chips in with ideas, they work together on the words, they have workshops and songs shift and evolve during rehearsals.
“There’s a place for everybody in the choir and it’s completely free. Nobody has to pay to attend. If you just want to come and sing and not do the gigs, that’s fine. If you want to come and help sell the merch, that’s fine. It’s all about people being true to themselves.”
Commoners Choir meet every Monday night in Leeds for rehearsals. You can participate online too. For more information, take a look at their website.
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