Galleries

Why not peruse our collection of photographs:

Music Making Afternoon July 24th 2011

Our Latest Events...concerts and workshops

Unlock the Music has performed extensively in and around Coventry. We chose community venues and our concerts provide live family entertainment. In this HD world where everything is so hyped up and glossy, we seek to comminicate more directly with something that reflects the sheer joy of our endeavours. We all struggle to practise and polish our performances and these occassions give everyone a focus for their work. If you know somewhere where we could put on a concert please get in touch. Music making workshops are another regular pursuit.

Highlights from the Past

Our concerts started 8 years ago and we have performed in lots of the local churches and village halls, a school, a sports centre, Coventry city streets, a shopping mall, parties, a hairdressers, an art gallery, Coventry Transoprt Museum, a curry club, working men's clubs and really anywhere were we have been welcome. There have been so many singing pupils coming through that I have never totalled them up. At one time I had 50 pupils and all I know was that was too much!! I average 25 nowadays with Jenny building up her numbers gradually.

Dancing

Dancing is very important to UTM. Several years ago we realsied that it was great fun to have a group dance at the end of shows and for about 2 years every show ended with us dancing a routine to Eric Bibb's "Spirit I Am". Darrell Springer lead all these and also choreographed his own great performances to "Walk on By" and also "Thriller". A highlight was his Blanket Dance to Red Snapper. We often got the audiences out of their seats to join us and the photos show just how much fun that was. This overlapped with the arrival of our lovely Jenny and her bellydancing, which became a highlight. Jenny loves to choreograph to unusual tracks, such as Tom Waits (Its's huge shock when Tom's beafy voice suddenly roars in!! ) and The Rolling Stones. The latest arrival has been Amy Matts, who danced to my version of Gollum's song and is also a fabulous bellydancer. Jenny and Amy danced at our latest show.

Friends of Unlock the Music

One of the most exciting aspects of UTM is how we have developed such a warm network of friends who like to perform with us and help us in other ways. LENSART attend all our shows and Kevin and Janet Vaughn have created many of the photos on this site. MATTHEW ROBINSON is now our soundman and a happier and more helpful pal you would not wish for. He has also dug out his guitar and begun to play again in a duo with Mel, so that's a treat for all. There have been many other people helping as time has gone by and thanks to them. The Used to Play are a scratch folk orchestra formed of a group of medics who got together to begin to play again. They created such a wow at our Halloween concert last year. Then came along ex pupil Reg Talbot with his "Mutineers", who are part of a larger folk collective based around Stratford and they offer hearty songs with instrumentals. Coventry Corps of Drums have provided a wonderful stirring element to some of our concerts and we hope to snap them up again soon. The BFM Gospel Choir have recently expanded and will be our guests in the autumn at Union Baptist Church. Their music is so uplifting. MORE