Movers and Shakers - Music!

Moving, shaking - and drumming - to music can be good for you

This week’s episode of Movers and Shakers is a musical extravaganza. It features performances by two collections of veteran rockers - including an impromptu gig with a judge, a distinguished comedy producer and three former BBC journalists in various states of disrepair.

But we will return to the Movers and Shakers’ live drumming lesson later. We start with Think Loud, an album which brings together a host of great names in British rock and folk to raise money for Cure Parkinson’s. Leo Sayer, Hugh Cornwell, Hank Marvin, Richard Thompson and Andy Fairweather Low are among the artists who contributed tracks in a kind of 21st century version of Band Aid, with the musicians collaborating remotely rather than turning up in a studio.

Two people with Parkinson’s played the Bob Geldof role in getting the project off the ground - Ian Grant, former manager of the Stranglers, and John Altman, who joins us is the pub. You may not have heard of John but you will certainly have heard his music. He played saxophone with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley and Van Morrison, then became a music arranger and producer, arranging the score for Titanic, producing Aled Jones’s Walking in the Air, and, most appropriately, was responsible for the finale of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, ‘Always Look on the Bright side of Life.”

John explains that getting big names to sing in aid of Parkinson’s research was not hard: “I don't think anybody actually said no, which was wonderful. The ramifications thereafter have been fantastic..” By which he means that another top rock “Parky” Ozzy Osbourne heard about the project and, while it was too late for him to take part, agreed to give a big share of the profits of this summer’s Black Sabbath farewell tour to Cure Parkinson’s.

John Altman also has some inspiring thoughts about what music continues to mean for him, even as his Parkinson’s progresses. “I think music is incredible therapy. I think listening to it, playing it, if you do play it, is fantastic, to be honest with you,” he explains. “Thankfully - I say thankfully, I have no idea what's going to happen - it doesn't impinge on anything I'm doing musically at all, which is fantastic for me. As long as I can listen to and play music to the level that I want to do it. I'm very happy to do that.” He refers to his Parkinson’s as “just an inconvenience.”

That kind of positivity is what we get in spades from our other guest Eirwen Malin. She got in touch a couple of months ago to tell us about Sparky Samba, a Cardiff-based group that believes making samba music can be incredibly beneficial for people with Parkinson’s. The group formed after Eirwen and a dozen other Parkies went to see a samba band, making music which depends on a lot of percussion: “We went along to their rehearsal, we were all given instruments, and in an hour, those people who were stiff and sore were just bouncing around the place having really enjoyed themselves. And as soon as we'd finished, the first thing was, when are we going to do it again?”

Eirwen and friends had proposed that they should come to the pub in Notting Hill where we record the podcast and give the Movers and Shakers a samba lesson. We were not sure how that would work - the pub’s customers were hardly going to welcome a collection of tambourine and triangle-wielding old folks disrupting their lunch. But they wouldn’t be deterred, and half a dozen of them drove the 150 miles from Cardiff and met us on the pub’s terrace at noon.

There, led by Eirwen, they put us through our paces, getting us to bang tambourines and drums, reacquainting us with our sense of rhythm - more or less. It was fun but Eirwen says it also has a purpose, helping us in those moments where we freeze, unable to move forward or get our words out:

“Initiating conversations is hard, just getting the words out of your mouth. But also, movement wise, initiating movement is hard, but when you do it rhythmically, it becomes easier.”

And you too can be part of a musical happening on World Parkinson’s Day, April 11th. The Movers and Shakers will be in Westminster for the Big Sing, belting out our Parky Charter anthem We Will Survive just across the road from the Houses of Parliament. Please come and join us - all the details can be found on our website by clicking here.