Sage September Concert

 Commemorative Concert will reflect the War across the North East

Planning is now well advanced for the staging of what will be the biggest event of its kind in the North East this year to mark the contribution of the people of the region to the national struggle over the years 1914-18; as the entire population was affected by the demands of the government to sustain an all-consuming juggernaut of military effort, that changed the nation; both the patterns of employment and social structures, over the four years of conflict.

The concert, in the imposing venue of Sage Gateshead will take place on Saturday, 27th September, 2014 at 7.30pm in Hall One. The Project has joined forces with the ABF – the Soldiers’ Charity to organise this event under the title of The Response which reflects its theme of telling the story of how the communities of the North East played a strategic and pivotal role in the national war effort as well as providing recruits for the armed forces in far greater numbers proportionately to the majority of other parts of the country; and suffered some of the worst losses of life in the many great campaigns on the Western Front and elsewhere over the period of the war.

The project will be using many images drawn from its research findings to illustrate the concert, which will feature popular music of the time, military airs and soldiers’ songs together with poetry and writing of the wartime era.

Young people of today will play a big part in the event with the Northumbrian Ranters school orchestra of Northumberland alongside traditional dancers reflecting the Scottish and Irish cultural mix of the population of 1914; a time when the region was the industrial powerhouse of the nation attracting a huge influx of migrants from elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

The story of the Tyneside Scottish and Irish Brigades and the other local ‘Pals’ battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers and Durham Light Infantry will be reflected as we remember the tragic consequences of the First Day of the Battle of the Somme (1st July, 1916) and its consequences for thousands of North East families.
Tickets for the event will go on sale from the Sage Box office from 1st June, 2014 and demand is expected to be high for this very special event. All proceeds from the event, one of the ABFs Salute our Heroes concert series, will go to the Soldiers’ Charity and SSAFA  Forces Help

More immediately the seventh in our series of key lectures on the Great War and its consequences will take place at Northumbria University, City Campus East on Tuesday 8th April, 2014 at 6.15pm when Professor Andrew Lambert of Kings College, London University will deliver a lecture on the Royal Navy in WW1.
This is a free event. The City Campus East is located opposite Manors Metro Station and parking is available on site from 4pm in the University car park (chargeable ). Details of this lecture and the final event on 13th May, when Professor Joanna Bourke of Birkbeck College, London, will conclude the lecture series looking at ‘Armistice and Disability’, can be found on the project website.