• Original album artwork by Jamie Reid, known particularly for his artwork for the Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen
• Launches crowd-funding drive for start up costs for the record label
• All profits from Occupation Records releases will go to Occupy London, occupations across the UK and Ireland, and the global Occupy movement

Show your support and click here to Sponsor Occupation Records

http://www.sponsume.com/project/occupation-records-99-cent-launch-record-label

Occupation Records

Visit Occupation Records – http://www.occupationrecords.com

Occupation Records, the record label created by the 45 Revolutions Per Minute Collective – an autonomous collective made up of members of Occupy London – have announced details of their first album, Folk the Banks, which will be released mid February to support and fund the Occupy movement in London, around the UK and Ireland, and globally. [1] [2]

Announced as Occupy London marks 100 days in occupation, the Folk the Banks album will feature a stellar line up of artists including: Ani Di Franco, Tom Morello, Tao Seeger, Billy Bragg and Sam Duckworth of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. Folk the Banks will be released digitally mid February, followed by a worldwide physical release. [3] Full details will be announced shortly.

Artwork for the album has been created especially for the Folk the Banks album by acclaimed punk rock British artist Jamie Reid, famed for the Sex Pistol’s single God Save the Queen artwork. [4]

New crowd-funding initiative
To provide start up costs for Occupation Records as it prepares for the release of the Folk the Banks album – and the other four albums currently being lined up – Occupation Records is launching a new crowd-funding project via Sponsume.com and the Occupation Records’ website. Musicians and others have offered a range of rewards to those donating, including a signed prints of the album artwork by Jamie Reid and copies of the Folk the Banks album in digital, CD and vinyl formats.

A short video has been created for the crowd funding project, which intends to raise £20,000 in four weeks, in association with “You and I Films”. The video features interviews with members of the collective and Sam Duckworth at locations across Occupy London’s sites. The initial funding asked for includes office set up costs, marketing, licensing, manufacturing and worldwide distribution costs.

Adam Jung, Artist and Industry Relations for Occupation Records and supporter of Occupy London, commented: “Much of the music industry has its roots in social justice movements and it’s great that artists from around the world are coming out in support of Occupy. From Motown Records providing the soundtrack for the civil rights movement, to the music of Billy Bragg inspiring striking miners, artists and the industry have historically provided fuel for social change.”

Occupations Records and The 45 Revolutions Per Minute Collective
The 45 Revolutions Per Minute Collective was created when a number of occupiers came together with the aim of facilitating the music industry supporting the Occupy movement. With the combination of experience within the music industry, PR, web design, and direct action, the collective was formed.

Adam added: “Occupy London and other occupations have created spaces for dialogue about social and economic injustice around the world like never before. Whether we are evicted from St Paul’s and other occupations or not, the movement will continue to grow. Music has the power to inspire and reach people who haven’t heard about Occupy yet – and that’s what Occupation Records intends to do. We’ve already begun at St Paul’s and the Bank of Ideas with performances by Thom Yorke and Massive Attack, Billy Bragg, Ani DiFranco, Tom Morello and others. Now it’s time to release that energy.”

Notes
[1] Occupation Records / The 45 Revolutions Per Minute Collective – occupationrecords.com/
[2] Occupy London – occupylsx.org/
[3] Ani DiFranco – righteousbabe.com/ani/; Tom Morello – nightwatchmanmusic.com/; Tao Seeger – taoseeger.com/fr_home.cfm; Billy Bragg – billybragg.co.uk/; Sam Duckworth – samduckworth.co.uk/
[4] Jamie Reid – jamiereid.org/

Video Produced by “You and I Films”
http://www.youandifilms.com

I love the compact and descrete size of the GH2 making it easy to pocket, transport and use.

Shooting when slightly tipsy in a low and mixed lighting environment was challenging but I’m impressed with the GH2′s response and operating the manual focus through the EVF with double vision was relatively easy.

Hats off to last nights party people and happy new year to all.

Track by Bonoba – “Dismantling Frank”

myspace.com/brondibrosoutsiderockers

Produced by You and I Films
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Shot with the Panasonic GH2

Join the You and I Films Facebook Group
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”Monday night turns into Gypsy Jazz mad jam, musicians play genres from flamenco to deep south americana to acid jazz to folk goth rock to django gypsy swing all in the space of an hour!…” Amanda Rodgers ‘Stranger than Paradise’

“New Fortune” by Troubadour Rose

Shot with the Panasonic GH2

Produced by “You and I Films”
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Ingredients…

Shot on the Panasonic GH2
20mm F1.7
90mm f2 Leica R

Dynamic NR-2
Edited in Premiere CS5 with a custom MB Looks profile

Baked with Love….

On the same day, 166 people who work in the arts published a letter in the Guardian calling on Tate to end its sponsorship relationship with BP. “In the year since its catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP has massively ramped up its investment in controversial tar sands extraction in Canada, has been shown to have been a key backer of the Mubarak regime in Egypt, and has attempted to commence drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean. While BP continues to jeopardise ecosystems communities and the climate by the reckless pursuit of “frontier” oil, cultural institutions like Tate damage their reputation by continuing to be associated with such a destructive corporation.

The massive cuts to public arts funding in the UK have left hundreds of culturally important arts organisations in a position of great financial vulnerability, which means that the debate about the appropriateness of particular potential corporate sponsors like BP and Shell is more relevant than ever. As people working in the arts, we believe that corporate sponsorship does not exist in an ethical vacuum. In light of the negative social and ecological impacts of BP around the world, we urge Tate to demonstrate its commitment to a sustainable future by ending its sponsorship relationship with BP.”

Email : liberatetate@gmail.com

liberatetate.org ‘End oil sponsorship of the arts’ on Facebook @liberatetate on twitter

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The year has brought many challenges for the community who have been recently notified of legal proceeding for possible eviction.

New court papers seeking to evict the community garden Grow Heathrow revealed that the project won’t have to appear in court until November 2011.

The good news came after a turbulent two weeks for the environmental movement after revelations came out about the workings of undercover police in campaign groups.

The extra ten months gives the team at Grow Heathrow more time to turn the land into a flourishing market garden. The project has provided local residents with a space to start building more sustainable Heathrow communities after the 3rd runway was dropped in March 2010.

Before the activists arrived the derelict greenhouses were used by the owners to illegally dump cars and other waste. Grow Heathrow gardeners and local residents have since cleared the refuse with the help of the local council and carefully restored the glass in the greenhouses — turning the land back into a market garden and a meeting space for local people.

Residents who had been fighting Heathrow’s expansion welcomed the initiative, which is located on the site of the now-cancelled 3rd runway. Activists initially occupied the land in solidarity with the villagers BAA had been trying to force from their homes to make way for the expansion.

Visit Transition Heathrow http://www.transitionheathrow.com

For information on Transition Towns visit
http://www.transitionnetwork.org

Shot by Felix Gonzales on a Panasonic GH2
Produced by “You and I Films”
http://www.youandifilms.com

(less info)

Members of Action Against Agrofuels are sitting in trees 10m above The Mall 200m from Buckingham Palace with a vast banner reading “Biomassacre: Don’t subsidise it” as the government consultation on renewable energy subsidies commences1.

Dressed in Orangutan suits they make their message heard through loudhailers and conduct telephone interviews from the trees.

Activists are furious that the most unsustainable and environmentally damaging form of energy is being branded ‘green’ and wins one of the highest levels of subsidies for power generation. This, activists state
diverts venture capital away from true renewables such as wind and solar.

This follows a gathering of about 80 protesters outside DECC (the Department of Energy and Climate Change) called by Biofuelwatch and the Campaign against Climate Change yesterday calling for a complete halt to subsidising bioenergy.

Biomass power station applications are appearing all over the UK as venture capitalists seek to profit from burning biofuels and wood chips.

Activists say that subsidies are not just destroying ecosystems but are driving land grabs at an unprecedented rate. Land previously available for food production is now being taken for energy crops with serious implications for global food poverty. This is because consent on just the current planning applications would require woodchip imports of nearly six times the total UK production, all of which is currently allocated.

Andrew Butler commented that “We’re seeing the start of unjustified payments to burn wood and vegetable oil to produce electricity on an industrial scale, depriving millions of people of the land they need to grow food. We’re also seeing an onslaught on the world’s last great
forests exacerbating biodiversity loss and climate change. To cap it all, we’re being forced to pay for this with mandatory surcharges on our energy bills.”

Ironically even the government’s own think tank the RFA, and more recently the European Environment Agency2 as well as the UN Environment Programme3
have all cautioned that liquid biofuels and biomass (wood chip and wood pellets) could speed up deforestation, land grabs and climate change.

Burning biomass also has severe local impacts. Increased air pollution from particulate toxins and arsenic released when liquid biofuels and in particular wood chips are burnt are set to trigger health problems on an unprecedented scale.

Ali Connolly stated “At home too the impacts are devastating. Ex-minister Jim Fitzpatrick acknowledged research stating that the health cost to the British public from toxic emissions at 1.5 million life years annually. The coalition government is condemning all those living within the vicinity of these power stations to an early grave.”

The consultation document confirms subsidy proposals of 1.5 ROCs (Renewable Obligation Certificates) for bioenergy beyond 2013. This is an unprecedented bonanza amounting to £3billion of free money just for the bioenergy power stations already proposed. A flood of new applications will undoubtedly follow.

Twitter@AgrofuelAction

1. ROCs Consultation Information about the Consultation on the Renewables Obligation Banding Review can be found at decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/consultations/cons_ro_review/cons_ro_review.aspx.

2. The European Environment Agency provides independent information on the environment to the EU. Its September 2011 report on bioenergy stated,
‘Hence, legislation that encourages substitution of fossil fuels by bioenergy, irrespective of the biomass source, may even result in increased carbon emissions – thereby accelerating global warming.’ The full report can be found at:eea.europa.eu/about-us/governance/scientific-committee/sc-opinions/opinions-on-scientific-issues/sc-opinion-on-greenhouse-gas

3. The United Nations Environment Programme 2011 Report, ‘The Rush for Land and Its Potential Environmental Consequence’, can be found at
na.unep.net/geas/newsletter/Jul_11.html

Produced by “You and I Films” – Shot using a Panasonic GH2 – #AgrofuelAction

On Sunday the 23rd a group climbed Royal Trees dressed in Orang-utan suits and hung a “Biomassacre – Stop Subsidies” banner across the Royal Mall to bring attention to the issue. (watch the BioMassacre Mission Impossible video – vimeo.com/youandifilms/black-ops )

Twitter@AgrofuelAction

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