Alan Dearling joined up with the lively, quirky Todmorden Kindness Christmas
It started months before Christmas in the planning, recruiting of dozens of volunteers, and in creating a funding strategy to provide for a day of food, fun, music, laughs and kindness.
It kicked off at noon on Christmas Day with food provided in the Unitarian Church, and then continued on, ever more lively, at the nearby Golden Lion pub and music venue. Funding to pay for the food, plus more for local food projects largely came from ‘20 Days of Christmas’ – 20 boxes of vinyl records, many of them signed, and auctioned online. They were provided by Leftfield’s Neil Barnes. In all, he donated 500 of his own records and they were auctioned on Gig’s Golden Lion: Matthanee Nilavongse page.
By the end of the bidding, over £4,000 was raised. On the last day of the auctions, there was a special quiz question. Answer at the end of this little report from the event.
The first person who could answer Neil’s Quiz Question, could win the box for nothing.
Neil Barnes’ Question: “I’m thinking of a very special old instrument that I’ve recently used on stage live.
Can you name that instrument and tell me its length in centimetres?”
Neil (Leftfield), said after the auctions finished: “Just blown away by the generosity of everyone that’s bought a box. It’s fantastic to know that the records I’ve donated will go to new homes. Thank you so much for your kind contributions. It’s such an uplifting feeling when a community joins to create something special. We are so grateful. I’m sure the Kindness dinner will be a fantastically happy and positive event. We owe you all so much. See you there. Happy Xmas.”
Indeed, it was quite an event with over 300 fed. Some were older people, some with special needs, but all were welcome both at the Unitarian Church and in the Golden Lion. A magic mixture of foods for meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans. And Maximus was at the entrance to meet and greet the revellers.
At the Golden Lion, more food was served, Djs played records, children and adults danced, chatted and smiled. Lots and lots of smiling faces, even more so as the afternoon morphed into evening with a performance from Tod’s own Roy Elvis Potts. Great fun and he received plenty of well-deserved applause.
And in the evening, more Djs, including more frenetic dancing, and a banging set from Neil Barnes, who handed over two further cheques for the Cornholme Food Drop-in and the Todmorden Community Christmas Dinners project. Photo from Catherine Moore of Neil with Liz Thorpe, and Gig from the Golden Lion.
OK, putting my hands up, I was something of a fan of Leftfield in the 1990s. Alongside Massive Attack, The Chemical Brothers and Portishead and others, they brought something new and invigorating to the musical melting pot. Leftfield was formed in 1989 by Neil Barnes with Paul Daley. Sometimes, indeed oft-times, their musical style has been described as ‘progressive house’. A sort of Acid-powerhouse. ‘Leftism’ remains a pivotal album. It was their first and reached number 3 in the UK album charts. Next up was ‘Rhythm and Stealth’ which topped the album charts in 1999. Fast forward to now-times, Neil is no longer working with Paul. The most recent album, the fourth from Leftfield, arrived in 2022 with the swaggering title, ‘This is what we do’.
Answer to Neil’s Quiz Question: Philip Drake won with the answer: Berimbau 158 cms, and he kindly donated another £149!! So it completed the Kindness Christmas project target of £4,000.
