Rockin’ The World #01…

Posted on November 26, 2006 by Contributor

Artist: Chris Flack
Author: Scott Edgar

ROCKIN" THE WORLD "01…
WITH CHRIS FLACK

Chris Flack is a man on a mission. More accurately he is a man on many missions" having been involved in several high profile charities ranging from Belfast"s Rape Crisis Centre through to an LGBT advocacy group in Mississippi via The Children of Chernobyl and lots more. Recently he has been involved heavily in working through Fairtrade Belfast and Oxfam and has used his love of music to raise both money and awareness for his chosen cause. We caught up with him for a little chat shortly after Belfast"s successful Oxjam 2006 night in The Empire Music Hall.

We wanted to know what came first" the love of music or the desire to change the world…

"Music came first" deciding I could use that to help out here and there came a close second…
About 11 years ago I saw a rag tag of musicians playing off the back of a dirty truck outside Virgin" I fell for it in an instant."

In a typically Northern Irish manner" Chris" involvement with charity work began down the pub with Sean MacEachaidh who turned out to be a tee"total but a huge influence and inspiration to much of the work Chris has undertaken. The students union at the University of Ulster"s Jordanstown campus gave a young Chris his first opportunity to organise gigs in the sadly missed old Conor Hall building. The rest of the story is history. For others it may be a little more difficult to combine their love of charity works and local music…

"There are opportunities everywhere if you go looking for them" although there isn't much in the way of actually combining a love of music and charity. Oxfam do it brilliantly though. It is about following the right path in helping others" eradicating poverty and social exclusion and offering hope" then offering that ethos to others in bands and the arts" they all flock to it eventually""

Many people were hugely impressed at the success of the recent Oxjam gigs. Chris is keen to stress that this is something he didn"t do alone and could not have pulled it off without Maurice McCartney" John Sharp at Oxfam and Kirsten Kearney. The gig featured some of Northern Ireland"s finest musicians but it"s a vibrant scene at the minute so we asked Chris who he was following on the Irish music circuit.

"I love Dan's "Donnelly " formerly of Watercress" stuff. I love what Peter Wilson "Duke Special" is doing and my only regret is not listening to Orla" my mate" who years ago told me to go see Booley. I thought she had a mental taste in music and didn't listen. Plonker""

As well as those bigger artists Chris also has an admiration for the Tin Pot Operation" Fast Emperors" Heliopause and Downlighter. He"s a fan of how Martin Corrigan can work a live show but also thinks that the mix of artists on show at Oxjam "06 was pretty spot on.

Of course the main aim of Oxjam was to raise money for Oxfam and to promote Fairtrade products in Belfast" which has recently been awarded Fairtrade status by the UK and Irish governments. Chris plays down this fact and says that although Fairtrade status for the city is a great accolade" the importance of an event such as this is in the difference it can make to the lives of producers" manufacturers and farmers the world over.

"Can you imagine being the first person in your entire community going to University" that happened in Tanzania and the whole town came out to celebrate… And that was as a direct result of the Fairtrade agreements farmers in the town had."

We had previously asked Chris who he would like to see play at Oxjam 2007. If money was no object he would love to have REM and Tracy Chapman gracing the stage but more realistically he would host another superb evening of local talent featuring Ursula Burns" Dan Donnelly" The Delawares and Duke Special. When asked what the plans for 2007 involve we"re let into a little secret…

"We have three bands in my dream local line"up and we're working on the fourth."

We await this exciting news with baited breath"

Photo credit: Chris Flack
www.myspace.com/flackmeister

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