Hadrian's Wall of Sound
Helen Amess
Regional Co-ordinator (SBJ), North East Region
It was last summer that I first heard about plans for the first ever BBC Music Day and I was immediately excited about what the project is all about; bringing together musicians of all skills, ages and backgrounds on Friday 05 June to celebrate the music that’s important to them.
Being based as an Outreach & Corporate Responsibility project manager in Newcastle, I began to think about what we could do in the very North of England to mark Music Day in a big way. But it wasn’t until I had a couple of days’ holiday on Hadrian’s Wall in October that inspiration struck!
Hadrian’s Wall is one of England’s most iconic structures; construction work started in AD122 and it took the Romans 14 years to build the Wall, which stretches for 73 miles from Bowness in Solway on the West Cumbrian Coast, to Wallsend on the banks of the River Tyne in North Tyneside. The Wall marked the then-boundary between England and Scotland (although the modern-day border is further north.)
If you’ve ever been to the Wall then you’ll know that it snakes its way across some of the most stunningly beautiful and remote locations in the country. It is possible to stand next to the Wall at places like Banks East Turret and Steel Rigg and look across miles of unspoilt countryside which has changed very little since Roman times.
And it was whilst travelling along the Military Road (which runs alongside the Wall) that I suddenly thought how amazing it would be to bring the Wall (and the hills around it!) alive with the sound of music. And it was at that point that the idea of Hadrian’s Wall of Sound was born; we would work with as many different groups of musicians from as many different community groups as we could find to create a musical relay right along the length of the Wall, broadcasting on BBC Radio Cumbria, BBC Newcastle and BBC Look North en route.
The church at Burgh by Sands is one of the first locations for Hadrian’s Wall of Sound. The radio signal is perfect!
Now with just a couple of months to go before BBC Music Day I am heading up a small team and we’re making Hadrian’s Wall of Sound a reality. We have persuaded a huge range of community musical groups to get involved; a male voice choir, a gamelan group (they play Malaysian percussion instruments), Northumbrian pipers, Afro-Caribbean drummers, steel pan bands, cathedral choristers …the list goes on and on. It’s a massive logistical undertaking, we’re going to start at 6am in the morning and at 6.30pm we will arrive at Segedunum (the Roman name for Wallsend) which we’ll broadcast live on Look North. And in just over twelve hours we’ll feature hundreds of different musical performers, and move them along the Wall in lots of different ways, including an open-top bus, bikes, a tractor and horses.
We’ve been up on the Wall several times; we’ve got very wet, we’ve been snowed on, and also almost been blown away on numerous occasions. We have got our fingers firmly crossed for beautiful summer weather on the 5th of June! It’s exciting, it’s a little bit scary and always at the back of our mind is the question of whether we’ll actually be able to pull it off. I am absolutely certain that we can, but watch this space…
On 6 Music, Stuart Maconie -in the 6M studio in Salford - will be crossing live to Mark Radcliffe who will be doing an outside broadcast following the musical relay at Hadrian’s Wall of Sound and bringing live music to listeners from this incredible location.
