User:KayMunroe/Sandbox

EMPTY BOAT
In 1993, a group of 6 musicians (including Dean Brodrick, Oren Marshall, Steve Noble and Chris Smallwood) flew to Dar Es Salam in East Africa to meet and find out more about the basic needs of people in some of the poorest countries in the world. Travelling overland through 9 countries in two Landrovers, they visited water and sanitation projects sponsored by Intermediate Technology.

On their way, they also got out their instruments and exchanged music in the rural villages, urban townships, high commisions, wildlife parks, lodges, schools, prisons, Landrover garages and streets of Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Zimbawbe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Lesoto, and South Africa. The music on this trip proved itself to be the common language; it opened doors and hearts everywhere the group went; it created trust and conviviality, and laid the foundation for good relations with everyone they met. The team returned to the UK with a deeper understanding of the needs of these communities. They had seen with their own eyes that the basic requirement for sustaining life is access to clean drinking water and a toilet.

A decade later in 2004, the band, now named Empty Boat, (comprising Dean Brodrick, Chris Smallwood and a new team of musicians including Gideon Juckes, Filomena Campus, Mark Saunders, Simon King, and Chris Coultas) returned to Mozambique on a similar mission. They linked up with a local NGO in Niassa called Estamos, whose second identity is Mozambique's national treasure, the band Massukos. Massukos had also realized the power of music to communicate, educate and build good relations, even in the context of issues of health, hygiene, sanitation, latrines and HIV/AIDS. Empty Boat and Massukos joined forces to do a "Wash Your Hands for Good Health" tour in Mozambique and have since gone on to collaborate musically in the UK in association with the record label Poo Productions.

The musical collective of Empty Boat continued to evolve with more musicians joining the ship, and a total of 15 people contributed to Empty Boat's debut album Waitless. Among them the Brazilian singer Monica Vasconcelos and Dean Brodrick's then 9-year old daughter Madaleine. The album was launched on World Toilet Day 2008 in association with the charity Pump Aid. Every album sold funds sanitation for one person for life.

Band Members
Dean Brodrick: keyboards and composer Madalaine Brodrick: vocals Simon King: guitar Gideon Juckes: tuba Steve Blake: saxophone & banjo Steve Buckley: saxophone & bass clarinet Sonia Santana: vocals. Filomena Campus: vocals Mônica Vasconcelos: vocals Howard Jacobs: percussion Davide Giovannini: drums Mark Sanders: drums Other contributing musicians Chris Coultas, Chris Smallwood, Nana Tsiboe, Simao Ribero Fontes (Massukos), Manuel Dihuaia (Massukos) Urtema Dolphin, Ian Smith, Oren Marshall, George Hadjineophytou, Joe Townsend, Danny Manners, Simone Haggiag