Oldies but Goodies

Wednesday 5th March 2008

Oldies but Goodies - and Clad in Hoodies: Silver Hoodies come to Town.

A new band of singers, clad in hoodies, have been setting tongues wagging in Bromsgrove: but if you imagine a group of fresh-faced youngsters you'd be wrong - this musical sensation have an average age of 70.

The Silver Hoodies, which formed in September last year, are still in touch with modern culture despite their years. They perform cover versions of modern songs easily recognised by youngsters, including Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol and Dontcha by the Pussycat Dolls. They are still in rehearsal but in March they are planning to take their show out to local schools in a bid to connect with young people.

The group came together after answering a call from local housing association BDHT. The project was the brainchild of head of community services Marie Green, working as part of BDHT's Respect team, who wanted to bridge the gap between generations in the community which all too often were wary or unaware of the needs of the other.

She said: "I wanted to show the younger generation that older people were just like them. Age comes to us all but when you are young it's easy to feel completely distanced from over-60s - you can't imagine ever being that age yourself.

"The Silver Hoodies show older people appreciate the same music as teenagers, enjoy performing in public, just like many youngsters, and in short share many interests with youngsters.

"The Silver Hoodies have been great. I knew that whatever we did would be contentious and we lost some potential members straight away because of the material we perform, but the members we have are very committed and love the songs."

The next project of the Silver Hoodies is a partnership with local police to produce a safety DVD designed to spread safety and security messages to older people. For this, they will revisit songs from 50 years ago to engage with their audience, performing a version of Bye Bye Love by the Everly Brothers with rewritten words. In April the group will perform at the local police headquarters, Hindlip Hall, in Worcester, to mark the start of the partnership.

Marie said: "We're delighted that the community has embraced the project in this way. It's fantastic because we started out to engage with youngsters and we have come full circle, taking part in projects to help older people. We're recognised and sought out by all age groups, which is very rewarding."

Posted by 0 for Bromsgrove District Housing Trust Ltd. (BDHT)