MAKE IT NICE BROTHERS

On the front page of "The Week", the Leicester Mercury's entertainment supplement included with the paper every Thursday, there's a striking photo of the Make It Nice Brothers - one of whom may be better known to you, faithful reader, as Naim Cortazzi. This lead article is promoting the Mercury's very own Summer Sundae Fringe Showcase festival. Rather than have you strain your eyes unnecessarilly, here's the text:

Presented in conjunction with the lovely people at Pineapster, the gig will feature some of the biggest acts in Leicester at the moment – (drum roll please) Charlie and the Martyrs, Autohype, Jersey Budd, Fatal Star and Uncle Frank. [...] here we give you The Make It Nice Brothers, aka Uncle Frank Benbini and Na'im "Blue Steel" Cortazzi, the duo who make up both Uncle Frank and Fatal Star.
There's talk of DJs, skits and the entire Leicester Riders basketball team coming down to support the set.
"It's going to be a special night," said Na'im. "Uncle Frank is... well, how to explain it. It's like a theatrical Benny Hill meets Barry White.
"We're bringing down our friends from the Riders, as well, to give us a bit of support and we've got a DJ, Boy Kid Cloud, so we're going to do it Run DMC style. It's going to be a party.
"We've got a specially penned song just for the night, about the Leicester music scene."
For anyone who doesn't know, the pair have been performing in the two acts for several years.
Na'im fronts Fatal Star and Frank takes the reins for Uncle Frank. "There's too much talent there to restrict it to just one thing," laughs Na'im.
"But for this show we'll put it all together. It'll make sense when you see it live, I think.
"Music for us was never about being popstars or being famous. It's truly an expression of our souls."
More laughter.
"I know that sounds pretentious but we do love it. We'll never stop."
Music has been a big part of their lives for a long time, and the pair met while in other bands about 10 years ago.
As well as his partnership with Na'im, Frank is also busy touring the world with his other band (you may have heard of them, Fun Lovin' Criminals? He plays drums.) "They're really good guys," says Na'im. "They look after their own."

Many Faiths: One Future

To Leicester College, Freemens Park Campus, this lunchtime for their student conference, “Many Faiths: One Future”. This has been a long time in the planning and is being held in collaboration with the Council of Faiths. They have about 100 students, not just from Leicester College, but from the three other FE colleges in the city: Gateway College, Regent College and Wyggeston & Queen Elizabeth I College. There’s a nice lunch (I arrive in time to get some of the food, thankfully), the conference is formally opened by our Lord Mayor (a busy man for this cause) and on the stage are Dr Don Brooks (Vice Principal, Quality and Planning, Leicester College), Councillor Manjula Sood (Deputy Mayor of Leicester and Chair of the Council of Faiths), Minou Cortazzi (past Chair of the Council of Faiths) and Maureen Sier (Inter Faith Development Officer for the Scottish Government) who is the keynote speaker, as she was  at the launch of the week in County Hall on Monday evening. Introductions are done by Vinod Chadusama (Inclusion Coordinator, Student Services, Leicester College). Vinod has been the main man behind this event (along with Sharen Kang, the college’s Faiths and Enrichment Coordinator). Any success here should be credited to them. Naim sings again, we have our speakers, then the students break into groups around the tables to discuss and consult. A sizable group get up and walk out together just after 1430, just before Maureen finishes speaking; when asked why they’re leaving, one says “It’s Wednesday; we always go home at half-two on Wednesday.” Some more take the opportunity to sneak away during the break, but enough stay behind to make for good discussions. I can’t stay for that, as I’m off back to the exhibition in Highcross.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2009: LAUNCH EVENT AT COUNTY HALL

This evening is the official launch of National Inter Faith Week for the city and county at County Hall, Glenfield (seat of Leicestershire County Council). Since I stayed at Highcross for the change of shifts at 1800, I arrive at County Hall after most of the food and drink has gone. Thanks to Sugra Ahmed, for guiding me to some vegetarian items that were left. Thankfully there aren't many vegetarian Muslims here this evening.

This is a well supported meeting, in the Council Chamber, in the presence of the Leader of the County Council, Councillor Roger Wilson, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Leicester (for the second time today) and the Bishop of Leicester. It’s chaired by the Venerable Paul Hackwood, Archdeacon of Loughborough and Chair of the Interfaith Forum for Leicestershire. There’s an interesting mix of speakers and topics: Islam Awareness Week; Faiths Forum for the East Midlands; an “inter-faith recipe book”; an extract from a panto staged by Loughborough Council of Faiths; the signing of an “Inter-Faith Charter” by faith community leaders and representatives. Resham Singh Sandhu (Vice-Chair of Leicestershire Inter-Faith Forum and former Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths) delivers a typically rousing closing address. The evening concludes with a solo musical performance by Naim Cortazzi. I find out later that this was the first time a guitar had ever been wielded in the Council Chamber at County Hall!

Noel Singh gets a well-deserved ovation for his work in co-ordinating the week’s events and for being directly involved in organising this evening. In his own presentation, introducing the County Council’s small grants for community cohesion work, he's clearly conscious of the schedule running over by almost half an hour; I’ve never heard him speak so fast!

The keynote speaker is Dr Maureen Sier, Interfaith Development Officer for the Scottish Government. Scotland has had its own annual National Inter Faith Week for several years (theirs starts next week) and Maureen was speaking about the Scottish experience, how it has developed over the years and what we might learn from it as we hold the first such week nationally in England. I’ve known Maureen for over 30 years and I’m glad she was able to come down from Glasgow to speak at this event. She’s given me a lot of encouragement and support in the two-and-a-half years I’ve been at Leicester Council of Faiths and has been something of a touchstone to me in this important work that I'm fortunate enough to be doing.