Musicians Against Homelessness (MAH) has been raising money for the charity Crisis since 2016. And when it comes to MAH in Milton Keynes one name springs straight to mind — Suzanne MK, the Regional Manager who has worked so hard to help promote this amazing cause, and also push the best talent that Milton Keynes has to offer. Lee Grote from AlternativeMK caught up with her for a chat.
SUZANNE, YOU’RE ORIGINALLY FROM LIVERPOOL. WHEN YOU MOVED DOWN TO MILTON KEYNES HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE LOCAL MUSIC SCENE?
It took a few years; I was looking to meet like-minded people. I started being a band manager/tour manager for local artist Billy Nomad. Then after pulling together a charity gig I made a decision that I wanted to put on more gigs, work with local bands and give those bands a chance they may not get, like to play venues like MK11. When I got asked to be the MAH Regional Manager I jumped at the chance.
HOW DID MAH START?
It started with Alan McGee and Emma Rule, Emma being my main contact at MAH HQ. She is an inspiration and it’s just amazing to be able to work for great people within the industry. Having names like this associated with the charity makes it easier to find bands to play the events. A lot of them make contact directly with me which is great and makes it a bit easier.
YOU SEEM REALLY BUSY, THERE MUST BE SO MUCH TO ORGANISE…
Well, we started in September 2018 and we have been holding monthly events. It gets crazy busy with organising bands, getting a venue to hold the event and organising things like a good sound engineer, but we have grown over the last year and I have great people to help with getting the bands organised and setting things up.
IT’S NOT JUST BANDS AND MUSIC ARTISTS, IS IT? YOU PROMOTE ALL KINDS OF ARTISTS…
That’s right, we have poets and artists that sell art works at the events and even had a musician’s football match at one event. We’ve built up a great community over the last year and have people joining all the time. There seems to be a massive creative explosion in Milton Keynes at the moment which is great for the scene and brilliant that people want to get involved helping MAH.
For more information or if you are interested in playing or organising an MAH event contact Suzanne MK on Facebook and help to raise even more money for this amazing charity.
