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Homeless hit back with song

12:16pm Wednesday 27th August 2008

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Homeless people staying at the YMCA in Surbiton have hit back at their bad reputation and made their own song and music video to fight for youth justice.

The song “Can’t see through the rain” was written by six residents and dozens of others appeared singing and dancing in the video, which was filmed on a double decker bus in the grounds of the Hawker Centre.

Passing police officers also agreed to feature in the video, which is now online and will be aired at Y-Care International’s solidarity day on September 12.

Click play to watch the video



Among the songwriters and rappers was Daniel Reason, 17, who has lived at the hostel for five months after a dispute with his mother.

He said: “Everyone thinks of us as homeless people and wasters. We get that bad image and we want to prove them wrong.”

The song was launched at the YMCA youth festival in Prague earlier this month, where Daniel and others performed it on stage with a choir The chorus includes the lines: “The youth of today are the future of tomorrow. No need for sorrow. We must change the weather.”

• To see the video click here


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ohdearyme, Hinchley Wood says...
2:30pm Wed 27 Aug 08

I'm really impressed by the quality of this song. The lyrics are decent and well delivered. As a big fan of UK hip-hop, I would definately buy the single!

The guy who raps the 2nd verse is a talented young man.. I'm no Simon Cowell but he's one to watch!

Fred1, Surbiton says...
6:21pm Thu 28 Aug 08

Well it's funny to think that us lot sneering at the Victoria Road crowd for being chavs and pikey wasters might actually be inspiring a bit of creativity. I hate to say it, but that could be used as an argument in favour of keeping things the way they are.

The area around Kingston is an area of great contrasts, with the notorious Cambridge Estate being just down the road from the gated streets and golf courses of Coombe, and the YMCA homeless hostel being just down the road from the stockbroker territory of the Dittons.

Of course, there are reams and reams of poor people living in flats above takeaways in Brixton and Peckham too, but I dare say the contrasts between the affluent and the hard-up aren't quite so in-your-face in these areas.

Do we put the weight of the world on the shoulders of the young and homeless a bit too often? Maybe we do. But then again, this music video itself perpetuates the usual meritocratic ideal about how people are able to make a difference, both in their own lives and in the world in general, by their own efforts. This is much the same value system as that held by the middle class people who like to sneer. Snag is, if it was actually true, then the divisions between rich and poor might not be so stark.

Credit where it's due for the music video, I do hope it's something that those who were involved can take pride in. That said, it's going to take more than a music video to stop the residents of the streets near Victoria Road complaining about how much the YMCA is blighting the area.

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