Unsung Sports 2022
Unsung Sports is an arts project celebrating non-mainstream sports in Leeds, through film, podcast, photography and song. Inspired by a Field of Vision conference about the relationship between sport and music, I determined to write songs for all the sports in our city who - unlike, for instance, football - don’t have prominence, permanent homes, or their own specially penned songs. Arts Council England, with Headingley Lit Fest, funded it, Space 2 helped me produce it, and it all came together on one loud and lovely night at The Irish Centre in May 2022.
Listen to the Live performance of all seven songs from that night right here.
Gaelic Football
For six months I spent time with three sports communities: Table Tennis, Roller Skating, and I started with Gaelic Football.
Emilie Flower made this gorgeous short film with Hugh O’Neills GAA, St. Benedicts GAA, and Hugh O’Neills Ladies. I watched matches, attended training, and talked extensively to players, fans and organisers. Gaelic games have a deep and beautiful history in Leeds, as does the Irish community as a whole.
Meanwhile Lizzie Coombes (aka Betty Lawless) had been taking photo-portraits of players and participants. She took 114 in all. Here are a few to go on with.
Listen to a podcast examining Gaelic Football in Leeds in more depth.
Roller Skating
The roller skating world burst into flower over the pandemic period, especially in Leeds. There are now a number of informal skating communities throughout the city, all vivid, diverse - and still growing. 2021/2 was a fascinating moment to capture a glimpse of all this.
Emilie Flower made this short film from attending skating sessions at The Sikh Centre with Roller Girl Gang and the Potternewton Rollers, and at LSTEN with Leeds Skate Scholarship, Be Good Skates, and Park Roll. Lizzie Coombes took the photos below.
Listen to a podcast examining Roller Skating in Leeds in more depth.
Table Tennis
Back in the 1970s there were still over 80 table tennis clubs in Leeds. TT was played in factories, breweries, mills all over West Yorkshire. The nature of the game in Leeds changed with the demise of manufacturing but is still flourishing with many new people registering interest during the pandemic.
Emilie Flower made this lovely short film with Armley, Lawnswood YMCA and The Judean table tennis clubs, along with older people at Armley Leisure Centre. She also filmed with the charity PingPong4U which gets people up and playing on adapted tables in community settings all over the city. Spending time with these players was a moving - and truly joyful - experience.
Listen to a podcast examining Table Tennis in Leeds in more depth.
Unsung Sports 2023
Following on from the success of Unsung Sports 2022, Leeds 2023 commissioned a second Unsung Sports project called, imaginatively, Unsung Sports 2023. I’d had such a lovely time working with Emma and Dawn at Space2, with Coralie Datta, and with the artists Dave Evans, Emilie Flower, and Lizzie Coombes, that I was keen to work with the same team. We chose 3 new sports: Aikido, Women’s Basketball, and Petanque, this time deciding to work more intensively with particular clubs rather than trying to cover the whole city. All 3 clubs, Leeds Petanque, Ichiban Aikido, and South Leeds Valkyries, were fantastically welcoming. We also renewed our relationship with Rollerskating in Leeds with a series of stunning images by Lizzie. We produced 8 podcasts, 3 short films, over 100 photo-portraits, and 6 new songs, and brought it all together for 2 big performance events at Leeds Irish Centre and Leeds City Museum (with whom we had a partnership). James Jelliman engineered the events brilliantly, Chapel FM Jazz Collective played their socks off, and both gigs were completely booked out. You can watch Emilie’s films below, and listen to all the Unsung Sports 2023 podcasts here.
Aikido
Leeds Ichiban Aikido is an amazing space on the Meanwood Road. Thanks to Bob Jones and other teachers, Leeds has one more international medals than any other city in the world. Ichiban also a solid community ethos, is inclusive and open to anyone. Emilie Flower’s film captures the warmth and intensity of the dojo just before the team left for Japan in July 2023 to compete in the world championships. To hear a clip from the songs we made about Leeds Ichiban, go here and here.
Women’s Basketball
South Leeds Valkyries won a Leeds Sports Award in 2022 for community engagement. They’re a team of extraordinary women from all over the world who mostly live and work in South Leeds. As Loran Lewis from Let’s Do More attests in one of the Unsung podcasts, affordable premises for non-mainstream sports in Leeds is hard to come by and SLV struggle to secure a regular space for training, but they all love to play. Emilie’s film perfectly encapsulates their joy and passion for the club which, apart from meeting once a week with coach Shaq, mostly exists on WhatsApp. To hear a clip from the songs we made about The Valkyries, go here and here.
Leeds Petanque
Petanque is a kind of boules originated in France during the last century. It’s played in over a hundred countries worldwide and there’s a vigorous Yorkshire league. Leeds Petanque has a terrain in Kirkstall and is always looking for new players. Though played in the main by older people, there are teenaged club members and the sport is flexibly adjustable for all body shapes, fitnesses and abilities. It’s a lot of fun with a great community ethos. Emilie’s film hits the spot in all ways.
Unsung Sports has been a wonderful opportunity for me as an artist to deliver a multi-artform project voicing the passion that sports players from non-mainstream sports have for their game and for their community. As an added bonus, Unsung Sports in its 2023 iteration also featured poetry and memoir written by players in a series of workshops across the city. It was moving to see some of the writers perform their work. Taken all together, the project seems to have expressed for both participants and audiences a joy in physical and social activity for its own sake, sharpened by our recent pandemic experience. Lizzie’s photos capture this perfectly. Here, finally, is a small selection. In the meantime, we’re going into the studio to record all the songs for spring 2024… Watch this space.
