About Us

Made up of various righteous jig'n'reelers, police line enchanters, yarn-stretchers and foot-stompers, Green Kite Midnight could perhaps be described as the Climate Camp house band, (or perhaps that should be marquee band?) The band was born and baptised on April 1st 2009, at the Climate Camp in the City that was an innovative and integral part of the mobilisation against and beyond the G20. Late in the evening, as the police prepared to lock things down ever-more viciously, the Campers called for a ceilidh against the dying of the light, and so we stepped up and threw down our most joyous tunes, our performance lit up by the sight of over a hundred people dancing with beautiful abandon in heart of the steel and glass horror that is the City of London. Since that early career high, we've been honing our ceilidh-giving powers, learning some of the band's homebaked creations, not to mention several rabble-rousers from around the world. We have been known to play this lot: melodica, French Horn, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, djembe, bass and banjo, and we're extremely partial to the intoxicating effect of voices harmonising together. If you were to rush our melting pot to the lab, you might find traces of Edinburgh, the Balkans, Memphis and Jamaica amongst the ingredients, not forgetting the good old Home Counties. We can't imagine striving for climate justice and trying to make the world a better place without being able to provide a musical soundtrack. Emma Goldman's saying may have become a cliche, but that's because it's the plain old unvarnished: If I can't dance, it's not my revolution!

Dom

Dom was let loose into the wilds of Leytonstone three months early. Known from an early age as Lil Dom, he looked not too distantly related to the then well known boy band NKOB, and was once featured rollerskating in the video for a famous (ahem) girl band. In order to distance himself from this he has cultivated music tastes that encompass all forms of country, blues, bluegrass and… folk. He now has a giant beard.

Dom is our handyman as well as driver of our Ambulance/Tourbus - and it will probably be down to him that we survive the impending apocalypse. Dom only started to learn the banjo last year, and in the rest of his spare time he likes riding bikes, drinking beer, training in the martial arts and learning how to be an energy healer. Yes, really. When he's not making music he is busy making the world a better place, by means of Drupal*.

*Drupal is used to build websites.

Fran

It is very important to mention that Fran grew up in Kentish Town and was reluctant to ever leave. She hasn't moved far, to be fair. In South Africa during her gap year she tried to teach young people to use a condom, unsuccessfully. Whilst her charges hankered after high heels she hankered after Kentish Town.

She's an indie kid at heart, but as a child was a keen attender of barndances, even when forced upon her. With her former gothic post rock band she recorded an album and is now part of the James Blackshaw ensemble, with whom she has gone on tour to Belgium. The whole of Green Kite Midnight proudly watched her perform with James Blackshaw at the Barbican in mid 2010. She has played violin since the age of seven, and likes cake, cooking, baking cakes, cycling and reading. She is also a school governor. She came to Climate Camp when she realised it was a lot better to do things collectively instead of trying to change her life on her own.

El

Like Dom, El was brought up in Leytonstone. However she soon fled Dom's neighbourhood to live in Japan, and after 11 years she is now fluent in Japanese. Unfortunately the indigenous music drove her into the arms of heavy rock, although Taiko Japanese drums are apparently quite good. She started to learn drums when she was 14 years old and began playing the traditional boran - which is quite clearly metal-influenced - less than a year ago. As a fine artist who teaches drawing she is attracted to the multiple tones and possibilities of the boran. Whatever you do, don't call her Ellie.

Tim

Tim has ceilidhs and activism in his blood - his first ever ceilidh band was formed with his parents and he was protesting from the womb at Greenham Common. By his early teens he was campaigning against Manchester Airport expansion and he recently stood as a Green Party counsellor at local elections.

In December 2009 he got his arm broken in the name of Climate Camp when he was battered by Danish cops outside the Bella Centre during the COP15 summit. Entertainingly he then played gigs with a green cast. He loves funk, rock, folk, appalachian… and more funk. He has played bass for 12 years and in university he played in a jazz band with Johnny. He is the second person in the band to own a tandem bike (Dom owns one too) When he is not playing samba with Rhythms of Resistance or swing dancing into the night he bosses around other campaigners for his day job.

Amelia

Amelia was forcefed classical music from an early age, with weekly violin lessons from the age of seven. However the first cassette tape she owned was Karma Karmeleon by Culture Club, and whilst this may not have influenced her dance steps it certainly influenced her dress sense. She started to barndance on Forest School Camps as a child, and was finally persuaded to start calling by her mentor Nigel Hogg, here seen calling a dance on the Big Breakfast. In 2005 she co-founded Cutashine with the aim of bringing barndancing to a wider audience, by combining traditional styles of dance with a light hearted approach to calling. When she left Cutashine in 2008 she missed the power of ceilidhs to bring people together and sent out an open call to Climate Campers for musicians to form a protest band with a difference. During the day she runs Amelia's Magazine and has just published her first book, Amelia's Anthology of Illustration. She likes listening to new music, writing, taking photos, twittering and finding new artists, and reckons that communities form the most powerful basis to change the world. And why not have fun at the same time?