Star date: 5th July 2014

A THOUSAND ISSUES WOKEN UP ON MARKET STREET

Hundreds of shoppers in Manchester City Centre had their psyches awoken this afternoon as issues not covered by the mainstream media were brought to their attention via song, leaflets, speeches and dance.

The now regular Wake Up Manchester pop up event on Market Street drew attention to everything, from fracking to genetically modified food… "We're here to wake up Manchester, wake up Salford, wake up the whole country to exactly what's going on" singer Darren Nesbit told the Salford Star.

Full details here…

At the top end of Market Street in Manchester City Centre, past the street artists, Jesus freaks, pizza pushers and balloon sellers, a whole section of pavement is roped off as Darren Nesbit stands on a bench with a guitar and sings `GMP…GMP…IGas private army…'

In between songs he and other speakers say what they think of England in 2014, echoing the slogans on posters, placards and leaflets trying to grab passing shoppers' attention. The most obvious issue is anti-fracking but at this very public, very accessible people's assembly virtually anything goes…

"We're here to wake up Manchester, wake up Salford, wake up the whole of the northwest and the country to exactly what's going on with all the issues that face us" Darren tells the Salford Star "…fracking, GMO foods, geo engineering, police corruption, paedophilia all right the way up to the top of society…all the things."

He breaks off to get back on `stage' but just carries on the chat over the mic. It's for all ears…

"We're here to wake people up because what you hear, the information that you have, the reality that you believe from the mainstream media is not really what's going on" he says "We're being manipulated to hate ourselves, to hate other countries, other people, other human beings…extremists, the French, Russians, Muslims… I get confused there's so many enemies all the time. The truth of the matter is that we have more in common than we have differences."

Turning to other subjects he adds: "We don't want our water poisoned by fracking and we don't want air poisoning by geo engineering, we don't want our food poisoned by genetically modified food…they can't give it to humans in this country but they feed it to animals which we eat. You're poisoning yourselves; McDonalds? KFC? they have to advertise it on telly to make you want it. Think about it. That's why we're here today, singing songs and telling people why we're here along the way."

He breaks into a song called `You Can Stick The New World Order…' which sums up everything and ends with the incredibly catchy chorus `We are the 99%'.

All around, people are dancing, drumming and joining in, while passers by with shopping bags keep asking what it's all about… Basically, it's about everything…

"You know people are hungry, you know people are dying, you know people are homeless, it's no longer good enough to sit there saying `What can I do?'" Darren tells the crowd "We can all do something…we can all do whatever we need to do, instead of just keeping our heads down and hoping it won't come to our door, because it will. Let's stop playing the game, let's stop being scared…

"One hundred years ago you had a one in fifty chance of getting cancer, now it's a 2.8 chance, that's one in three of us, so where's these medical advances?" he asks "People aren't getting better they're getting iller, that doesn't add up. What is going on?..."

Questions for people to ask. Answers for people to research for themselves. Fracking. Food. Wealth. Politicians. Paedophiles. Police. And so much more…

"That's why this event is called Wake Up Manchester" says Darren "I'd like it to be called Wake Up World…"

Wake Up Manchester is becoming a regular monthly event on Market Street – see Wake Up Manchester facebook events for further details. Next event is 26th July

* See also previous Salford Star article on Dareen Nesbit's Barton Moss EP - click here