The Long Road (British Red Cross)

Description

The Long Road is a ground-breaking concept album (featuring Robert Plant, Scroobius Pip,Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars, Tinariwen and Kindness) based on the real-life experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK is being created by top musicians and the Red Cross. Brit Award winner Ethan Johns, who has worked with the Kings of Leon, Laura Marling and The Vaccines, produced the album. The Long Road albuml sees artists pair up with people who have been forced to flee their homes and seek safety in the UK to tell their story. "This is a very special opportunity to create an album with a narrative that helps more people understand the realities of being a refugee and the journeys people go through," said Johns. "Music is one of the oldest forms of storytelling, and these are important stories to be told." Kindness's Adam Bainbridge, whose grandmother, Amina Desai, was South Africa's longest serving female Indian political prisoner for her defiance of the apartheid regime, approached the Red Cross when he heard about the project. Adam is working closely with Ayman Hirh, a refugee who fled Syria when the fighting broke out in 2012. He said: "I've seen with my own eyes that anyone's life can be turned upside down overnight; that expressing an opinion can be enough to make life unliveable in the place you call home, and eventually force you to leave it. So when I was told about the project, I had to be involved. Getting to know Ayman has been fantastic and I'm looking forward to telling his story in the studio." British Red Cross refugee support manager Andy Hewett said: "We wanted to find a way to shatter some of the stigma attached to refugees and asylum seekers and challenge people's misconceptions. With the tragedies we see unfolding in the Mediterranean and around the world every day as people flee their homes, it is vital to try to illuminate this issue and bring home the reality of life as someone forced to leave everything they have behind." All proceeds will go to funding the British Red Cross's refugee work in the UK. The Red Cross communications team will be supporting the launch activity working alongside music PR specialists.