The Midlands based quartet, Fallen Lights, are getting set to embark on their mammoth 32 days, 32 gigs in 32 county tour of Ireland during May and June 2017 to inspire everyone they meet along the way to ‘mind your mind’.
As part of part of the tour, the band will be playing a live gig on the evening of Sunday 28 May at the Goat’s Toe in Bangor
(Check out the Inspire website for exact details of the gig).
Fallen Lights with their unique blend of rich harmonies and catchy melodies underpinning pop sensibilities, with this in mind it is easy to see how Fallen Lights guarantee to get even the most dedicated of rockers tapping their toes. Fallen Lights, are bringing their high intensity live show on the road this summer for an impressive (32) date tour across Ireland with proceeds from the tour donated to Inspire.
All four lads in the band, Joe, Graham, Jay and Andrew have or know someone close to them in their lives who is affected by a mental health issue. As typical young Irish blokes, they know all too well that there can be a stigma in talking about the subject, or reaching out for help. They want to get out and about and share the positive word that mental health issues are not anything to be ashamed or embarrassed about and that it can at times be ok to not be ok and need to ask for help.
The lads themselves are no mental health experts but they are talented musicians, so they are joining forces with Inspire (who know a thing or two about mental health and wellbeing), to use their talent as musicians to go on the road, help make some noise, get people, especially young people talking, and help Inspire to be able to develop and deliver mental health and wellbeing services right across the island of Ireland.
Inspire is based in Northern Ireland and was formed in 1959, focusing on promoting wellbeing for all through its mental health, learning/intellectual disability and workplace and academic wellbeing services, locally, across the island of Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. It offers a number of community based mental health services in the North, and has recently opened new accommodation support services for individuals with an intellectual disability in Cavan, Monaghan, Dundalk, Drogheda and Tralee.
Through its free confidential counselling services, Inspire also covers nearly a million ‘lives’ throughout Ireland in settings such as colleges, Institutes of Technology and workplaces large and small. In Ireland, it is estimated that one in four adults will experience a mental health problem at some time[1], and according to research published by RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) in 2013[2], one in five young Irish adults aged 19-24 and one in six young people aged 11-13 were experiencing mental disorder at the time of survey. The CSO[3] reported that in 2015, there were 451 suicides in Ireland and males accounted for 83% of these figures. According to the Mental Health Foundation[4], as many as one in five people living in Northern Ireland show signs of a mental health problem, with more women than men reporting a problem (even though logically men are just as likely to be affected).
Speaking about this issue of mental wellbeing and the motivation behind the Mind Your Minds tour, Joe Murray, drummer with the band said: “I think one of the best ways anyone can do something positive to look after their mental and emotional self is to find a way to express yourself.”
“For me, my way of finding happiness is life is through music, I find it a great way to help my channel feelings and thoughts in a creative and constructive way. I also find listening to music a great way to sooth me if I am feeling a bit stressed out.”
“I am very fortunate to be surrounded in my life by very loving and helpful friends and family. I really value the great people I have in my life, including of course my band mates, and I totally agree with the staff at Inspire who tell us that those connections are a vital part of anyone’s journey to wellbeing.”
Throughout the tour, the lads aim to prompt conversations about mental and emotional health and spread positive messaging about how we can all take simple steps to protect and enhance our personal wellbeing. Where they can, the band will also be asking people to donate a bit to help Inspire develop new services.
If you want to check out the stylish soundings of Fallen Lights for yourself and learn a bit more about the five inspirational steps, Inspire would like you to take to enhance your own personal wellbeing, please go along and support the lads efforts at their gig in the Goat’s Toe in Bangor.
About the Mind Your Mind Tour:
The ambition is for Fallen Lights to play at least one live gig in each of the 32 counties in Ireland as a way to spread in a fun and engaging manner positive messaging about the importance of individuals investing in their own personal mental and emotional wellbeing by taking up the challenge of adopting five inspirational steps to personal wellbeing. The band also wants to help promote awareness of the work of Inspire and encourage others to donate to support the work of this fast developing charity.
About Inspire:
Inspire, the new name for Niamh (the Northern Ireland Association for Mental Health), is a long established local charity and social enterprise that delivers a range of wellbeing services across Northern Ireland. We focus on promoting wellbeing for all through our mental health, professional wellbeing, addiction and disability services. More recently, we have expanded our range of supports across the island of Ireland and into the rest of the United Kingdom.
Inspire Mental Health, formerly known as Beacon provides a wide range of recovery-orientated services to people with experience of mental ill-health through supported housing, community wellbeing services and advocacy services, floating support and a number of specific wellbeing projects.
