Strawberry Field joins search for Liverpool’s ‘Song for Kindness’

Strawberry Field team is joining the search for a talented songwriter as part of the Liverpool Song for Kindness (LSK) contest. The competition has been launched in memory of John Lennon who would have celebrated his 80th birthday this year.

Working alongside global charity tuff.earth, Liverpool City Council, The Cavern Club and Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), the competition aims to raise spirits in response to the dark times the world has been facing. It also offers musicians an exciting opportunity to gain international exposure and for their song to be professionally produced at the iconic Motor Museum studio, which has produced tracks for Oasis and The Arctic Monkeys.

Lennon fans will know that one of the first things that attracted the young John to the gardens at Strawberry Field was the opportunity to listen to a Salvation Army band playing at the home’s annual summer fete. Years later, John went on to write ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.

Music has always been an important part of the life and work of The Salvation Army and its many centres and churches around the world. In the 1960s, John Lennon and the rest of the Beatles would leave studios at Abbey Road just the night before a group of Salvation Army musicians, The Joystrings, would arrive to record a session of their own.

The trailblazing Sixties chart pop group were the first to take the good news of the Christian message into the charts and gave all its royalties to help people in need.

Major Kathy Versfeld, Mission Director of Strawberry Field said: “A lot has changed since those days but music-making and, we hope, kindness are still at the heart of what we do and who we are as a Salvation Army. 

“I would therefore encourage, no stronger than that, challenge all the gifted and inspirational singer songwriters across the world to have a go. Enter the Liverpool Song for Kindness competition. Write a song birthed out of the heartache and hope you have experienced during this time of Covid-19, with words and music that will inspire and cause others to renew their faith in human kindness and the promise of better things to come.”

To enter the competition, songwriters and musicians can submit their track (video or audio), song name, writer, performer, lyrics and where they are based via the competition’s online portal here 

The closing date for entries is 31 July – the 50 year anniversary of the recording of John Lennon’s Imagine. The Top 50 entrants, as selected by the competition judges, will be announced on 14 August and winner on 9 October.

For more information, visit Strawberry Field here