News article
New A Team performance aims to help homeless people who inspired it
20 December 2011 | Topics: none
Singer songwriter Ed Sheeran visited Crisis Skylight London recently to meet with members of a Crisis music class. During his visit he sang his hit song The A Team.
The A Team was written after Sheeran performed at one of the charity's Christmas centres last year and went on to be the highest selling debut single of 2011.
Sheeran is also backing Crisis' No One Turned Away campaign, calling for the law to be changed so no one is forced to sleep rough. Introducing the video of his performance at Crisis he asks his fans to support the campaign by signing a petition to put pressure on the Government to do more for single homeless people.
Taidgh Corcoran, a keen guitarist who is homeless and attends the music class said:
"Meeting Ed Sheeran in my class that I go to on Monday morning every week... it was amazing to see it, amazing to be part of it and that's through Crisis"
Sheeran has previously performed for guests and volunteers Crisis at Christmas, which provides services to 3000 homeless guests over the Christmas season. He said: "The two years I have done some volunteering for Crisis with their Crisis at Christmas project have both been very eye-opening experiences. I think it's a brilliant thing to do at Christmas and it really has a nice atmosphere about the place, people really wanting to help out and give happiness."
The A Team is about a woman who is sleeping rough, addicted to drugs and involved in sex work. Crisis' research has revealed that single homeless people are often left without help or support and do turn to sex work out of sheer desperation because they don't get the help they need when they first approach their local council for help. It is to improve this assistance that the No One Turned Away campaign has been launched.
Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive of Crisis, said:
"This beautiful and thought provoking song has already helped highlight the plight of those who are homeless. Ed has performed before at Crisis at Christmas and it is particularly fitting that he has now also played the song at one of the music classes that we run throughout the year.
"We are also delighted that Ed has performed this song and is using his profile to campaign to make things better for homeless people. Sadly our research has shown that there are still thousands of homeless people in Britain who are too often left to spiral into situations where out of sheer desperation they resort to sex work and fall into drug and alcohol abuse. The real tragedy is many could have avoided this fate if they had received the help they needed when they first approached their local council for help. "
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