Suzanne Vega's Birmingham mission to help street children

Jun 1 2009 by Diane Parkes, Birmingham Post

Singer Suzanne Vega is only too happy to make time for a worthy cause, as Diane Parkes discovered. 

It had taken weeks of organising. From the moment we learned Suzanne Vega was to play her only UK gig at Birmingham’s Town Hall in July we were keen to organise an interview.

But with a busy schedule to deal with we were waiting. Then we got the all- clear and a time and number to call the next afternoon.

Suzanne, I was told, was playing in Granada in Spain that night and in between the sound check and the concert she would be waiting for the call.

Which was why it was so dispiriting hearing an answer message in Spanish barking back the number and asking me to leave a message. I duly did so, I tried again and I despaired as I watched the seconds ticking away.

Then the breakthrough, as Suzanne’s tour manager called to say she was waiting for me to telephone! A bit of number exchanging and a few hurried shouts in Spanish and we were there – Suzanne Vega was finally on the end of the line.

And the singer-songwriter best known for tracks such as Luka, Marlene on the Wall, Tom’s Diner and Left of Centre was charm itself.

Suzanne is playing the one-off concert as a benefit gig for the charity Casa Alianza, which helps street children in Central America. It is a charity she discovered many years ago and which, this year, celebrates the tenth anniversary of the foundation of its UK branch.

When Casa Alianza asked her to headline the concert she was more than happy to do so.

“I have known of the charity for many years and when they came up with the idea of a benefit concert I thought it was a great idea,” she says.

“Every time I come to the UK I try to do something to raise money or awareness of Casa Alianza and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I am really glad we are doing this. I like the English audiences and I hope they come along and support us. Casa Alianza really gets involved. They pay for things like legal representation for children who live on the streets and they are reaching children who other organisations can’t.

“As a public figure I feel I have to prioritise the organisations I get involved with so I tend to work with organisations which really work for human rights and children’s rights. In the group of organisations I work with I would put Casa Alianza, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Witness and I have recently become aware of an organisation called SOS Children’s Villages. This morning I visited one of the SOS Children’s Villages projects in Granada.”

And it was during dates in Mexico that Suzanne actually saw some of the work the charity did and met some of the children it had helped.

She believes that, as a household name, she has a duty to do her bit.

“I think it is because I became a public figure largely because of the song Luka and that song is a song about child abuse,” she says.

“It is a song which has a lot of resonance. I still get letters from people saying that song is their story and they cannot believe I have been able to put their story into words. It is not as if I became a public figure through doing fashion or writing love songs – it was for saying something about an important issue.

“Luka was inspired by a little boy who lived in my block. He was not abused but he always looked very sensitive. I liked his name and I saw him in the lobby one day and I thought that if I ever wrote a song about an abused child that child would be called Luka.

“When the song first came out I don’t think people actually realised that was what it was about. It was only when my manager put it forward as a song about child abuse that people realised that it was a song about a social issue. And there are things to say about child abuse. It is part of life but people don’t write about it. Songs are very effective at getting a message across.

“And I have written songs which include street children. The song Zephyr & I has a kid in it who was living on the streets in the 1970s.”

Luka may have been one of the singles which first gained Suzanne fame but her first two albums – Suzanne Vega in 1985 and Solitude Standing in 1987 – firmly placed her on the map as a singer-songwriter. She has toured England many times and even met the Queen, as a guest of Casa Alianza.

“The Queen came to say hello at Casa Alianza and was asking all about it. I was in Scotland at the time but I couldn’t pass up that opportunity so came down to meet her. She was great, very down-to-earth. She shook my hand and she said she understood I helped Fred (Shortland, who runs Casa Alianza UK) – I don’t think she really knew who I was.”

Suzanne’s concert in Birmingham is special for two reasons – not only is it her only UK date but it is also the day after her 50th birthday although she is not planning on a big bash.

“I imagine I will just go out with friends,” she says.

And the tour, which also takes in Russia, Hungary, Germany and Israel, will give her a break from a monumental task she has set herself.

“I have been re-recording my catalogue so I can own the masters of my material,” she says. “It is taking a lot of time as I have about 60 songs to do and am up to about the 35th song. So I am re-recording songs like Luka, Tom’s Diner, Gypsy.

“I am changing the arrangements on some of them, making them sound less produced. In some cases it is just me and a guitar or singing with just one other person playing.

“Artists are always finding new ways to adapt to how the music industry is changing so it would not surprise me if other artists did it.

‘‘It allows you to take control of your own music. And it allows you to make your music more intimate and not over-produced. I certainly hope other artists do look into it.”

* Suzanne Vega plays the Casa Alianza 10th Anniversary Benefit Concert at Birmingham Town Hall, presented by Katie Fitzgeralds and with Stourbridge singer Eddy Morton as support, on July 12. Tickets available from: www.thsh.co.uk or 0121 780 3333.