This week we launched ‘On Stage at Home’ with the Clangers and music therapy charity Nordoff Robbins.
Created at homes across Manchester over the last few weeks, the initiative is an interactive musical video series, featuring specially created songs and music for young families to perform whilst at home together during lockdown and beyond, using instruments they find or make.
Our aim was to demonstrate the positive impact that music can have on everyone’s health and wellbeing, and show you don’t need instruments to make music, whilst supporting an important charity and spreading a little Clangers joy.
This was a true labour of love, which started with the germ of an idea in the early days of lockdown, followed by some very quick thinking from some extremely talented people, the contactless delivery of a green screen we miraculously found in the attic, and an emergency run to the office to fetch our editor’s iMac.
We’d genuinely never met or even spoken to Nordoff Robbins before embarking on this project, and so we were astounded by their generosity of spirit and the faith they put in us to deliver something wonderful.
It transpired there was an amazing synergy between Clangers and Nordoff Robbins brand values. The Clangers were a perfect fit for the concept as their Little Blue Planet is filled with music and dancing, music trees and singing flowers grow there, and they often row out on their music boat to go fishing or visit the Iron Chicken.
They also find, and discover new uses for, unusual objects on their planet, so throughout the series, they help with tips and encourage families to create musical instruments and sounds from objects found in their homes, from sieves, to spices, wooden spoons, pots and pans and everything else in between.
On Stage at Home is produced by our long standing client and good friends, Coolabi Group, who own Clangers, and the creative team includes Didsbury based music therapist Louise Gregg, Clangers co-director Chris Tichborne (using footage originally animated by the wonderful team at Altrincham’s Factory, who we’ve worked with since Sundae launched), and edited, with additional animation, by husband’s design studio Instruct (whose HQ is currently based in our attic).
An extra special shout out goes to Josh at Instruct, whose dreams are now forever soundtracked by Let’s Go Finding Sounds, after hours and days spent editing this first film which formed the look and feel of the series.
It took a grand total of three weeks, to devise, create and launch the first two videos, working at breakneck speed, and setting seemingly impossible challenges for ourselves, including getting the Clangers and Eggbots to breakdance, and transporting Louise onto the surface of the Clangers Little Blue Planet, something we’d never done in the six years we’ve been working with our favourite pink space mice.
Sundae is supporting the creative process, and delivering outreach and publicity in partnership with the Nordoff Robbins team, including a nationwide press campaign, and support from celebrities and influencers across the country.
We couldn’t be more delighted with the reactions so far; the comments from parents have been incredibly positive, and we’ve had a huge swell of support from the press, including a segment on BBC Radio 5 Live with Nordoff Robbins CEO Sandra Schembri which you can listen to here at 16:46.
And we’re only just getting started, we’ll be releasing a new song each week, and we’re excited to see performances on stage at home from families across the UK, with a few famous faces getting on board to support.
So, as Louise would say, Let’s Go Finding Sounds!
Clangers © 2020 Coolabi Productions Limited, Smallfilms Limited and Peter Firmin
