“A ball can save a life,” world-renowned motivational speaker Kevin Carroll told audiences at his seminars throughout the week. “That is why every time you see that ball go in the back of the net this week, you will think about your dreams. Just as that player has reached their goal, you too will think of how you will reach yours”

Carroll asked players to write down their individual goal. “It is not enough to have an idea in your head. You need to share it. That takes courage. That is your challenge,” he said.

Everyone at the workshops received wristbands with the word DREAM inscribed on them, which represented the values of Dedication, Responsibility, Education, Attitude, and Motivation.
 

“You are all ambassadors. Make a commitment to your dreams, your goals, and your futures.” Carroll said.

Surveys showed that 77 per cent of HWC participants significantly improve their lives after competing in the tournament. Many quit drugs and alcohol, improve self-esteem, move into jobs, education, homes, training, reunite with families and even go on to become players and coaches for pro or semi-pro football teams.

This weekend, though, all they really wanted to do was play some soccer.

After months of planning, a street parade through the city and, of course, after John Brumby spoke for too long about how Melbourne was the sporting capital of the world, HWC founder and President Mel Young declared the Melbourne 2008 tournament open.

The Big Issue group did a wonderful job in organising the event. Aside from some initial teething problems – the vices of a small pitch with ice hockey-style hoarding walls, the Nike-everywhere sponsorship and the superfluous use of bottled water – the event was a spectacular success.

The first game was between the host nation, the Street Socceroos, and the inaugural host and winner, Austria. Austria won in front of a large Australian crowd at Fed Square, but it didn’t matter – spirits were still high. Besides, everyone was there to see the Brazilians, the Portuguese, the Nigerians, the Scottish and, as it turned out, the Russians and Afghanis.

As the week progressed the competition became fierce, but it wasn’t all about soccer. The HWC is also a cultural affair.

A creative workshop, ‘Homeless Not Artless’, was held at ACMI in Fed Square during the week. There was also an array of street performers along the river walk, and talks were held inside Fed Square’s BMW Edge amphitheatre. Topics included street soccer, crime, homelessness, poverty and achievement, as well as talks about how the social entrepreneur can make a difference to the lives of disadvantaged people, and how they deal with different challenges.

There was also, ‘Women Kicking Goals’ – a seminar for women from around the world discussing their experiences, visions and skills related to poverty and social disadvantage.

Organisers managed to jam plenty of events into the week, but ultimately, it’s not a huge amount of time. And so the final day arrived quickly. As our Street Socceroos played off for 5th spot in the City Cup (and finished 21st overall), everyone was looking forward to the big one, the Homeless World Cup final, between Afghanistan and Russia.

The Afghanis were the favourites, not only with the bookies but with the crowd (it appears there are more immigrants from Afghanistan than from Russia living in Australia). All non-partisan locals had the Afghans on their side as well – perhaps it was white-liberal guilt, or maybe just support for the underdog in a battle which would have historical overtones (casting back to the Soviet War in 1989). Afghanistan won the game, in a spectacular spectacle in front of a packed grandstands and piazza at Fed Square. The only thing missing was an African-style dance celebration – saved for the third place match when Ghana beat Scotland.

Jeff Lang
The Spiegeltent
November 9th, 2008

The professionalism with which Jeff Lang performed on this warm Sunday night at the Spiegeltent was a notable change for a man who, in the past, made a habit of sitting down to tell jokes and stories while tuning his guitar and deciding which song best suits the mood.

This time he had all his guitars – and even a turkish cümbüş – pre-tuned and lined up in the order he was to use them. But this efficiency in no way negated the feelings synonymous with watching Lang and double bass-player Grant ‘the Squire’ Cummerford perform live.

There were the usual elements that make a Lang show so intimate and accessible: seeing a friend awkwardly run into Lang before the show in the Arts Centre toilet; standing behind and briefly talking to Jeff’s parents as they bought tickets to their son’s show; receiving warm smiles from his sister as she stood by the album table; and later, observing his infant child applaud his father after ‘Copper Mine’, an archaically modern folk -blues tune, during which his cümbüş – which apparently makes a nifty bedpan – introduced itself.

Self-described as “disturbed folk music, a tangled roots music stew,” Lang’s seducing lap-steel runs and tender acoustic melodies sit alongside – and never in place of – his poignant song-writing. His live performances only seem to heighten their impressive qualities.

For the exceedingly polite crowd seated leisurely at small round tables inside the Spiegeltent, Jeff Lang came out blazing, confidently opening with a ride down ‘The Savannah Way’, a song appearing on his latest album, Half Seas Over, and one written with fellow Melbourne musician, Suzannah Espie. With a down-to-business attitude, he retained a deliberateness that did not merely go through the motions, but which was attentive to the songs’ demands. He appeared as merely a channel for his music, some vehicle through which these songs manifest themselves.

Most of the set was lifted from his latest album, despite the odd few songs to maintain a “Melbourne-centric theme.” Lang played two songs from, Whatever Makes You Happy (2004). ‘You Should Have Waited’, an unrequited love song set in Fitzroy, and ‘Slip Away’, dedicated to his good friend and fellow Melbournian, C.W. Stoneking.

Lang left out his epic rendition of ‘House Carpenter’ – an old traditional song about unfaithfulness and death – instead playing his balmy blues, ‘Everything is still’, from his 2001 album of the same name.

No recent Jeff Lang performance is complete without a tribute to the “late and great” Chris Whitley. This time he played ‘The Road Leads Down’, a song from their collaborative album, Dislocation Blues, telling the story of a love that is lost. At least that’s what it could be about. Here ‘The Squire’ showcased his skills in an extended, but never out of place, double bass solo.

Special mention must also go to Lang’s reworking of an old folk song that appears on Half Seas Over. Rest assured, if you are not a folk-convert after the delightful yet slightly disturbing (two characteristics very at home within Jeff’s work) ‘My Mother Always Talked To Me’, you never will be.

When Jeff Lang and Grant Cummerford disappeared offstage after 55 minutes, the timid crowd found themselves chanting for an encore. A fly on the wall backstage would certainly have observed a determined Lang discussing with Mr. Cummerford how they could make the crowd boisterous.

Audience participation is the key, so when the two performers appeared on stage again and introduced ‘Newman Town’, the final song on the new album, Lang coached different sections of the crowd to keep two distinctive beats. Most people managed to keep time, but it wouldn’t have mattered if they didn’t; Jeff knew where he was going, and, if his latest albums and shows are any indication, has he has no intentions of slowing down.

By the end, the Spiegeltent had come alive.

C.W. Stoneking
The Spiegeltent
October 26, 2008

Two years after the release of King Hokum, C.W. Stoneking moves from cheeky duet ballads towards a blend of authentic blues and jungle music. His second album, Jungle Blues, was inspired in part by tales of previous travels – surviving a shipwreck off the west coast of Africa, and losing his tenor banjo and guitar in a New York yellow cab.

For the launch of his new record, C.W. entered the stage smiling, looking spick in a bow-tie, and very sprightly without his once-trademark top-hat. The other notable difference being that bottled water was the only liquid on stage.

Immediately, the crowd was content – listening to the first live version of the title track, Jungle Blues. With his band, the Primitive Horn Orchestra, his sexy steel Dobro guitar and his (new) banjo, The Spiegeltent came alive with authentic pre-war blues, jungle jazz and 1920s calypso.

The past 18 months have indeed been very successful for the Melbourne-based musician. The eventual success of King Hokum has transformed the old-muttering, beer drinking C.W., who for years played tunes in the corner of Collingwood pubs, into an old-muttering, (probably still) beer-drinking C.W. that stands centre stage under the bright lights of the hot and stuffy Speigeltent, to rapturous applause.

His anecdotes between songs are still met with almost constant giggling – the novelty of how a white man from 2008 can sound so much like a black man from the 1920s never wore off. However, his natural ability to delicately weave words in a delightfully unusual way provides the audience not only with fantastic music, but a complete performance that is truly superb.

The new and beautiful Jungle Lullaby, a song recorded after leaving his guitar and banjo in a New York taxi, relates the pain a musician feels after losing his strings. Even the amusing background stories to Darktown Shutters Blues and Homebound Blues, largely unknown even to some of the more hardened King Hokum fans, provide valuable context to what is being played.

The makeover of C.W. into a more accomplished performer has not diminished his authenticity at all. Almost halfway though one song he stopped playing, turned to drummer Jim White and then back to face the crowd, saying, “I’m going to do something unprofessional and start again, it’s just a little too fast for me.” It was unprofessional, but the crowd loved it.

More importantly though, C.W. provides an invaluable link to a forgotten time, to the Son House and Robert Johnson of the 1920s and 30′s. If you haven’t had the pleasure, please, sit back, grab a beer, relax, and give C.W. a spin.

C.W. Stoneking recently began a national tour. Locally, he will be playing:

- Ruby’s Lounge, Belgrave (27 November);

- The Peninsula Lounge, Moorooduc (28 November)

- The Corner Hotel, Richmond (29 November)

- The Corner Hotel, Richmond – matinee show (30 November)

- The Palais, Hepburn Springs (12 December)