How Leeds charity Cloth Cat is using music to boost mental health with the help of Brudenell Social Club in Burley

Cloth Cat, a music and education charity, is hosting a gig at the Brudenell in January to help generate funds for a project named ‘Beat The Blues’. Featuring an array of talented local musicians such as Rachel Modest of The Voice fame, the gig will raise money to allow Cloth Cat to run the project.

The ‘Beat the Blues’ project will provide health and wellbeing support for in-patients in Leeds NHS mental health facilities, providing a series of musical workshops involving song writing, DJ skills, singing and interactive musical performances. There is also a pathway to community-based musical activities after hospital and the six-week programme of structured musical education and entertainment.

Cloth Cat manager Shelly Johnson said: “We want our work to be guided by the people that we're working with. That is really powerful because they've got that investment into it, they're doing something they're enjoying and that's creative and practical. It's like a vehicle for all these other things - developing relationships between each other, developing friendships and the confidence to do other things in their lives.”

The gig is held annually to fund Cloth Cat’s work and is scheduled for January with keeping the winter blues at bay in mind. It will be held on Saturday, January 7 and doors will open at 6:15pm.

Shelly added: "It’s great to be out running live music events and ‘Hair Of The Dog’ is always fun and designed to keep the winter blues away. We’ve got some amazing bands playing across a whole range of upbeat styles including ska from Zen Baseball Bat, trip hop from The Bluefoot Project, swing from Les Vegas & The International Playboys Of Rhythm and energetic pop country from The Banquets. We have been running the Beat The Blues project across six mental health services so far since April this year and management is taking notice of the remarkable benefits of music within the mental health system.

“Our mission is to support people through mental health and wellbeing in Leeds, using music to be able to do that, working with different communities and in partnership with other organisations. We have a core of about six different projects that we run and the focus is really about mental health and wellbeing.”

Another of the charity’s projects is named ‘Man About Town’ and is aimed at reducing social isolation for men in south Leeds. Shelly explained: “We got funding [for Man About Town] just before the pandemic and we were hoping to get guys into the studio and take them out to gigs, and then all the venues and studios shut. We managed to work around that, we had vinyl picnics in the park, walks, and played golf, it was about bringing people together but not sitting round in circles. We want to make it person-centric and get people to open up through music and other activities.

The National Lottery-funded ‘Get Your Act Together’, which involves the musical mentoring of disadvantaged people between the ages of 11 and 18, has also proven to be a success for the charity.

Shelly explained; “It works with kids who are coming from some kind of disadvantage, whether it's mental, physical health, family break-ups, bullying or something else. We run that in Holbeck and it's been going really well. The benefits the kids are getting out of it are brilliant. They’re building their confidence and skills and getting that feeling of self value and self worth.”

‘Beat The Blues’ has benefited from an initial grant from social enterprise Local Care Direct and is being run in conjunction with non-profit network Arts & Minds. However, the Cloth Cat still needs funding and it is hoped the Brudenell show will help ‘Beat The Blues’ benefit people in Leeds. Tickets for the gig are available online.