Commoners Choir to perform at Rockaway Park’s Chapel of Unrest

Musician, playwright, and keen fell runner Boff Whalley was a founding member of proudly anarcho-punk band Chumbawamba, who formed in 1982 and disbanded 30 years later – though remaining demonstrably true to their legacy.

The band encroached briefly on the mainstream with their 1997 breakthrough single Tubthumping, from their eighth studio album – and their memorable antics at The Brit Awards the following year.

Today, Whalley’s musical interest is focused on his ongoing work with Commoners Choir, an inclusive four-part vocal harmony choir built on a solid manifesto: pledges include a commitment to being explicitly political; singing about inequality, unfairness, and the things that need changing; and doing so in both usual, and unusual places.

Commoners Choir, September 2022 – photo: Phil Moody

Commoners Choir have an upcoming gig at the Rockaway Park ‘Chapel of Unrest’ on February 4, and it’s hard to think of a more apposite location for them to perform in.

Punk musician Steve Lake (of Zounds and Blood Moon Wedding) will be supporting on the night, with his one-man show Acts of Resistance, charting the history of protest in the UK through poetry, prose and music.

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Although still in its nascent stages, The Chapel of Unrest already has a fascinating history. It’s a curved, corrugated steel building, known as a ‘quonset’, constructed from corrugated steel sections held together with thousands of bolts. Rockaway Park founder Mark Wilson acquired it second hand, and it was incomplete, without front and back walls; a factor which he quickly made a virtue of, since it became a safe – and thoroughly ventilated – place to congregate during the Covid lockdowns.

Told by the local authority a few years ago that the building shell was an industrial unit and therefore subject to business rates, Wilson’s response was that it was a church (only having been used for a wedding at that point), and was therefore almost certainly exempt. The counter was that in order for a building to be designated a church, it must be associated with a recognised religion. And so, The Chapel of Unrest was born.

Wilson’s vision is to construct a monument to protest – and, increasingly, the loss of the right to do so – as well as creating a living tribute to the people, and the aspects of life that we have lost. “It’s a statement,” he says, “that we haven’t given up”, and that “we want life to be good for people everywhere because we’re capable of so much more”.

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Although the building is still far from complete, it’s already undeniably beautiful. With a back wall of gabion baskets, filled with stone from the local quarry, and insets of compacted recycled cans that resemble stained glass windows, it is dominated by a huge structural ‘A’ – formed by a split oak tree that once grew on site and was much loved, but became dangerous and subsequently had to be felled.

Ornately carved, it is held together by a wrought iron metal strap (originally found in a skip in Portsmouth), hand stamped with words from Spanish anarchist, Buenaventura Durutti. The maxim concludes: “We carry a new world here in our hearts. That world is growing this minute.”

The religion at the heart of this new church will be entirely inclusive, and free from any rules, other than to uphold kindness and respect for one another. “I haven’t got the slightest interest in telling you how, why, who or when you need to worship,” says Wilson.

Early sketch of the church

That said, he has realised that he is more attuned to some of the ideas around religion than he first thought. “I started to realise that all this nonsense I’d been spouting actually made a lot of sense,” he admits. “My daughter suggested I should stop ridiculing religion and acknowledge that I was actually quite a spiritual guy.

“She lent me a book about science and belief, and there were a few things in there that jumped out at me. Such as the fact that humans need places of pilgrimage and meditation; places where they can commune with each other and the natural world; spaces to come together and sing.”

And so, the forthcoming Commoners Choir gig will be the first of many events like it. As well as a place of pilgrimage, the chapel will also double up as a meeting and yoga space, a dining hall, a film venue, and a place suited to spoken word or theatrical events, owing to its unique acoustics.

Exterior shot, with gold light

Currently nudging 500 members, Wilson wants to get the Chapel up to 60,000 – a figure thrown up on an initial google search as the minimum number of people necessary to establish a recognised religion. Subsequently, on further investigation, he found this not to be true, but, as he wryly says, “when did facts ever get in the way of religion?”‘

£10 donations from members will raise money to complete the building of the church, with all surplus funds ploughed back into the running of free workshops, community projects or vocational courses with ethical and sustainable practice at their heart. Through all their endeavours, Wilson and the Rockaway Park collective remain passionate about supporting creative output, biodiversity, health and wellbeing.

The church after a wedding

“We could create an incredible church, adorned with beautiful things, made by amazing artists and creatives – many of whom we already know and work with,” smiles Wilson. “People could call in from time to time and commune with ‘the congregation of agitation’.”

He is the first to admit that it might seem, on the face of it, ridiculous. But then again, that’s probably exactly why he’s doing it.

“It’s a little sanctuary in a sea of madness and will hopefully inspire others to realise we’re not hopeless; we are capable of amazing things.”

Commoners Choir & Steve Lake’s ‘Acts of Resistance’ is at Rockaway Park on February 4 at 7pm. Tickets are available at www.eventbrite.co.uk.

To find out more, become a member of The Chapel of Unrest or make a donation, go to www.rockawaypark.co.uk. For more details about forthcoming events, subscribe to the newsletter.

All photos: Rockaway Park

Read more: From scrapyard to creative community: the evolution of Rockaway Park

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