Islington Tribune - News: Pentonville concert aims to put inmates on suicide alert

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Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER
Published: 24 August 2007

Dan Fulvio and his brother Steve

Pentonville concert aims to put inmates on suicide alert

Bands play behind bars as campaign urges men to talk about problems

A JOHNNY Cash-style concert is to be staged for inmates at Pentonville Prison on Bank Holiday Monday in a drive to raise awareness of the high rate of suicide among young men.
Indie bands Dirty Pretty Things and The Enemy will play at the event held by “Wasted Youth” campaign, which is using music to encourage men to talk about their problems.
Dirty Pretty Things frontman Carl Barat will play a three-piece acoustic set in the atrium next to cells at the Caledonian Road prison.
Then Dirty Pretty Things and The Enemy will play a set in the 180-capacity prison chapel.
A spokesman for Barat said: “They asked Carl to do it and told us how many young males are killing themselves every year, especially in prisons. It was a case of ‘Hang on, what can we do about it?’”
The late Johnny Cash began staging concerts in prisons in the 1950s.
Monday’s 2pm concert, in aid of the Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm), is the brainchild of Dan Fulvio, a journalist at celebrity magazine Heat. His 22-year-old brother Steven killed himself on Christmas Eve last year.
Nine months after the suicide Mr Fulvio still doesn’t know what was troubling his brother. “His death was a terrible shock to the entire family and friends,” he said. “Everyone who knew him closely had no idea he was depressed and that is the main message for the campaign.
“There is an ingrained assumption with guys that being silent is strong. Well, it’s not, it‘s completely damaging.”
The prisons watchdog said recently that Victorian-built Pentonville had “unprecedented numbers of prisoners, many of whom are vulnerable and at increased risk of self harm and suicide”.
The concert organisers wanted the Libertines’ Pete Doherty to be on the bill but his involvement was vetoed by the Prison Service amid fears it would obscure the suicide prevention mesage.
Carl Barat visited a prison four years ago to meet Doherty, at that time his Libertines bandmate. Doherty spent two months in jail for breaking into Barat‘s flat and has since been in and out of prisons, including Wandsworth and Pentonville, for drug offences.
A second gig will be staged at Camden club Koko on September 8 to raise money to allow Calm to run a helpline. The Rakes and Boy Kill Boy are billed to appear. Tickets are £15 from ticketweb.co.uk.

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