Pete Lawrence

As our divided times spark a renewed interest in the legacy of protest music – with the new Dylan biopic fanning the flames - music trailblazer and community firestarter, Pete Lawrence, calls for a new era of collective singing, universal anthems, and support for a community-powered album: 

This Is The Fire – New Songs of Protest Hope and Connection

Crowdfunder launch: Thursday 10th July

“Singing together is the key to world peace.” Brian Eno

VISIT THE FUNDING PAGE 

WATCH THE ALBUM PREVIEW!

In response to our times of disconnection and division - music trailblazer, activist and community firestarter, Pete Lawrence – the visionary behind The Big Chill Festival and Campfire Convention – is catalysing a community-powered album, This Is The Fire, co-creating songs of hope, heart-connection, peace, unity and visions for a brighter world. 

Pete, who launches the This is The Fire crowdfunder in support of the album on Thursday 10th July, says: “Movements for change have always been fuelled by song, uniting voices on marches and at gatherings. We Shall Overcome, This Land Is Your Land, Blowin’ in the Wind - were powerful tools of resistance, led by the likes of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Joan Baez, and we’re still singing them today.

“With renewed interest in the legacy of protest music - sparked in part by the new Bob Dylan biopic – the time is ripe for a new era of communal singing. New songs of inspiration and empowerment that bring people together are needed more than ever. This album is about hope, connection and the potential to transform. The songs are written, we just need your support to create the production that will transform it from a collection of songs to something special that feels right for the times.”  

Pete’s musical journey began playing drums in bands through school and university days. Setting up the Cooking Vinyl record label in 1986, he founded The Big Chill festival in 1994, pioneering an international chill out movement which continues to this day. As an artist, he released his debut album Under One Sun as Chilled By Nature in 2006, featuring The Swingle Singers and Mozez (Zero 7). In recent years, he set up Campfire Convention, a social network and community platform geared around personal and social change; the platform also stages musical events with a community focus, including an annual Campout gathering which returns to Abergavenny in Wales, 7th-10^th August, 2025. 

Erica Ruben, Former Executive Producer of Central Park Summer Stage, New York, says: “Pete's ability to predict our cultural and media future were brilliantly manifested by the success of The Big Chill. Pete has always led the way, and many of us joyously follow him. He is a genuine visionary who has had a colossal impact on us all.” 

Pete has long believed in the transformational power of music, and as a lifelong campaigner for peace, social justice and systemic change, he now returns to his roots with a project that feels both timely and timeless. “Music connects us emotionally more deeply than anything else,” Pete says. “Singing together symbolises harmony itself - cutting across divisions, dissolving boundaries. These songs ask: what do we want from the world? How can we reimagine the future together?”

Pete’s early compositions for This Is The Fire were first sung around the fire at last summer’s Campout gathering, provoking strong emotional responses and a buoyed sense of connection and communal joy.  And the project has enabled Pete to find his own voice: “I feel as if I have found new levels of self-expression which have been bottled up for years,” he says. “Seeing these new songs emerge in a context of community connection and social change has been deeply touching and inspiring.” 

DJ-producer Mr Scruff says: “Pete Lawrence is a legend. In addition to his not inconsiderable DJing and producer skills, he has a gift for bringing together lovely people and creating something really special.” 

The crowdfunder campaign will now serve as the rallying point for Pete’s supporters to help bring this album to life.  If the campaign is successful, the album will be recorded this autumn with acclaimed producer and multi-instrumentalist Gerry Diver, known for his work with Tom Robinson, Christy Moore, Shane McGowan, Sam Lee, Lisa Knapp and others. Gerry’s reputation for alchemical production and sensitivity to tradition makes him the perfect collaborator for this project.

The Crowdfunder is now live. 

Rewarding their support, backers are invited to choose from an exciting selection of exclusive perks, including:

·       Signed album copies

·       Handwritten lyrics

·       Tickets to events

·       Opportunity to Back a Track

Pete Lawrence says:  We invite you to back our campaign and create a wave of smoke signals - a new generation of uplifting songs of hope that tap into a rich lineage of protest and connection. Universal songs that can be sung with optimism in community, around the fire, at home, in community halls and schools, in the streets, on marches, and even on the football terraces. Let’s light the fire together. Let’s raise our voices!

Visit the Crowdfunder

https://tinyurl.com/thisisthefire

·       Watch the album preview for This Is The Fire: 

·       For more information about Pete Lawrence visit: https://linktr.ee/petelawrence; https://petelawrence.net

·       For more information about Campfire Convention and to sign up to the network visit: https://campfireconvention.network; https://petelawrence.net/campfire  

·       For information about this year’s Camp Out in Abergavenny, 7th-10^th August, visit: https://campout.live

Exciting summer events coming up…

Our annual Campout in Wales August 7-10

Our Sing Out weekend with Helen Yeomans Aug 30-31

Our Look Up retreat in Paros October 20-25

AND ….

New album – This is the Fire - Songs of Hope and Connection – full Crowdfunder details soon to be announced!

Read more about This Is The Fire

Watch this space for a July launch of the crowdfund

What makes a great protest or community song? Is it the message, the melody, or the way it brings people together? 

Throughout history, movements for change have been powered by song—We Shall Overcome, This Land Is Your Land, Blowin’ in the Wind, If I Had a Hammer. These weren’t just soundtracks to activism; they were tools of resistance, uniting voices in community, on marches and at gatherings. But in today’s divided world, where are the universal anthems, the songs of hope? 

With renewed interest in the legacy of protest music—sparked in part by the new Bob Dylan biopic—we have to ask whether we’re on the verge of a new era of communal singing. Could the next great protest song emerge not from a recording studio, but from the voices of a crowd, around a campfire, in the streets?

With this background narrative in mind, I set about writing songs for the first time in spring 2024 after meeting and talking with Gitika Partington. I'd just heard her 'All The Bees' album that she did with Kirsty McGee and I immediately thought that I would love to work with her in putting together some ideas I had for new community-led songs, which might work around the campfire but also in the recording studio. 

Gitika ended up leading some stirring community singing sessions at last August's Campout and it was thrilling to hear the new songs  'This Is The Fire', "If I Had a Voice' and 'Bubble of Love' in this social context.

On another level, this project has enabled me to find my own voice, both as a songwriter and a singer, encouraged greatly in the early days by Gitika. I feel as if I have found new levels of self-expression which have been bottled up for years. Music has always been a passion but being able to see new songs emerge in a context of community connection and social change gives me the inspiration to be doing more work in this direction.

As Brian Eno infamously said "Singing together is the key to world peace". There is an indefinable quality to the buzz we can all feel when in glorious song with others, each playing our part but creating harmony together. It's a great starting point in imagining the changes we need to be making to find hope and inspiration through connection and through finding our voices, individually and collectively. 

Interestingly, during the songwriting course that I attended online in January that was led by Eno, he surprised and delighted me one week when he set his homework task as writing a song of revolution. A song that asks the question 'What future do I want for the world?'

These songs don’t always need to be a rally cry or a protest song, but universal songs of aspiration, of love and connection, Above all of hope…

Protest music comes from the heart and the times we live in . It’s a visceral response. But equally, the spirit of ‘Kumbaya’ needs to be reclaimed, taken back from the cynics. It’s needn't be mocked to be starting from a position of utopia,.. dreaming a new world into being through song. 

We're putting together an album of community songs, rooted in a hymnal folk tradition that will hopefully work in a variety of settings - the campfire, the community hall, the school or even the football terraces. It’ll be my first album in almost twenty years. 

Here's a video outlining the original inspiration for the project. I will post further updates around the process of making this album as it takes shape. (currently being edited - please check back later!) 

A Crowdfund will be launched in July 2025.

Plans are afoot for a relaunch of Campfire Radio this summer...  To make it work, we will need volunteers. Are you interested in hosting a show, compiling playlists around specific musical areas?  Doing vox pops for programmes?  Technical backup and research?  If so we'd love to hear from you.

Contact

Meanwhile you can tune into our test transmissions. 

https://tinyurl.com/campfireradio