‘We are the Grey People’ – local men write song to give older men a voice

A group of men aged 65 plus who attend a new social group for men at Melksham Library have written a powerful song expressing their thoughts on life as an older person. 

The song, titled ‘We are the Grey People’, was written with the help of local musician Bob Heath, who facilitated the session organised by Celebrating Age Wiltshire (CAW), an organisation led by Wiltshire Music Centre in partnership with other creative arts and health organisations. 

The lyrics of the song express how strongly the men feel about feeling overlooked. “They are making a stand and they want to let everyone know that they have experience and skills and can make a valuable contribution to society,” explained Lucy Simms, a project assistant at Celebrating Age Wiltshire. 

Group members who worked with Bob said they were impressed and moved by the process.  

“They loved working together to come up with the lyrics. At the beginning of the session, many of the men didn’t think it would be possible to write a song in just a two-hour session and were amazed at what they had achieved,” says Lucy. 

“It just blew my mind,” said a member of the group, David Walker. “In the space of two hours, we had come up with this tune that typifies the group of people that were there. We all agreed on how it should be played, it is just brilliant. The ‘grey people’ connotation is fairly obvious but the other connotation is that older people tend to be seen as ‘grey people,’ insignificant, in the background and not having any real worth in the world. I would say, I feel concerned about the world I find myself living in. I don’t feel particularly comfortable with the world I find myself living in. If you listen to the words of the song, it’s actually a fight back – ‘we are the grey people, we will not be ignored.’” 

The six men who wrote the song first met at Celebrating Age Wiltshire’s men’s Creative Conversations session, which was held at Melksham Library and made possible with extra funding from the Wiltshire Community Foundation. 

Four of the men joined Bob at the Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford-on-Avon in June to record the song. The new version now captures these men singing their own lyrics. 

Bob said, “It was great to work with these men. They have written a great song and I see it as a bit of a battle cry.” 

Creative producer Rebecca Seymour at Celebrating Age Wiltshire said, “A lot of these men are isolated, lonely, bereaved and/or struggle to find their place within their local community. Consequently, their mental health can get very low. Our project aims to support them with the tools to get back out and meet other men, who may be dealing with similar issues, and potentially find new hobbies and activities to rekindle the flames of creativity and boost their self-esteem. 

“We have already proven the need for our activity in Melksham and the retention of the men in the group has illustrated their desire to continue. These men have openly expressed their need for a men’s group by telling us that they struggle with anxiety, meeting new people, missing their partners if bereaved and how tough they find it to even leave the house sometimes.” 

Celebrating Age Wiltshire has been delivering music, arts and heritage events in community settings around the county for the last seven years to support the wellbeing of vulnerable or isolated older people. This year, they started to think about how they could reach more older men, as most of the people who come to their events are women. 

Some of the men from the Creative Conversations group continue to meet at Melksham Library and Celebrating Age Wiltshire are planning more facilitated sessions for the group in the autumn. 

To listen to the song and watch a video of group recording it at the Wiltshire Music Centre visit the Creative Conversations page on the centre’s website  https://www.wiltshiremusic.org.uk/project/creative-conversations/