https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/development daily 0.75 2023-05-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ce435d6bea1ed00016ba287/1558964652247-5MWXNMFZVOPGE4TY6U2Q/MHeiderich_ReflexionenZwei-05-copy.jpg Development https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/1642412147145-XPWW6VYXVTUM9UWI0D47/12-Cabot+Place+mezzanines-+B%26W.jpg Development - Genesis On a dark, cold early January day in 2019, I read a news report that a man had jumped to his death from one of the mezzanine levels inside Cabot Place at Canary Wharf in front of hundreds of lunchtime office workers and shoppers. I worked only a few DLR stops away at the Royal London Hospital in deprived Whitechapel and I knew well the glittering corporate precinct that was our rich neighbour in Tower Hamlets. This set me in mind of Quadrophenia, a rock opera/ concept album by The Who released in 1973. The story and music by Pete Townshend explores alienated early ‘60s British Mod youth culture, set against the bleak backdrop of post-war austerity, social conformity and job choices void of meaning. The film version (1979) features a (now) famous scene of Mod Jimmy hurtling off the cliffs near Brighton on his scooter. It felt like there were parallels - were there? Not long after, I became aware of two extraordinary London artists Daniel Edelstyn and Hilary Powel, staging an elaborate bank heist to free their local deprived Walthamstow community from £1.2 m of predatory payday debt. They succeeded and staged their blowing up of debt one freezing April morning in 2019 in the shadow of Canary Wharf. I was privileged to be there, and knew what I wanted to do next. The Bank Job intervention into finance and subsequent film and community opened a door onto an artist/activist world I didn’t know existed, one that set the finance industry, banking and money in their sights. No-one had yet (to my knowledge) produced a long-from narrative concept album about this all powerful world “beyond culture”. So I thought ‘Why don’t I try?’ This can be my contribution to a conversation about financial forces that are invisible but everywhere, even affecting people who apparently ‘produce’ them. Maybe I can write a story and music will help people realise (as all good music does) you are not alone. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/1642413320152-1RDFOSAXVH8PZT0AUTDH/2-Cabot+Place+entrance+skyscraper+B%26W.jpg Development - Interviews I set out to find out more about London’s finance industry and the so-called ‘financialisation of the economy’ by interviewing a range of finance workers and experts: stockbrokers, financial analysts, investment bank fund managers, finance journalists, economists, artist-activists. In addition, I pored over media stories, books and films about high finance corporate life. The interviews were the most powerful influence on my creative process, as I wanted to tell a story that was authentic and based on real people and events. I particularly wanted to create characters whose thoughts and feelings everyone can identify with, although they inhabit the specialised, opaque world of hedge funds, investment banks, trading. My generous interviewees helped me humanise this world which I hardly knew anything about, and their stories gave me ideas for characters and dilemmas. The story and characters of Canary Wharf are all fictional, but the trading events and crises depicted, and the less than ethical behaviour of the fictional Wagner Bank, Spring Tree Capital hedge fund and the Public Private Partnership company Sebvis are examples of behaviours that can and do occur in the banking and finance industry. Some of the phrases used in the lyrics (for example ‘trading in air’, ‘I’m just doing my job’) are drawn verbatim from interviews. Several traders and analysts showed an acute awareness of the moral compromise and self-hatred that some people in the industry wrestle with - this is John, my central character’s, biggest internal problem In the middle of the rock opera, I use audio samples of Professor Max Haiven talking about the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement which ushered in unprecedented financial regulation and stability after the second world war, since undone by neoliberal governments after the 1970s. Several of my interviewees mentioned the Bretton Woods conference as ushering in a ‘golden age of capitalism’ that supported more equal prosperity than the widening inequality we have seen grow exponentially over the last 40 years. It seemed important, therefore, to insert a music piece at the heart of the rock opera that momentarily breaks the fictional wall, and reflects on this real moment in history whose spirit of cooperation and regulation of excess is needed again. https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/script-lyrics daily 0.75 2024-08-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/1642051701619-ZYWLTM6UL7YPXX6W4WI6/Isabel+Adomakoh+Young+Headshot+2.jpg Script & lyrics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/1644729933386-QYWTJL0JTA2QATXPWR4X/AAD2010-02_SpringTreeCapitalLogo_FINAL-resized.png Script & lyrics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/1644729961505-KILF2CAOZOVBONYT7GW4/AAD2010-02_WagnerBankLogo_FINAL-resized.png Script & lyrics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/1644729982912-8APY32YTBRHZSLBZHLBV/AAD2010-02_SebvisLogo_FINAL-resized.png Script & lyrics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/e9de726b-210b-4ea3-9e03-317e93de5c07/John+in+office+B%26W.png Script & lyrics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/b090d459-8527-4036-9a52-f0f931faa407/Bill+-+plus+Bill+B%26W.png Script & lyrics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/b96605bf-a3cf-4216-960e-fd416654631c/Ann+Marie+Trophy+Wife+B%26W.png Script & lyrics https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/contributors daily 0.75 2025-06-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg Contributors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg Contributors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Contributors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg Contributors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607628784608-5D22G9GPLHDSAB2IXC2G/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0638.jpg Contributors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847743861-GWVMBPD7Z7WQRQL9IZZ8/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0380.jpg Contributors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg Contributors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg Contributors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Contributors https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/1643167338386-IA3MM66VY1SHG57Y4FGZ/17-Reuters+ticker+tape+mid+shot+B%26W.jpg Contributors - RESOURCES Positive Money (UK) Modern Money Lab (UK) and (Aus) Sustainable Prosperity (Aus) Hoe Street Central Bank (UK) Marrickville School of Economics (Aus) The Australia Institute Per Capita Roosevelt Institute (USA) Tax Justice Debt Justice Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Oliver Bullough’s writings on oligarchy, corruption and international financial crime Dave Graeber Institute Finance and Society Finding the Money https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/in-the-news daily 0.75 2025-11-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/1667032301964-2U79T17VD09D738NY5PM/30-Guy+with+cell+phone.jpg https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/music-performances daily 0.75 2024-08-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/0b5ed0b7-c3a6-42a4-b163-f47f4f12397a/Rock+Opera+theatrical+album+artwork.png Music & Gigs Canary Wharf: the Rock Opera - full theatrical work album https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/fb9e661c-bb61-4268-886f-121d4eaedcac/Rock+Opera+soundtrack+album+artwork.png Music & Gigs Canary Wharf: Music from the Rock Opera album https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/2257beff-8048-45f9-aab3-776522035c37/14+Days+artwork.png Music & Gigs 14 Days - single from Canary Wharf: the Rock Opera https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/206af43d-099b-44a9-98db-edfc54052383/TIA+cover+Bandcamp.png Music & Gigs Trading in Air - single from Canary Wharf: the Rock Opera https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/thesis-1 daily 0.75 2025-11-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/21318a1a-9c9d-40f0-b205-e14516e519ec/Phd+testamur.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/ddbb344b-a14d-4ce6-8000-b8d2456e1932/rock+opera+records.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61d9061ec0e35575d5ae466d/6ba38d2c-9594-411a-b7c6-6acc44679081/Bookshelf.jpg https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/rock-opera daily 1.0 2025-11-11 https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/rock-opera/scene4-priceoflove monthly 0.5 2025-08-28 https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/rock-opera/scene1-canarywharf monthly 0.5 2025-08-28 https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/rock-opera/scene3-playingthegame monthly 0.5 2025-08-28 https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/rock-opera/scene2-partnerships monthly 0.5 2025-08-28 https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/rock-opera/scene5-lost-control monthly 0.5 2025-08-28 https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/rock-opera/scene6-failure monthly 0.5 2025-08-28 https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/rock-opera/scene8-rescue monthly 0.5 2025-08-28 https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/rock-opera/scene9-the-future monthly 0.5 2025-08-28 https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/rock-opera/scene7-success monthly 0.5 2025-08-28 https://www.canarywharftherockopera.com/rock-opera/scene9-the-cleaner-9cg7f monthly 0.5 2025-08-27