ROOTS and the Energy of Money

“Anger is an energy!” chants John Lydon throughout PIL’s iconic anthem, “Rise”. Indeed, John, it is, and so is money. Perhaps it’s not so ironic that anger and money live so harmoniously together in conversation these days, after all, we’re all feeling the crushing weight of our spiralling economy and anger is a perfectly natural response to the difficult choices we have to make because of it, especially as we see billionaires hoarding cash like it’s going out of fashion. The further you read, the less it makes sense.

"OK, but how is money energy?" you ask? In physics, the ‘law of conservation of energy’ states that energy can be converted in form, but not created or destroyed; simply put, it powered one thing, it then became something else for a different purpose then moved on to become something else, and so on.

"Anger is an energy" ~ John Lydon, Public Image Ltd

Amid the stresses and strains caused by our currently calamitous economy, it’s something of a miracle that The Rockstar Experience has been awarded a grant by the Million Hours Fund (part of the National Lottery Community Fund) in order to support our work in the community and develop our grassroots record label, yet to be named. Money is the energy; it was somewhere else, it’s come to us now and we’re going to use it to help people create brilliant things. The project is called ROOTS and it’s something we’ve been developing behind the scenes for a few years. Last August we held a fantastic four-week event called FREEDOM which gave people the tools to write and perform their own original songs. On the back of that we had a number of musicians who wanted to continue as a band and out of that, New Custodians was born. We're very proud of them and excited to see how they develop.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/00e0ad_f8b61a1223db4d1384971d2defc59ab3/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

"Void" written and performed by New Custodians in February 2026

It was the first step in forming our record label because it gave us an artist to work with and now, with the help of the Million Hours Fund, we’re able to expand on that by creating a team of young people who will fulfil different roles to support the musicians and vice versa. The Rockstar Experience was never just about music; it’s always been a community of enthusiastic and talented young people and it’s our wish to help channel that enthusiasm into potential careers or further education and really give people a head start in their lives. ROOTS and the money that’s been granted to us means we can bring in highly skilled educators and professionals to work with young people and help them to develop skills in a range of areas such as photography, videography, image design, studio engineering, music production, marketing, journalism, social media management and so much more. Imagine you’re in your first band and you need a photographer to capture your unique style. We know someone around your age who has a great portfolio, let’s get you together. Oh, you want to record your album? We know people who’ve already got a wealth of experience in that field. You’ve got an important gig coming up and you want to video and record it? We know some guys… You get the picture.

A wad of energy

But it’s more than that. For the people developing those skills it means they’ll be able to walk into college courses in those subjects and thrive; they’ll be able to offer freelance work and build a solid reputation because they’ll have been taught how to be professional, organised and reliable. The real dream is that they’ll be able to pass their knowledge onto other young people further down the line, removing barriers to higher education and eliminating any gatekeeping that might raise its ugly head. ROOTS promises to be exciting, collaborative, informative and thoroughly enjoyable. It will connect people in new ways and open up so many avenues for them to express themselves and find their niche in the world. We want it to inspire young people in our community to inspire more young people around them and for their work to establish a sense of pride and belonging in the area. We’re excited about opening our doors to you and we welcome your involvement in forming a team of expressive, professional, inspirational young creatives. Money is only an energy when it’s spent which is why it’s so odd for those weird billionaire types to hoard so much of it. We’re not doing that, we’re making sure every penny goes as far as possible to help young people in our community build something to be part of, something they can shape and be proud to call their own. This is the ethos at the heart of ROOTS.

ROOTS will run three evenings per week at Northdown Rd Family Hub, 15 Zion Place, Cliftonville, CT9 1RP for people aged 12-18 years, starting Tuesday 19th May.

• Tuesday – bands and solo artists

• Wednesday – media (videography, photography, blogging, podcasts, etc)

• Thursday – open night for people to meet, form bands and jam

If you’d like to be involved you can sign up by clicking HERE