Kiwi muso helps inferno victims
Musician drops his studio work to help those left homeless
ANew Zealand musician has been at the heart of relief efforts for victims of London’s Grenfell Tower fire tragedy, dropping his studio work to help those left homeless by the disaster.
Warner Newman, 30, who grew up in the Far North, has lived in London for the past 10 years and last week he stopped his important recording session to help those who lost everything in the fire.
The fire killed at least 58 people, police said yesterday evening ( NZ time), as Prime Minister Theresa May admitted the response from the authorities had not been good enough.
Newman said he was in the studio in Brixton, on the other side of London from the Kensington fire, when he heard news breaking of the tragic fire.
He had been recording tracks for his next album The Death of Warner Cornish with Grammy wining producer Brian Paturalski (Outkast, Aerosmith, Britney Spears) and recording for a Netflix movie to go with the album, but that paled into insignificance when he saw the tragedy unfolding.
He went to help out at St Clement Church near to the burning tower block after his “humanity” kicked in.
“We’re all humans and I just had to go and help out however I could. I’ve seen death before many times in my life, but nothing like this. I just felt I had to give back to the country that’s given me so much and helped me on my career so much,” Newman said.
“The second I saw on the news what was happening, the pain, the suffering and the despair I had to help. The sheer loss people were experiencing, losing loved ones and everything they owned — it was heartbreaking. But I’ve also seen the other side — London coming together, regardless of the colour of your skin, your religion, where you are from, it’s standing together as one. It’s one of the many things I love about London.”
He has also witnessed the anger of the displaced at Prime Minister Theresa May and compared her visit to the scene to that of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. “May was useless when she came. She just went to see the firefighters . . . Corbyn though was amazing. He came into the church, hugged people and was genuinely involved in caring about their situation.”
Newman’s last single Runaway was a UK, NZ and Spotify top 40 hit, going gold, and bringing him a legion of fans.
“Music is definitely my life, but if I can offer something to the world in the form of love and support why
not?”