Sophie Lancaster Foundation

Sylvia Lancaster says it was very distressing to hear that the terms of the 10 year licence given to Danny Hulme have now been changed. She says it was a relief when the gang were convicted that they would not be allowed to return to Rossendale where she lives and where the attack took place.
Sophie, who was 20, was beaten and kicked with her boyfriend by a gang of teenage boys in a park in Bacup in 2007. The pair were targeted because of their goth clothing, piercings and make-up. One of the gang, Danny Hulme, is now out of jail and has been given permission to visit Rossendale. You can watch the news clip from itv.com below:

http://vimeo.com/99938680
Sophie‘s mother Sylvia campaigned to try and mend what was dubbed ‘Broken Britain’ meeting the then shadow schools minister in 2009. Since her daughter’s death she has worked to raise awareness of hate crimes and to stamp out prejudice, hatred and intolerance everywhere – SOPHIE. Find out more about her campaign and the work of the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

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Dutch symphonic/gothic metallers DELAIN have grown in popularity since releasing their second album “April Rain” in 2009 and are a huge part of the ever growing market for popular rock music with a darker nature.

The band have just returned from a successful tour of South America and have this week (1st May) released their new album “Interlude.” It is a limited edition digipack with CD and DVD, featuring new songs, covers, remixes and live tracks.

Metal Shock Finland‘s Blackdiamond caught up with vocalist Charlotte Wessels just prior to the album release, on her return home from the tour. You can read some excerpts from the chat below, and listen to the full interview on the Soundcloud link:

Talking about the new release “Interlude”, Charlotte stated:

“We’ve got some new tracks, some covers, live tracks, remixes as well and a DVD. It’s a very complete package of the kinds of things we’ve collected over the years. At one point when we looked at all the material, we thought there is so much stuff, it actually deserves a record of it’s own. So we reworked everything, re-recorded some stuff and that became Interlude – we’re very happy to have it and to release it very soon. The live tracks bring back good memories from that gig, so it will be cool for people who were there to hear that and for people who haven’t seen us before.”

Charlotte talked of working on a new album:

“We’re in a writing phase, so we’re collecting as many ideas as possible and this is the way we usually work. It’s not complete songs yet and when we have those, we’ll start selecting them and finishing them, and see which are the best.”

Discussing “We Are The Others”, the song inspired by Sophie Lancaster, Charlotte expressed:

“ I remember when I heard about Sophie Lancaster, I had a very strong reaction to it. There are many things that get me upset, as much as discrimination, whether it’s on the basis of ethnicity, sexuality or a sub-culture as in the case of Sophie. When we were writing “We Are The Others” it took me quite some time to think we were actually going to do this. It was actually the first time I wrote about a real person and she had friends and family grieving for her. That’s why I was very happy that we got so much support from the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, who are doing such great work in education about this topic. Online there was this big community feeling and I’m really proud of that and if anyone thinks about this kind of stuff because of the song, that’s wonderful.”