Owen Haisley recognised as key figurehead in Manchester music scene
Despite his long term future in the UK still in legal limbo, this week renowned Manchester musician, Owen Haisley (AKA Drum & Bass hype man, Mad Rush MC) has been recognised by the School of Electronic Music as a key figurehead in the Manchester music industry – a position also supported by Sacha Lord, owner and operator of Warehouse Project, Parklife Festival and Night-time Economy Advisor to Andy Burnham (Mayor of Greater Manchester).
Due to overwhelming public interest in Owen’s case, which saw 100,000+ people sign an online petition of support, plus political intervention from Labour MP for Manchester Central, Lucy Powell, Conservative MP for Macclesfield, David Rutley and Andy Burnham himself, the well-loved festival performer was saved from deportation on February 5th, 2019. Upon returning to Manchester, after spending 5 weeks detained over 200 miles from his young children, the Directors of School of Electronic Music (SEM) stepped forward to acknowledge Owen’s longstanding reputation in the music industry and to offer him a prestigious Introduction to Music Production scholarship at their state-of-the-art facilities.
In addition to his work as a performer, Owen has worked with over 2000 young people in Greater Manchester over the last 10-12 years as a youth worker. He is over the moon to be awarded a SEM scholarship, stating,
“I’m really excited to get started at SEM. Going from almost being deported and having to deal with the thought of potentially not seeing my children for the next 10 years, to having my deportation halted and returning to such support from the people of Manchester has been not only extremely emotional, but also inspiring.
I want to use the new skills I learn at SEM to invest back into my youth work with the young people of Manchester, who I have always loved working with.”
Music industry advisor and campaigner for Owen, Mike Burgess, added, “the Home Office have repeatedly tried to break Owen during this ordeal, stripping him of all his basic rights – including the right to seek employment. The fact that SEM have awarded Owen such a prestigious scholarship clearly shows just how much of a contribution to the City of Manchester and the wider music industry Owen has made in his 41 years in the UK.
It’s fantastic to have such strong support from the music industry in our fight to have Owen’s visa reinstated and for him to remain in the UK permanently to father his young children and continue to work with and support the young people of Greater Manchester, who also like Owen, wish to have a career in the creative industries.
Principal of SEM, Damian Fiedler
“Despite us having known Mad Rush as a performer through the electronic music community these past 15-20 years, we didn’t put two and two together until we saw his Go Fund Me campaign – and then realised that Owen Haisley was in fact, Mad Rush MC! As soon as we realised, we reached out to his campaign to offer any support we could – as it is important for us as an organisation to not only support the next generation of talent, but also to support the figureheads of Manchester’s music community, wherever we can do. It’s our absolute pleasure to award Owen a Music Production Scholarship to SEM.”
