Trump Depression Hotline at The Blackfriars Ouseburn Cinema @ St Vincent de Paul Society

Hallelujah! Award-winning wild anti-consumerist gospel shouters and Earth-loving urban activists Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir return to the UK for a whistle-stop tour of the country. If you’re concerned about a world rife with global advertising, multinational control, climate change, the threat of nuclear war and a maverick, Twitter happy US President this is for you. If you’re not concerned, this is REALLY for you! Since the Frankenstein of shopping culture Donald Trump won - or stole - the US election, Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir have been a repository of community anguish. They have opened for Neil Young, been produced by Laurie Anderson, and hosted a Black Lives Matter benefit with Joan Baez. They host their own parades, boycotts, and protests – all whilst singing multiple harmonies – and make a point of regularly spending time in the little-known public garden on the 5th floor of the ‘700 ft. tall gold-tinted Presidential erection’ that is Trump Tower. The Rev has an advice column in a New York newspaper called ‘Trump Depression Hotline’ – and this effort to bring mindfulness and hilarity to these dark times became the name of the UK tour. ‘We gotta love everybody and show them we care ‘til they can’t Trump anymore’ he said. The Trump Depression Hotline tour will be spreading the word of Earthelujah and encouraging us all to join the struggle to avert the threatened Shopacolypse. Expect humour, great music and an unshakeable belief. Rev Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir is a New York City based radical performance community, with 50 performing members and a congregation in the thousands. They have performed on the streets, in concert halls, in shopping malls and at cash tills, working with communities on four continents to defend community, life and imagination against Consumerism and Militarism, and in this time of the Earth's crisis - are especially mindful of the extractive imperatives of global capital.

Sun 22 Oct Newcastle The Blackfriars Ouseburn Cinema @ St Vincent de Paul Society, Newcastle, NE1 2TQ 7.30pm £9.50, £7, £4.50 concessions, under 12’s free http://wunderbar.org.uk/revbilly

Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir’ Trump Depression tour is produced by Colchester Arts Centre and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.