When the hip hop beats of Hard Times and Snoop Dogg's inimitable flow reached the ears of 87 year old Pope Francis he loved it so much he issued, there and then, a Papal Blessing for the charitable endeavour.
Hard Times ft Snoop Dogg
Homeless film director, David Fussell, met London musicians Ooberfuse at the Homeless Restaurant which provides restaurant style meals to Oxford Street's rough sleepers. After a few jamming sessions Hard Times was born.
Fussell says "the searching lyrics tell the homeless issue from a new point of view. The story isn't told from an on-looker's point of view like the great Phil Collins song Another Day in Paradise. Rather, Hard Times tells the story in the first person, drawing on real pain 'shivering in the cold and the rain'. Hard Times makes it clear being made homeless could happen to anyone of us. It starts 'I never thought that it would be like this / Sleeping in a doorway on the streets like this....'"
The Holy Father, Pope Francis, emphasises "the importance of caring for the most vulnerable in society' and urges that we seize opportunities like this 'to build a more fraternal world."
Twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday, a group of volunteers from Central London Catholic Churches distribute food donated by Mayfair eateries like The Connaught and The Mayfair Chippy to the tables of London's rough sleepers in Farm Street's Arrupe Hall.
Hal, a musician from ooberfuse, says "the guy who runs the project, Dominic Robinson is like a modern day Robin Hood!
"He literally goes to the swankiest restaurants in Mayfair and takes food destined for the sophisticated palettes of the super-wealthy and puts it on the tables of the homeless in Arrupe Hall. It's next level wealth-redistribution!"