Meet the Fattylympian: Verity

Verity volunteered to write the Fattylympics Anthem and she did a fantastic job. Take a look and have a listen. Here's a bit more about her and about it...

Please introduce yourself

My name's Verity Susman. I play in Electrelane and I've got a solo project now: http://www.facebook.com/veritysusman

Why did you volunteer to write the Fattylympics Anthem?

I wanted to have a go at writing an anthem for an important event, and of all the events happening in London this summer, the Fattylympics seems the most important.

Could you talk a bit about the process of writing it?

At first I thought about anthems and hymns I really like, then got a bit depressed thinking I can never write anything like that, but it was useful in terms of thinking about the structure of these type of songs.

After Charlotte sent me the lyrics I kept them going round in my head and when I started singing a suitable melody to myself I recorded it on dictophone. I went back to it later and worked out a chord structure to go with it.

The recording is the demo I sent to Charlotte - it's just using the keyboard I had to hand at the time (and a keyboard guitar sound - keytar! - because my real guitar got broken on a recent trip). It's just a demo because the hope was that people would learn it and sing it at the Fattylympics, which is the main thing.

I realised later on that there are lots of references to dreaming in the lyrics, what is your dream for the Fattylympics Anthem?

For 20,000 people to sing it standing in a field...or even 20 would do.

What else would you like to say?

I'm gutted I can't be there on the day - can someone make a film of the Fattylympics? (Charlotte's answer: yes!)

Everyone feels sportier when they're wearing a Fattylympics headband

We went to Berlin to take part in a European workshop about fat activism and to show off at Rebel Bellies last week. During the trip we were beyond delighted to pick up a consignment of Fattylympics towelling headbands organised by Tünya Ö, and sported here at Kotbusser Tor by her, Kori K, me and Kay.

The people of Kreuzberg have seen and done it all, but the sight of a little group of Fattylympics queers parading through the streets in headbands turned a few heads, I can assure you. The four of us agreed that wearing a headband makes you feel very sporty indeed, it's a satisfying feeling to have your head slightly compressed by the finest elasticated towelling on earth. We hope you agree that they look extremely dapper.

We will have a bunch of Fattylympics headbands to give out on the day, just so you know. When they're gone, they're gone.