Stop and Start Over. The Berkshire Seven Story

E. Mark Windle 24 May 2025.

Unless you live in the clandestine world of the rare soul record collecting and are familiar with the label’s output, you’d be forgiven for being unaware of any recordings or artists associated with Stop Records Inc. After all, Stop didn’t have any huge hits. It operated on a shoestring budget. And it could even be considered a risk-taking side venture, albeit by one of the most respected behind-the-scenes musicians and producers in Nashville. But when Pete Drake decided to take a risk with a bunch of complete unknowns from Kentucky, he thought he could be onto a good thing. Drake was all about experimentation and innovation, and one particular band that caught his attention exemplified that entirely.

The Berkshire Seven bridged a gap between ‘60s garage/psyche and soul—without a hint of Nashville country music in sight. A ton of bad luck and deteriorating band member relationships abruptly ended what perhaps could have been. But the latter-day rediscovery and embracement of one particular Berkshire Seven song on an underground music scene on the other side of the Atlantic has at least ensured their legacy is preserved.

PETE DRAKE

Stop Records was founded around 1967 by session guitarist and producer Pete Drake, an Augusta, Georgia born and raised son of a Pentecostal minister. In the late 1950s Drake relocated to Music City to pursue his dreams in the industry as a musician and producer. Several country, folk, pop and religious hits have featured Pete Drake on guitar, including Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man”, Bob Dylan’s “Lay, Lady, Lay” and Elvis’ take on “How Great Thou Art”.

By 1970, Drake’s talents were enough to have him inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Walkway of Stars. Pete Drake may have been a country boy at heart. But his diversity of taste and willingness to give relative unknowns a shot at the music industry was reflected in Stop Records Inc. output, which also included a number of soul and pop records.

The Berkshire Seven story starts not in Nashville, but Loyall, Kentucky. Enter lead singer Dennis Lee (aka Denolee) Pressnell, and writer of “Stop And Start Over”:

“I was raised in a middle class environment in Loyall, Kentucky. I didn’t want for much. Life was difficult only because I had a father who really didn’t love me, but it was balanced by some great ladies, including my mom, and both grandmothers.

I had polio when I was two years old. When I was sent home from hospital, I was bed-ridden for a year or so. My mother was a switchboard operator at that time. The women at the telephone company bought me a 45 rpm record player and a pile of records to keep me amused during my recovery. The record player was small enough to sit between my legs in bed. I listened and sang with those records all day and every day—there was little else to do. This was beginning of rock ’n’ roll. I couldn’t get enough of Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard, Elvis, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson. I soaked in every musical note.

THE WARLOCKS

Fast forward a few years to my college years. I was a voice major at the University of Kentucky. One day this girl, Betty Fried, approached me and asked if I’d be interested in singing for her band The Warlocks. They were about to lose their lead singer. I agreed to rehearse that night and was hired on the spot as the replacement.

I wouldn’t say The Warlocks were particularly talented, but they were enthusiastic, it was work and gave me an opportunity to perform. We’d practice in the evenings at Betty’s home in the Idle Wilde section of Lexington. Most nights there would be big crowds out in the front yard and on the street. A slightly surreal situation for us, but such a buzz.”

The band wanted to take things further and to record in the studio but first we needed a manager. Warlock’s bassist Danny Williams had an acquaintance who worked at Foushee’s Flower Shop in Lexington. Owner Henry G. Foushee was always looking for interesting new side ventures. Managing a group could just fit that bill.

One afternoon, the whole band drove down to the flower shop and put their proposal to Foushee:

“Henry took over the management of The Warlocks, but his stipulation was we must come up with a new name. Henry Foushee was one of the kindest, finest human beings I’ve ever known. He became a substitute dad to most of us, certainly to me. He was also a mentor, and always our close friend. I swear he was God-sent, not only to us, but to Lexington in general.

With the whole British influence going on at the time in pop music, and Henry’s request to come up with a more respectable name, I came up with The Berkshire Seven. We had a huge plan to record a song or two, get them on local radio, chart, appear not to be from Lexington, Kentucky…then maybe blow everyone’s mind at the Gardenside Swim Club’s Battle of the Bands event. Bill Behymer (lead guitar) had written a sing-a-long called ‘Bring Your Love To Me’ and I had another song called ‘I’m Alone’. Those appeared on our first 45, recorded in Louisville.”

Within three weeks “Bring Your Love To Me” reached #1 on WVLK. “I’m Alone” also reached #1 on WLAP. Both songs were both #1 in Lexington on the night of the Gardenside Battle of the Bands. The Berkshire Seven beat current top bands The Magnificent Seven and The Torques.

NASHVILLE CALLING

The move to Nashville to record was a suggestion by Foushee’s friend Esco Hankins, the owner of a record shop opposite Foushee’s place. Hankins knew Pete Drake well, and suggested that Drake may be able to help the boys out. Foushee called Drake’s office, and mailed him a copy of their first release along with some promotional pictures.

“Next thing we knew, we received our invite to record in Nashville, with Pete Drake as a producer” says Denolee. “That was probably the spring of 1968. The session took place at Music City Recorders on 19th Avenue South. Almost overnight here we were in the company of our heroes. The sound engineer was Scotty Moore, the world famous guitarist and legendary buddie of Elvis. Pete introduced us to Porter Wagoner, Jerry Reed and Dolly Parton. Porter had an office in the building beside Pete’s Window Music.

By the time we left Nashville, we had laid down ‘Stop And Start Over’, ‘Battle Of Chicago’, ‘I’ve Tried’ and ‘Crazy Kind Of Feeling’. The band line-up at that time was yours truly (lead singer), Sonny Bayes (lead guitar), Betty Fried (keyboards), Danny Williams (bass guitar), John Calkins (saxophone) and John Joseph (trumpet). Billy Armstrong replaced our original drummer, who was drinking too much and not showing up for practices.”

“You have to understand that nothing happened quickly with Pete Drake. At the time, he was very busy individual. We respected that. He had all those CBS artists he worked with in Nashville. Then he was involved in projects like Bob Dylan’s ‘Nashville’ Skyline LP, and spent quite a bit of time in England working on the George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass”.

It was probably nine months to a year before ‘Stop and Start Over’ was actually released. In that particular period, most of the group members were about to be drafted for the Vietnam War. I received my draft notice the day the record became #1 in Lexington. That was tough: watching a dream coming to fruition, then the hard facts of reality, such as going to war pulling at you.”

The timing may have been wrong for Denolee, but ‘“Stop and Start Over”’ did receive a second round of appreciation when it was rediscovered on the UK rare soul scene in the 1980s. Championed by DJs Jim Wensiora, Colin Law and others, the appeal to record collectors and dancers was undoubtedly its frantic tempo and stop-start phrasing, structurally similar to another popular record on the scene—Mel Wynn and the Rhythm Aces’ ‘Stop Sign’.

“The Berkshire Seven returned to Nashville in the summer of 1969 to work on an album” says Denolee.

“We recorded three songs that were never released. Only one of those three songs were good enough to work with. One thing led to another and nothing was ever done with it. We were supposed to go back to Nashville for more studio work, but the group was full of strife and the trip was never made. By 1973 we scattered to the four winds. Betty Fried got married just after ‘Stop And Start Over’. She moved to Michigan with her husband. John Calkins committed suicide in San Francisco. Larry Sallee was my best friend in the group—I visited him just a week before reading of his passing. He had liver disease, big time. Pat Schneider just disappeared. Billy Armstrong lived in Lexington as did Sonny Bayes. Sonny still works in his sister’s printing company. I have no idea about Danny Williams. John Joseph lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He contacted me several years ago when the Berkshire Seven myspace.com page was set up. I’m sure he’s doing well. Bill Behymer married his childhood sweetheart. At last report, they were living somewhere in California. Bill and I were never close. He was the original spaceman, and a difficult guy to get to know.”

BACK IN NASHVILLE

After leaving the group, Denolee was a record salesman for Transcontinent Record Sales. Then he returned to Nashville, where he continued to work with Pete Drake and Window Music Inc. on artist promotion for around six months, before a longer period with Acuff-Rose as Pop Music Promotion Director. there, Denolee connected with artists from a diverse range of genres and to a high level of commercial success. However, there are mixed feelings:

“For all my efforts and success at Acuff-Rose, I was rewarded with a $10.00 a week raise. I wasn’t impressed. In hindsight, I should have walked out the door for the insult. But that wasn’t playing the game in the music business, especially when working for a power structure as large as those guys. Wesley Rose was the personal manager for Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers, Sue Thompson and several other famous recording artists. It didn’t end well for me working there to be honest. But even though I still feel I was black balled, I have no regrets.”

Denolee went on to record through the next two decades, in association with country song-writing duo Foster and Rice, and with friend and legendary session bass player Tommy Cogbill.

“Mid 1982, Tommy called me to work as a producer on a project of his. We re-worked ‘I Can’t Help Myself’ and a new song given us by Fred Foster who owned Monument Records and had Combine Music, Inc., one of the finest music publishing companies in Nashville. Tommy played Fred one of my demos and got permission for us to record ‘Our Love Goes On’. There is a second version of my singing ‘I Can’t Help Myself’, produced by Tommy. However, before the session could be mastered and worked, Tommy died from cancer.

If it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. After Tommy’s passing, I wasn’t worth a nickel. It was devastating to lose him. Especially when he was the one person in the business I believed in, and I was placing my hopes and dreams in him. I am most proud of the work we did though. And will always wonder: what if?”

(Copyright 2025) E. Mark Windle is an independent freelance writer and biographer. He has also worked as a senior writer with Story Terrace (London, UK), and for Sheridan Hill / Real Life Stories LLC (North Carolina, USA). For more information on writing services or to discuss potential commissions reach out to Mark at https://windlefreelance.com/

Mac Gayden, Nashville Singer-Songwriter and Music Producer, Passes

Mac Gayden (far right), promoting the book House of Broken Hearts: The Soul of 1960s Nashville.

E. Mark Windle 23 April 2025.

On April 16, 2025, Nashville lost a legend with the death of McGavock “Mac” Gayden, at 83 years of age. I’m sure the anticipated outpouring of accolades will most likely be in regard to his contributions to country music and rock scenes as a musician, singer, songwriter and producer. That would only be right, and well deserved. For others, his life will be celebrated for his role in the lesser documented 1960s Black music scene in Nashville, and supporting those same artists in other ways in later decades.

Mac Gayden’s foray into music was initially with Charlie McCoy and the Escorts, then later signings to major labels (ABC, Polydor and Capitol) as a member of Area Code 615, Barefoot Jerry and Skyboat. But as well as performing upfront, Gayden was just as interested—if not more so—in guitar session work, songwriting and producing other artists.

Perhaps his most globally recognised creative achievement is “Everlasting Love”, written with pal Buzz Cason. Originally written for singer Robert Knight, the story goes that the original roots of the song lay in a childhood composition of Gayden’s. “Everlasting Love” would be an instant hit for Robert Knight, entering the top end of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1967. It was an even bigger one in Europe the following year, when a version by London’s Love Affair reached the top of the UK Singles Chart. The song has been covered by numerous recording artists since.

Mac Gayden’s resume of recording and performing collaborations stretched from JJ Cale to Bob Dylan, Rita Coolidge to Elvis, and Bobby Vinton to Connie Francis. If that’s not an impressive enough demonstration of versatility, he also connected personally and professionally with burgeoning local R&B music scene in Nashville during the 1960s.

There has also been underground soul scene interest in Gayden-related material for a number of recordings that he was involved in writing, producing or both. He was the mastermind behind Herbert Hunter’s “I Was Born to Love You” for Spar Records, now an established northern soul classic. That song happened to be Gayden’s first production effort. Mac was also particularly prolific on the Fred Foster/John Richbourg-operated Sound Stage 7 imprint, working on Joe Simon’s “When” and material for other artists such as The Valentines, Margie Hendrix and The Fabulettes.

My personal connection with Mac was a brief but most productive one. I was fortunate enough to hook up with him just before embarking on the “House of Broken Hearts: The Soul of 1960s Nashville” book project, five or six years ago. In my desire to explore the alternative history of Music City, Mac’s help was invaluable in supplying backstories, filling in knowledge gaps, and providing leads for former recording artists that I’d likely never have been able to track down otherwise. He struck me as a quiet, unassuming individual, but one who was willing to go the extra mile to help anyone with a genuine interest in his work or the work of others close to him in the industry.

Mac Gayden’s 2014 induction to the Country Music Hall of Fame is already testament to his creative genius. His contribution to the Black music scene of Nashville will not be forgotten either.

(Copyright 2025) E. Mark Windle is an independent freelance writer and biographer. He has also worked as a senior writer with Story Terrace (London, UK), and for Sheridan Hill / Real Life Stories LLC (North Carolina, USA).

Early Days—UNRWA and the Camps of Gaza

E. Mark Windle 21 April 2025.

Following the Arab-Israeli war of the late 1940s, a top priority for the displaced in Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon and Syria was to tackle the need for physical shelter. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was a response to the war of 1948 and the Nakba. Objectives were long-term: to follow up the work done by previous aid agencies such as the AFSC and International Red Cross, but also to minimise the chance of a humanitarian crisis relapse by engaging in projects that sustained adequate, decent living conditions, and provided education and medical care.

SHELTER PROVISION IN 1950s GAZA

UNRWA set out on the task of creating 53 refugee camps across these regions. Eight camps appeared within a few weeks in the Gaza Strip at Rafah, Jabalia, Khan Yunis, Al-Shati (also referred to as Shati, or Beach Camp), Nusierat, Bureij, Maghazi, and Dier al-Balah. For a number of years, living conditions were extremely basic. Some camps were large, some containing up to 20,000 occupants. Camps offered a better alternative to living in the open, but the situation was still dire with the majority of refugees entirely reliant on UN rations. Tents were often shared by multiple families, which introduced social issues including that of privacy (pregnant women had to give birth in the presence of strangers).

Conditions progressively improved through the 1950s. External financial support facilitated the construction of simple concrete houses. Water supplies, clinics, and schools were introduced. Groups of families who had come from the same villages converged, allowing small supportive units to form within the camps. In Syria and Lebanon, a small number of refugees were eventually able to leave their camps in the search for work and more permanent accommodation.

For the vast majority of those isolated in Gaza that wasn’t an option. Restrictions on movements meant that the search for work across the Egyptian border was rarely possible. Despite UN handouts, starvation and malnutrition were persistent themes.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE

Among the first commentators to paint a vivid picture of the humanitarian situation in Gaza was James Baster, one-time economic advisor to UNRWA. In a series of articles for Middle East Journal in the 1950s, his assessment was that Gaza City was no longer thriving. Its limited infrastructure had been ravaged, and the Strip was in deep economic crisis. The refugee labour skill mix could potentially contribute to the local community: the demographic was primarily composed of unskilled workers, but there were also skilled craftsmen, doctors and merchants. However, given the population density and the absence of an existing local economy, any job opportunities were limited. Geography was also an issue, with more than half of the Gaza Strip unsuitable for farming, as it comprised of sand dunes along much of the coastal edge and poor soil elsewhere. Baster found that poverty was endemic, and described the Strip as a rural slum:

“There is plenty of evidence that the Gaza community is living on its capital. Clothing is worn out, livestock is killed for food, the area is almost completely deforested as the refugees collect wood for fuel and building purposes, and the railroad track has largely been put out of action by the removal of several thousand ties which are invaluable for building timber and carpentry work.”

IMPROVING CONDITIONS

Over time, some aspects of the Gazan social and urban landscape was changing, primarily through UNRWA’s continued and externally funded efforts (which extended beyond the camps) and limited support from the Egyptian government. Journalist and former war correspondent Martha Gellhorn returned to the Middle East in the early 1960s, to comment on how Palestine had fared since the Nakba. The essay “The Arabs of Palestine”, published in a 1961 issue of The Atlantic, pointed toward early indicators of social and economic mobility. Infrastructure was being developed in urban areas. Cafes and restaurants were thriving. There was a noticeable increase in the number of cars on the streets.

The camps were ever-present of course, with around half the number of original refugees — and now, descendent family members — still living in them. Conditions remained far from ideal, though Gellhorn noted that most of the UNRWA camps were now more organised and working from a common template. Each had a supplementary feeding station where hot meals were provided for the particularly vulnerable, a few small shops and even a cafe or two which served as community meeting points. Once a month, refugees were given a basic ration of flour, pulses, sugar, rice, oils and fats, calculated to provide a total of 1500 calories per day per person. During the winter months, rations were increased by an additional 100 calories. Additional milk allowances were given for children and pregnant women. Those households motivated or able enough to increase their diet further kept small vegetable patches, chickens and rabbits.

Throughout the ‘official’ Israeli occupation from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, UNRWA was there to circumnavigate restrictions imposed by military order on water access in Gaza, to facilitate nutrition status assessments and household food security surveys and to refine approaches to combating malnutrition in vulnerable groups including women and children. Through time it was joined by other UN sister groups and other NGOs.

(END OF PT. 1)

(Copyright 2025) E. Mark Windle is a freelance writer, with a former career as a clinical dietitian specialising in burn injury and critical care nutrition. He has also worked as a senior writer for Story Terrace (London, UK), and as a ghostwriter for Sheridan Hill / Real Life Stories LLC (North Carolina, USA).

The ‘Review of Famine Reports’ and Gaza— the UKLFI are at it Again

E. Mark Windle 31 March 2025.

In the recent Review of Famine Reports, the UK Lawyers for Israel organisation (UKLFI) lodged their complaint regarding use of the Integrated Phase Classification categorisation of the risk and existence of famine in Gaza.

Their allegations have included the use of inaccurate statistics, misinterpretation of raw data and poor data processing to arrive at a ‘risk of famine’ designation. The finger was also pointed at high level United Nations representatives for amplifying famine narratives.

Most discussions of Gazan welfare are riddled with never-ending claims and counterclaims over events and statistics. Representatives of FEWS NET and the UN have their weaknesses, and mixed messages over whether or not Gaza has or had ‘official famine status’ is one of them. It would be foolish to pretend otherwise.

But equally, the UKLFI agenda is clear. Challenge anything that could possibly discredit Israel, and hunt entities that promote Gazan rights.

The fact that the organisation has a poor ratio of success when it comes to their complaints being upheld — usually against charities or other causes that support Gazan humanitarian aid — says a lot.

I read that one particular backfire ended up with a defamation case and the order of a public apology. Even more poignant / ironic, when you consider the domestic backdrop: the pro-Israel stance of the UK government and its complicity in the mass slaughter of Gazan civilians. As an aside, that is ably demonstrated by its record of arms supply to Israel and phrasing of public statements regarding the hostilities which are at best weakly diplomatic and typically one-sided in tone.

At the time of posting, it seems we’ve still to hear a response to the UKLFI report or a challenge to the validity of their claims. But while this particular beef with FEWS NET and the UN plays out, over 50,000 people in Gaza are dead. Also, consider a recent prediction by medical professions in The Lancet was that even if the conflict stopped immediately, the long term consequences of malnutrition, infection and injury could quadruple the final death toll. UKLFI will no doubt argue those statistics too. But there’s a elephant in the room.

(For a detailed exploration of how the IPC food scales work, read my article A Question of Famine? IPC Food Security Scales and the Gaza Debate here ).

From a Whisper to a Scream: Toussaint and Hurricane Katrina

E. Mark Windle 28 March 2025.

Joining the dots between a North Carolina soul band, New Orleans music legend Allen Toussaint and the wrath of nature.

For Roger Branch, sound engineer and founder of the sixties R&B band The Tempests, New Orleans had an attractive pull for studio engineering and production work. Like most musicians in the South, there was a deep affinity for the city’s musical cultural vibrancy. Branch had forged professional links with key industry figures there like Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn, from his early days as an engineer at Reflection Sound back in North Carolina.

THE TOUSSAINT-SEHORN CONNECTION

Toussaint and Sehorn had already been working closely some ten years before Roger had first connected with them in the early 1970s. Toussaint’s musicianship had helped define the Nola R&B sound of the late 1950s and early 1960s, a consequence of him feverishly absorbing the milieu of country music, blues, Creole rhythms and of course the honky-tonk piano which had initially put New Orleans on the musical map. As a musician, song writer arranger and producer, Allen Toussaint was the driving force behind many hits of the day, during the same time that The Tempests were doing their thing on the east coast. Indeed, his career and influence has continued through popular music over the last five decades.

Toussaint had come from a poor but musical background, heavily influenced by his parents, neighbours and other musicians who visited his family home. As a young adult he developed keyboard and producing skills and played with most of the major artists of the day in New Orleans, until an RCA talent scout picked up on his potential. Toussaint’s first true foray into the commercial world was as Joe Banashak’s producer and A&R man in 1960, giving Banashak’s Minit and Instant labels a string of hits which typified the early to mid 1960s New Orleans R&B sound.

Toussaint met Sehorn after returning from a two-year draft in the US army; Sehorn was a Carolinian who played guitar in various bands at college before securing a position with the A&R team at Fire and Fury Records in New York. Their initial professional collaboration was when Sehorn brought Toussaint in for some Lee Dorsey sessions. After both labels closed, the pair moved to New Orleans to form Sansu Enterprises and Sansu Records, Tou-Sea, Deesu and other imprints. With Toussaint as songwriter, pianist, and producer, and Sehorn’s industry knowledge, Lee Dorsey was brought back into the studio. Licensing to the Bell subsidiary label Amy ensured that Ride Your Pony, Working In The Coalmine and Holy Cow benefitted from national exposure and distribution.

SEA-SAINT STUDIOS THROUGH THE 1970s

Cash and acclaim started to roll in, but Toussaint and Sehorn were in danger of becoming victims of their own success. The list of hits was growing, yet the pair were still having to depend on other recording studios around the city such as Cosimo Matassa’s studios, or facilities outside of Louisiana. The need to operate their own studio for convenience and to facilitate more control of production was clear.

By 1973, a contract with Warner Bros. for composition, production and recording work enabled Toussaint and Sehorn to finance and build Sea-Saint studios on an old service station site at 3809 Clematis Street in the Gentilly area, on New Orleans’ East Side. Work soon poured in, from local sources but also from national labels wanting to use the the contemporary recording facilities they had just installed. The major labels were the ones that would keep Sea-Saint afloat financially, and the studio targeted its services towards them. Sea-Saint rapidly became associated with numerous national hits across soul, pop and country music charts. The 1970s saw in Labelle’s Lady Marmalade, a couple of albums by Paul McCartney and Wings, and a series of Billboard chart smashes by Glen Campbell, Paul Simon and Joe Cocker.

Sea-Saint formally joined forces with Cosimo Matassa when he closed one of his studios in 1978, and their services could now be offered to a wealth of R&B producers resulting in further seminal recordings by Bobby Powell, Lee Bates and Tony Owens. The 1970s may have represented the peak of Sea-Saint’s success, but the studio remained active through the 1980s and beyond. Whether pop, rock or R&B artist, it was a longtime go-to for anyone after quality recording facilities, engineering and production.

Roger Branch’s first connected with Toussaint and Sehorn when Sansu Enterprises first started using Reflection Sound Studios in Charlotte for production and engineering duties as early as 1971, whilst Sehorn and Toussaint were waiting for completion on Sea-Saint studio’s construction. Eventually Branch also made the move there. A background in electronics served him well; Sea-Saint studios needed someone with technical know-how as well as musical ability. And so, a position at Sea-Saint was secured in 1990, initially as a sound engineer to work on New Yorker Willy DeVille’s new album. The ex-Mink Deville lead singer was moving into a new creative phase, drawn to explore the latin, blues and soulful roots of old New Orleans. This culminated in Victory Mixture, a project initially started after a conversation about the possibility of covering old delta songs and a session playing old 45s together of Louisiana artists between DeVille and his friend Carlo Ditta. DeVille called in Earl King, Eddie Bo and Allen Toussaint for the project.

THE HARD PACK PROJECT

Sea-Saint Studios would also be the location for a latter day professional reunion for Roger, and former Tempests members Van Coble and Nelson Lemmond:

“Even though our version of The Tempests had disbanded a long time ago, a some of us would get together to work on projects every few years” Nelson comments. “Probably the most fun was doing a promotional casette album for Camel cigarettes in the late 1990s. Through my point-of-sale advertising company I’d done a lot of work with tobacco giants R.J. Reynolds on their shop displays and billboard signs. I kept hounding them that I had a band in mind who sounded fantastic and we should record them for their advertising. Eventually they gave in. Basically, it was a case of “here’s a piece of money, go do some demos — now shut the fuck up and get out of our hair”. I got Van and Nat Speir from The Rivieras working on writing some material right away and called in on Roger Branch so we could get a few local musicians together. A month was spent on that album at Sea-Saint. We stayed at the Pontchartrain, one of the grand old hotels in the centre of New Orleans. Our daily ritual was to get up at around 11am for the recording sessions. We’d eat breakfast at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, then go over to the studio and work through until 2 or 3am. After that, it was back to the hotel for turtle soup and gumbo. Rinse and repeat.”

From left, Nelson Lemmond, the author, and Van Coble (image credit E. Mark Windle)

“Initially we looked at the idea of using all-star New Orleans line up. Marshall Sehorn and I tried to drag Fats Domino out of bed at noon one day which he really didn’t thank us for. We abandoned that idea. In the end we wanted the project to seem like it was featuring one band, and came up with the concept of a band of animated Camel characters. A bar band was used that played on Bourbon Street. Luther Kent was their singer, who previously played with Blood, Sweat and Tears after David Clayton Thomas left. Luther now had a big blues band called Trick Bag — whenever B.B. King or Bobby Bland were in town they would be hired to back them up. For the Camel session, Allen Toussaint also played on some of the songs to help us out. On the first day the rhythm section was having a real problem with tempo. Very politely Allen asked if he could sit in. He straightened everything out immediately. The guy was a genius.”

The RJ Reynolds / Camel promotional cassette album (image credit Nelson Lemmond).
HURRICANE KATRINA

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, it made global news. More than a century of musical and cultural heritage was wiped out in an instant. The storm surge and Mississippi levee failure had catastrophic effects: 53 breaches occurred in what were mostly ill-designed and constructed flood protection barriers. Eighty percent of the city was flooded, and water levels remained high for weeks after the storm.

The death toll attributed to the violent effects of the storm is still disputed but placed conservatively between 1000–1500 in New Orleans area alone. Hundreds of thousands were made homeless, forced to move from the area, and many were either unable or did not wish to return. Given that more than half of New Orleans residents prior to the storm were African-American, the impact on the black music industry was devastating.

On 28th August 2005, Sea-Saint Studios was wrecked by flooding and winds. Toussaint found himself without a home, a business and most of his possessions. Like thousands of others in the immediate aftermath, he initially sought safety at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel, then relocated in the longer term to New York before eventually returning to New Orleans.

Roger Branch managed to remain in New Orleans. “Four feet of water had flooded the ground floor, and Katrina had damaged the Sea-Saint building beyond repair. But by a stroke of luck, I had a place — originally an office — on the other side of town. It was built in an elevated position. Although it only a few blocks away from the Mississippi River, it escaped damage by Katrina, other than some roof issues that we quickly repaired”.

Those office premises would become Oak Street Recording Studio, which to this day continues to record new and established artists.

Oak Street Recording Studio, 1990s (image credit Lu Roja)

The devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina didn’t deter Toussaint from picking up his career again. Within six months he was performing on the David Letterman Late Show. Offers of a number of live performance opportunities around New York were accepted before he eventually returned to a rebuilt, smaller New Orleans. Things recovered financially to some extent when he was approached by advertisers for use of his song Sweet Touch of Love, which became an award-winning TV advertisement. Toussaint continued to support the revived New Orleans music scene. He was already inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998; by 2013 Toussaint was also inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. The National Medal of Arts awarded by U.S. President Obama was the icing on the cake.

(Modified excerpt from the book The Tempests: A Carolina Soul Story, available as an ebook from A Nickel And A Nail)

(Copyright 2025) E. Mark Windle is an independent freelance writer and biographer. He has also worked as a senior writer with Story Terrace (London, UK), and for Sheridan Hill / Real Life Stories LLC (North Carolina, USA). To discuss services, contact Mark via https://windlefreelance.com/contact/

A Question of Famine: IPC Food Security Phases and the Gaza Debate

E. Mark Windle 25 March 2025.

(Audio version is also available here for Medium members)

Humanitarian crises management requires input from a range of invested but not necessarily directly connected agencies. One element of coordinating interventions involves common understanding of the current state of food insecurity. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scale addresses this by capturing nutritional data, highlighting levels of severity. IPC designations have been used in Gaza since before the current conflict, and have played an essential role in facilitating action plans to improve nutritional welfare. Inevitably, they have also been a source of sparring between aid agencies and pro-Israel lobbyists.

ORIGINS

IPC designations were a concept of a division of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) working in Somalia. The country has a long history of nutritional fragility due to poverty, politics and drought. FAO’s Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit had a desperate need for a system that could capture robust data from different sources, and so enable effective utilisation of humanitarian aid.

The IPC was first rolled out in February 2004. It proved an invaluable tool later that year, when the Indian Ocean Earthquake created a tsunami, devastating coastal and rural areas of the Puntland state to the north, and displaced 50,000 people from their homes. Timely, coordinated input was required to manage the immediate and longer-term situation.

Since then, the IPC has been refined a number of times and is now the tool of choice in standardising the monitoring and description changes in food security in over 30 countries. The IPC global partnership comprises 20 intergovernmental institutions and organisations, including WHO, Save the Children, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), Action Against Hunger, and UN agencies such as UNICEF, FAO and the World Food Programme.

MALNUTRITION AND FOOD SECURITY PHASES IN BRIEF

The classification system comprises three scales which reflect reflect separate themes — global acute malnutrition (GAM), acute food insecurity (AFI), and chronic food insecurity (CFI). The severity of each is determined via the collection of raw data sets sourced from a range of settings.

Prevalence of malnutrition (GAM): from body weight and other indirect physiological measures of nutritional status. This information is verified, pooled, and categorised according to five phases of malnutrition severity. Phase 1 represents a low prevalence of GAM (less than 5–6% of children). Guidance in phase 1 emphasises continued monitoring and existing actions. Phase 5 is the upper extreme, representing a GAM prevalence of greater than 17% or 30% dependent on the basis of measurement.

Acute Food Insecurity (AFI): questionnaires are used to capture household ease of coping with sudden changes in food security. This information is converted to quantifiable data and combined with acute malnutrition values. Results are pooled and categorised according to five phases of AFI severity. Households with full and free access to essential and non-essential foods score lowest (phase 1). Phase 3 indicates an acute food security crisis, with a recommendation for urgent action to correct reduced food consumption. The priority for phase 4 (emergency) is to save lives. Phase 5 is the most severe category described as ‘catastrophic’ on a household or small group level, or ‘famine’ on an area level. Phase 5 indicates an urgent need for action to prevent or minimise widespread deaths related to malnutrition.

Chronic Food Insecurity (CFI): tools used here are similar to that for AFI phase determination. There are four levels of CFI severity. Levels 3 and 4 (moderate and severe CFI) require urgent action to address issues of ongoing deficits in food quantity which are sustained, or seasonal, and likely to provide inadequate nutrition in the household.

FAMINE DESIGNATION THRESHOLDS

From a humanitarian aid perspective, a formal definition of famine risk and famine occurrence is essential. Heralding it is not only a trigger for coordination of international action; in conflict-related situations the acknowledging the existence of famine can be used to inform legal proceedings for war crimes under international law. The ultimate purpose though of the IPC system is to identify impending situations of famine, so that governement agencies and NGOs are alerted to the need for intervention in a timely manner, with the intention of averting or minimising mass malnutrition and death.

Thresholds for an IPC-designated famine are found in phase 5 of the AFI scale:

1. At least 20% of households have an extreme lack of food and other basic needs according to food security inquiry

2. Acute malnutrition prevalence exceeds 30% based on weight-for-height “z-scores” (or lesser percentage threshold where Mid Upper Arm Circumference is used for assessment)

3. A mortality rate exceeding 2 deaths per day per 10,000 people, where those deaths are due directly to starvation or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease.

IPC guidelines also refer to the phrase “risk of famine”, but are clear that this descriptor sits outside the core classification system. It should be arrived at by consensus on a projected worst-case scenario with a reasonable and realistic chance of famine occurring. The designation of risk of famine allows for consideration of lesser quality (and quantity) of evidence. Food security and nutritional status monitoring should be routine and continuous. The IPC Famine Review Committee (FRC) regularly convene to consider 3–6 monthly projections for the likelihood of famine developing.

‘RISK OF FAMINE’ DESIGNATIONS IN GAZA , POST 7 OCTOBER 2023

So how does this all fit into the current conflict in Gaza? The FRC first indicated that a risk of famine existed two months after the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict. In March 2024, projected analysis concluded famine would be expected at some point between mid-March and May in northern Gaza and wider Gazan governates. Monitoring the situation, FEWS NET conducted an IPC-compatible analysis of food security in the same timeframe. It was concluded famine was indeed established and had been ongoing in northern Gaza during April.

The FRC followed this up with a review of the FEWS NET findings. While the FRC felt the FEWS NET evidence was not necessarily contradictory, it was not robust enough to categorise famine with certainty. The FRC had noted that the amount of food and non-food commodities entering Gaza had actually increased, and WASH systems had also been scaled up in line with IPC guidance. Based on the FRC review, the opinion was that it was more plausible that all areas in Gaza were in a lesser emergency situation (IPC phase 4) during May and June; and that this would likely remain the position until the next FRC analysis in October. It was, however, emphasised that famine would continue to pose a genuine threat for as long as conflict continued or humanitarian access was restricted.

Despite the FRC conclusions made a month earlier, in July 2024 the UN issued a press release stating that a group of independent experts—UN advisors—concluded that famine had spread throughout the entire Gaza Strip. The rationale was that at least 40 children had died directly as a result of malnutrition since the start of the war. That information in itself was not fit for IPC-designation of famine.

In October and November, one year into the conflict, the UN were now classing the whole territory of Gaza as in an IPC phase 4 (emergency) situation. UN estimates were that 1.8 million Palestinians were experiencing extremely critical levels of hunger, with limited access to food and 70% of crop fields destroyed. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commented on social media:

“Alarmed by today’s IPC report findings that high displacement and restrictions on humanitarian aid flows mean people in Gaza are facing catastrophic levels of hunger… widespread famine looms. This is intolerable.”

Between 2011 and 2024, the FRC categorised four episodes of famine in the world; one in Somalia and three in Sudan. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict, various agencies have expressed concerns of famine developing in Gaza. Warnings have usually been accompanied by a statement that famine will occur if there is no immediate ceasefire to allow aid passage. As yet however, IPC famine has not been designated by the FRC.

ISRAEL DENIES FOOD SHORTAGE

Contradictory official reports and ad hoc comments from representatives of humanitarian aid organisations, plus media quests for headline-selling soundbites have all had the potential to create ambiguity and public confusion. Israeli officials and pro-Israeli lobbyists frequently voice that the pushing of a narrative of impending famine is inaccurate, discredits Israel, and fosters anti-Israeli sentiment.

In the spring of 2024, Colonel Moshe Tetro of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) agency went on record denying that there was any shortage of food in Gaza. His comment likely came from a report, unpublished or peer reviewed at the time, that between January and April of that year there had been an average of 3,163kcal per person per day of aid delivered. Well in excess of individual baseline requirements. The figure was informed by COGAT data on the number of aid trucks entering Gaza, consignment weights of specific foods, and the nutritional composition of standard food parcels.

However, the apparent abundance of food was in stark contrast with that observed on the ground in most, if not all parts of Gaza. The COGAT view was essentially that if food wasn’t reaching civilians once it was inside the Gaza Strip, that was not a matter for Israel — internal distribution chains were not their responsibility.

Crowd looting, the interception of food drop-offs by organised gangs, the hoarding of food by Hamas, and the threat of executions of those who liaise with Israel in the distribution of aid have indeed been reported. But equally, access to food delivered by truck has been hampered on multiple occasions by Israeli forces inside Gaza, by roadblocks, forced offloading of aid in military zones where civilians have no access, and drop-offs at schools and other public buildings which are immediately targeted by Israeli soldiers and civilians forced to leave empty handed.

ALLEGATIONS OF DATA MISHANDLING

In Review of Famine Reports earlier this year, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) claimed a number of fundamental flaws appear in work by the IPC/FRC, FAO and FEWS NET. Criticisms include the use of inaccurate statistics, misinterpretation of raw data and poor data processing to arrive at a risk of famine designation. According to UKLFI, food and water supply data was overlooked, erroneous baseline data used to support a projection of rapidly developing malnutrition, mortality statistics were based on partly unverified data and were poorly handled, and an overestimation of population size reduced the amount of food available per person.

The group also stressed that famine narratives from Guterres and other high level UN representatives were building an atmosphere of urgency, when according to IPC’s own guidance, “risk of famine” terminology refers specifically to a worst-case scenario, rather than the most likely outcome. Of course, UKLFI’s pro-Israel agenda is obvious, with a past history of lodging complaints (with limited success) against protests and charities that support the Gaza causes. But with a formal response to the report still awaited, the validity of their comments remain unchallenged.

DIFFICULTIES OF DATA COLLECTION AND INTERPRETATION

IPC threshold values are generally accepted as logical and the face-value descriptors for each phase designation clear. One limitation is system clunkiness, characterised by caveats, exclusions, and scenario deviations requiring specific considerations when collecting data. Unfortunately this leaves users of a system which is designed to be constructive tool open to criticism. It also leaves famine-related designations subject to debate, especially by pro-Israeli entities who work to block anything that could further cement any references to the possibility of genocide.

IPC phase designations are best informed by strong evidence. The threshold for famine requires the availability of solid statistical information on food insecurity, malnutrition and deaths. The most robust evidence comes from first hand sources, is complete, and can be relied upon to be accurate.

The reality, however, is that high quality evidence is often difficult to obtain in conflict zones. In an IPC context, weights and anthropometric measurements for malnutrition statistics can only be taken where health services are operational. Where these services are located in centralised hubs rather than in camps, individuals can only access these services if it is safe to do so, and then often only if the facility is near enough to access on foot. Sample sizes may be small, and findings require additional assumptions for scaling up and inference.

Death rates are equally tricky to interpret. Rates used in inform famine classification should only reflect those only those caused directly by starvation, or the interaction of malnutrition and disease, rather than total death rate. Where the total mortality is known, deaths from trauma (such as combat or sudden civilian deaths in targeted residential areas) should be excluded — or assumptions made where trauma deaths are unobtainable. Determination of the number of deaths related to malnutrition is particularly complex because of the interrelationships between malnutrition, disease and, where present, injury. Death from sepsis or from dehydration can occur in overwhelming infective disease, with or without the presence of malnutrition. So, at an individual level, documentation is required of both the primary cause of death and whether or not malnutrition is present.

Regardless of when or whether the FRC bell will ring to announce the arrival of famine in Gaza, only blinkered deniers will contest that the numbers dying from frank malnutrition, disease-related malnutrition, and injuries complicated by infection and poor nutritional status will be high. Potentially, much more than the 50,000 total deaths currently reported. The strive for best evidence—or failing that, best consensus—is crucial for humanitarian and legal calls to action. Undeniably, the collection and interpretation of food insecurity and malnutrition data in Gaza has been problematic. But we shouldn’t be throwing the baby out with the bath water.

(Copyright 2025) E. Mark Windle is a freelance writer, with a former 25-year career as a clinical dietitian specialising in major burn injury and critical care nutrition. He has also worked as a senior writer for Story Terrace (London, UK), and as a ghostwriter for Sheridan Hill / Real Life Stories LLC (North Carolina, USA).

One Dollar Cover, Warm Beer and Good Old Soul Music

E. Mark Windle 22 March 2025.

I reckon there will be a few tears shed in the Carolina Rock n Roll Remembered and I Remember the Cellar Facebook groups this week. I just discovered on my social media feed that The Cellar burned down early Saturday morning. Once upon a time, this place really meant something to the music-loving teenagers of Charlotte.

The first time I set eyes on this venue was 12 years ago. I’ve got to admit, by then it looked it had seen better days. Complete with tattered awning, overgrown weeds out front, and dwarfed by the glass and metal high-rise monoliths on the opposite side of Morehead Street, The Cellar’s presence seemed at odds with the rest of the urban landscape.

It was business that brought me to North Carolina that day. A couple of old timer musicians were teed up for interview as part of a new book project. I was here to meet Nat Speir, first on my list. His claim to fame was his role as sax player and co-founder The Rivieras, a Charlotte band who enjoyed repeat bookings at The Cellar. Their one record, “Behold”, got a fair amount of airplay during the mid ’60s, but without a manager or decent promotion, national success eluded them. Nat had no issue with that though (in a twist of fate, the record had a new lease of life when the flipside was “rediscovered” 20 years later by an underground soul scene in the UK).

Nat was just happy enjoying life on the stage and the road, creating music and rubbing shoulders with the likes of Gladys Knight (before her Motown days), Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs of “Stay” fame, and Curtis Mayfield with the rest of The Impressions. In fact, throughout his whole life Nat been involved in the industry in one way or another. When I met him, he was just about to retire as a music teacher.

With Nat Speir outside The Cellar (2013).

This was my first visit to Charlotte. After being treated to a whirlwind tour of the main sights Nat suggested it might be fun to try find the old place. It had been decades since The Rivieras last played The Cellar. It took an age to get our bearings, but eventually we were climbing over the wall of an abandoned parking lot and peering through the grated windows of the old red-brick building.

I was already aware of some of The Cellar’s history. Its heyday was in the ’60s, when the cover was one dollar. And it was something of a mecca for those who came to hear their regular favourite bands and guest appearances from out of state. OK, so it wasn’t always swinging from the rafters. But the local bands had a very loyal crowd, and whenever soul acts came to town the place was sure to be rocking. For many kids, this was the first chance to see singers perform who had previously only been heard on Big Ways or on late night WLAC. Old Cellar bill posters read like a who’s who of R&B singers, groups and beach music bands: The Rivieras, The Tempests, The Tams, The Soul Set, The Catalinas, The Georgia Prophets, Billy Stewart, Archie Bell and the Drells and many more. One band, Soul Inc., even recorded a live LP there.

Image courtesy of Malcolm Collins.

When Motown or Stax artists came to town it was logistically easier—and cheaper—to hire local bands as backup. The nearby Park Center had the capacity to host the larger shows, but The Cellar saw more than its fair share of household names. The Rivieras played both; at one point maybe twice a week and at weekends.

Once they were connected with Ted Hall’s Hit Attractions and other agencies, bookings for The Rivieras came in to open for or back up a huge array of visiting recording stars. Nat recalls: “We ended up playing with just about every major soul and R&B act of the day that came to the southeast — Stevie Wonder, The Tops, The Temps, The Marvelettes, The Platters, The Olympics, The Five Royals, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed, Barbara Lewis, Peaches and Herb, Wilson Pickett… Did I miss anyone out?”

I live on the wrong side of the Atlantic and would have been far too young for The Cellar anyway, but multiple references from former Cellar-goers had provided some sense of the atmosphere. Hot sticky summer nights. Warm beer. And, on busy nights, the crowd packed in like sardines.

Image courtesy of Malcolm Collins.

“Growing up in the south—in my neighbourhood and in that era—meant you loved soul and Motown,” says Jackie Freeman Panos. The Cellar was our weekly fix. We had fake ID cards to get in, but alcohol laws were different then anyway; you could drink beer at eighteen. The place was dark, crowded and LOUD! We’d wiggle through until we got next to the stage during the live band performances. It was just a magical age to socialise, listen to music and dance the night away. If a group of boys were on that could really play soul music, the girls would go crazy!”

Eventually those teenagers entered adulthood, and life moved on. College, jobs, Vietnam, and marriage were calling. The halcyon days of soul music were fading, at least in these parts. Stax and the Motor City were still producing the goods, but like much of the South, Charlotte youth were hungry for something new.

Southern rock was now the thing. But The Cellar’s attempts to keep up with musical, social and cultural shifts of the times were met with only varying degrees of success. By the late ‘70s a new generation of kids were done with the Allman Brothers and the Marshall Tucker Band. The Cellar tried disco for a while. Then in the 1980s it was country music time, along with temporary venue name change to Country Underground. It changed again to Machine Gun Kelly’s. Then, I’ve been told, it was back to The Cellar and finally the Morehead Tavern. Somewhere along the line, that building by the rail track had lost its soul and fizzled out as social gathering place.

Nat preferred happier memories. As we headed back to his place, tales of the good old days continued. The afternoon was spent sampling Mrs Speir’s fine Key Lime pie, holding court over how much the city had changed through the decades, and discussing our mutual respect for soul music. When done, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. Two weeks later I was back in the UK. Three months on, It’s Better To Cry was written, and by Christmas it was published. In time, Nat was even inspired to write his memoirs. We continue to stay in touch to this day.

8am, Saturday 15 March 2025: Charlotte Fire Department are called to a huge blaze at Morehead Tavern. As the emergency services attempt to deal with the incident, the roof and upper floor collapse. Within a matter of hours, the whole building is razed to the ground. At this point nobody knows how it started, though there’s no shortage of speculation (“insurance fraud — it’s hardly ever open”) and incurious comments (“nobody ever goes there anymore”). Meanwhile older folks feel the need to mourn the loss of an old friend, and start sharing their treasured memories on social media.

Surrounded by prime real estate, I’m sure the demolition will soon make way for another office building and it’ll seem like The Cellar never existed. Gone maybe, but for one generation never to be forgotten.

(Copyright 2025) E. Mark Windle is an independent freelance writer and biographer. He has also worked as a senior writer with Story Terrace (London, UK), and for Sheridan Hill / Real Life Stories LLC (North Carolina, USA). To discuss services, contact Mark via https://windlefreelance.com/contact/

This Parched Land: The Weaponisation of Water in Gaza

E. Mark Windle 10 March 2025.

Access to safe, and adequate amounts of water is a fundamental requirement for human survival. With its role in digestion processes, temperature regulation, cognitive function, and metabolism, even moderate deficits can adversely affect these biological systems. In the complete absence of access to water, adult survival rarely extends beyond four or five days. Babies and young infants may succumb within half that time, particularly where malnutrition, diarrhoea and disease coexist. The tragic reality is that over two billion people in the world do not have access to clean water, whether due to climate, conflict, politics or poverty.

For Gaza, the few waterways that exist inside its borders were never going to be capable of sustaining the needs of a forcefully inflated population. Fed by its major tributary the Besor Stream, the Wadi Gaza is the only natural source of flowing surface water in the Strip. Now it is filled with untreated sewage and is a major source of bacterial and viral infection. The coastal aquifer — Gaza’s groundwater basin — has suffered the same fate. Less than 5% of water from either source was suitable for human consumption, even before the Israel-Hamas war. In the past, blame has been placed on apathy, mismanagement, over-extraction of the aquifer and a lack of regulation by Gazan authorities. The root cause of water scarcity lies elsewhere. For decades, Israel’s politics, military action and urban planning have resulted in the diversion and utilisation of waterways for self-serving purposes.

Military Orders no. 58, 92 and 158

The entire population of the Levant — Arab, Jewish, Bedouin and others — suffered oppression through the restricted availability of food and water at some point in history, whether by natural or man-made means. One early reference point for Israel’s part in this is the start of the Nakba in the late 1940s. Systemic and violent depopulation of Arab villages created the diaspora whose descendants now inhabit Gaza.

Things took a further malevolent turn in 1967, when Israel enforced a series of military edicts in Gaza and the West Bank. Military Order no. 58 stated all new water installations required approval via a permit application system. Rejection of requests could occur without any obligation on the part of the licencing officer to provide a reason. Under Order no. 92, all water issues were to be referred to an Israeli court-appointed water officer, again with no option for appeal on outcomes. Military Order no. 158 cemented the issue. All wells, springs and new water projects were now to be held strictly under military command, with the added threat of immediate confiscation and arrest if any licence application processes were bypassed.

The overwhelming suspicion was these restrictions were further steps to assist the expulsion of the Arab community from the land. This was confirmed by Prime Minister Levi Eshkol’s comment that “We should deal with this issue quietly, calmly and covertly, and should be finding a way for them to emigrate to other countries…perhaps if we don’t give them enough water, they won’t have a choice, because the orchards will yellow and wither.”

Blockade and the destruction of water infrastructure

Prior to 7th October 2023, there were three main sources of potable water in Gaza. Three large desalination plants provided around 7% of needs. Their capacity depended heavily on available fuel and electricity supplies. Mekorot, the state-run company that supplies most of Israel’s own drinking water and farm irrigation needs, provided a further 13% of Gaza’s water requirements. This was via three mainline pipes connected to Israel’s National Water Carrier network, as part of a purchase agreement between Mekorot and the Palestinian Authority. But with supply levels again under strict control of the Israeli government, the taps were turned off on 9th October 2023.

Gazan Water Authority engineers stood by and watched as each of the Mekorot pipe output dials plummeted from about 1000 cubic metres per hour to zero. Supply was restored some days later following demands from the international community but levels never returned to that of pre-conflict times. The remainder of Gaza’s water came from about 300 wells which extracted aquifer water, which was then processed by small desalination units. Virtually all of the collected aquifer water was considered unfit for human consumption, due to sewage contamination.

At the start of the Israel-Hamas war, assessing the initial extent of airstrike damage to wells, pumps and pumping stations was difficult. There were a couple of knowns, quite apart from the chronically contaminated aquifer and disrupted water treatment systems. With Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s announcement of an immediate and complete blockade, chances of water brought across the border by truck were nil. Electricity and gas would also no longer be supplied to Gaza. Shutdown of most of the desalination plants was therefore inevitable. Some plants had been installed with solar panel fields over the years as a way of circumventing blockades, but the high visibility of the panels only made them easy targets for the IDF.

Progressive extensions made by Israel to the evacuation zones put further demands on the limited available water supplies in the south, as civilians were funnelled along evacuation routes. In a brief November ceasefire, UNRWA and UNICEF were able to restore some fuel and power supplies. A few desalination plants and wells were able to operate again, even if temporarily. Aid was unable to reach the plants in the north, though that would have been futile. The main EU-funded plant and an associated coastal well had been hit by airstrikes. The Gaza Central Wastewater Plant was another target, along with its solar field.

Satellite images obtained in the spring of 2024 provided an objective view of damage to general infrastructure of the whole of Gaza, including water treatment and supply facilities. These pictures confirmed the earlier estimations that more than half of all water supply and treatment facilities were damaged. By matching images to data registered with the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU), all of Gaza’s six wastewater treatment plants were identified as non-operational.

Damage to water facilities was not only limited to the northern end. Video evidence posted online, but hastily removed, showed Israeli ground troops rigging explosives to pumps at Canada Reservoir in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah. The three-million litre-capacity reservoir had previously served 150,000 inhabitants in southern Gaza. Large water storage tanks in Khan Younis were also wrecked. In the east of the city, a team of CMWU water engineers were killed while on their way to undertake repairs. Their car convoy had been clearly marked, and the work had been given prior clearance by Israeli authorities.

In the past, Oxfam had frequently highlighted bureaucratic challenges in obtaining Israeli permission to install and repair desalination units. In July 2024, it went a step further, with a report that directly accused the Israeli government of weaponising water. Attention was brought to an eight-month period in which the Mekorot capacity had been cut by 78 percent. The report also described how the IDF had destroyed CMWU’s primary water-quality testing laboratories in Gaza, and blocked Oxfam’s attempts to deliver their own testing equipment.

Emergence of infectious disease

The lack of water access, combined with poor sanitation and the convergence of most of the population in the south rang alarm bells among the medical community. Spikes in the incidence of diarrhoea and other intestinal disease were noted by healthcare workers working for Medecins San Frontieres, one of the first groups to raise concerns over the potential risk of cholera and polio outbreaks. In the summer of 2024, polio virus was isolated in sewage samples. It had been completely eradicated for 25 years up to that point.

It is almost impossible to avoid statistics when discussing infectious illness and malnutrition in Gaza. The Global Nutrition Cluster’s Nutrition Vulnerability and Situation Analysis indicated that within just a few months of the start of the war, 90% of children under five years of age had infectious disease. Nearly three-quarters had recent episodes of diarrhoea. Eight out of ten families lacked access to clean, safe water, which was a particular concern in households with babies reliant on it for reconstituted infant formula. Around 1 in 20 children attending health centres and in shelters were at a life-threatening stage of severe wasting, and a third of children under two years of age were acutely malnourished, double that of a few months earlier.

Childhood deaths related to malnutrition and dehydration as a result of blockade and displacement were now being reported. Spring and late summer saw some alleviation of food and water insecurity, as more convoys were able to cross the border and distribute supplies, but the peaks and troughs of aid distribution were erratic. One unwavering trend was the downward spiral in hydrational and nutritional health. Nearly 700,000 cases of infectious diarrhoea were recorded by the end of the first year of conflict.

A way ahead?

The future of those who have survived the conflict so far hangs in the balance. The whole humanitarian situation, let alone the water crisis, remains unresolved. Hypothesising where Gaza could go from here is complicated by Israel’s labelling of UNRWA as a terrorist organisation, Trump’s desire to demolish, rebuild and effectively own Gaza, foreign nations debating where and how to rehouse the civilian population, and who is going to pay for everything. Even all that depends on what Israel and Hamas’ intentions are for continuing the conflict. Whatever the final game plan, highly coordinated efforts will be required on all fronts.

One focus must be on re-establishing WASH, the core element of public health models which encompasses systems to ensure safe water, sanitation and hygiene. Each component is interlinked and necessary to minimise health risks. Before the current conflict, WASH initiatives included improvement of the aquifer water quality, desalination plant maintenance, delivering tanked or bottled water, the distribution of hygiene kits and education on water safety. With EU funding, UNICEF completed an extension to the Southern Gaza Seawater Desalination Plant, the largest of its kind on the Strip. Hospitals, schools and early childhood centres were prioritised for improvements to sanitary facilities. Education sessions were rolled out across schools and community areas to promote the importance of hygiene. Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA) provided financial support over several years, allowing the NGO Anera to put in place over 50 diverse WASH programmes.

Many of these kinds of projects have had to be abandoned since October 2023. The rebirth of Gaza is likely to be more of a case of starting from scratch rather than picking up from where things left off. But of all the priorities, addressing the short- and long-term water crisis must be at the fore.

(Copyright 2025) E. Mark Windle is a freelance writer, with a former career as a clinical dietitian specialising in burn injury and critical care nutrition. He has also worked as a senior writer for Story Terrace (London, UK), and as a ghostwriter for Sheridan Hill / Real Life Stories LLC (North Carolina, USA). Full details of services and a portfolio of work is available at https://windlefreelance.com

The Hundred Year Hunger. Reflecting on a Work in Progress

The paradox is that the tale of Palestine from the beginning until today is a simple story of colonialism and dispossession, yet the world treats it as a multifaceted and complex story—hard to understand and even harder to solve.

Ilan Pappé, On Palestine

E. Mark Windle    17 December 2024

When I started out on the current book project that maps the history of Gaza’s nutritional plight, it was obvious that capturing political context would be critical. Like so many other Middle Eastern regions over the centuries, Palestine has been shaped and reshaped by religious conflict, military invasion and occupation. Since the Bronze Age, the Canaanites, Israelites, Romans, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and the Ottoman Empire have all occupied Palestine directly, or wielded their power from afar.

That said, I see where Pappé is coming from. In my area of investigation, the episodes of food insecurity, malnutrition and famine experienced by Gazans have occurred at various points since the 1900s. But almost always, they have been the consequence of actions by an aggressor.

Why the 100-year timeline? Prior to the 1900s, Arab, Jewish, Bedouin and other communities in the Levant led fragile but self-sufficient existences, largely through subsistence farming. Large-scale enforced food insecurity has been a more recent phenomenon. To explore it, we have to consider latter-day Ottoman rule over Palestine in the early 20th century; the British mandate; Israel’s proclamation of independence; the Egyptian / United Arab Republic and Israeli occupation of Gaza; and the subsequent series of critical incidents that have perpetuated Jewish and Arab tensions. A perfect storm doesn’t quite describe the Palestinian struggle. Rather, a cumulative assault through political upheaval, war, and mass displacement followed by population containment.

The personal motivation to explore nutritional welfare in the Gaza Strip arose from my earlier background as an NHS dietitian. Much of my 25 years in the profession was spent as a specialist on an ICU and Regional Burns Unit in a West Yorkshire hospital. From the relative comfort of that First World clinical setting, I witnessed how an optimised nutritional status can improve recovery from surgery and trauma and survival from critical illness, when adequate medical resources, a skilled multidisciplinary team and advanced nutrition support technologies are at hand. The post-October 2023 Israeli offensive resonated, not only because of the brutal and protracted nature of violence being waged on the people of Gaza, but because they were already off to a poor start nutritionally. Yes, there has been long term input from international food aid agencies and medical organisations, but they are there for a reason. For decades now Gazans have endured a neglected healthcare infrastructure, and unpredictable levels of access to essentials including food and water, whether due to poverty, conflict or blockade.

Information-sifting for historical accuracy has proven to be a major challenge for this project so far. Unbiased attempts have been made to review data from Israeli, Palestinian and NGO sources regarding food supply, nutritional adequacy and malnutrition rates. Inevitably, low thresholds must be set for the suspicion of statistical massage, false information and half-truths when it comes to government and media reports. Even academic and scientific journals appear to play a part in propaganda-mongering. Publication bias—the selection of studies for print which support a particular editorial or institutional viewpoint, over those which don’t—is evident on both sides, and at various points in the timeline. None of this is unusual during political tensions. It is what it is, and only reinforces the need for diligence during the search for objectivity.

But on polarised viewpoints, consider the fact that Amnesty International, the International Criminal Court, the US Center for Constitutional Rights, South Africa and others view Israel’s actions over the last year as genocide. Meanwhile Israel continues with its mantra of a right to self-defence, and countries that supply its arms concur (to do anything else would admit complicity). The fact remains that over 45,000 people in Gaza have died in the latest conflict, with women and children contributing to over 70% of that figure. And while the decision over a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is still being dragged out, much of the surviving population in Gaza remains unable to access basic essentials, including food and water. Starvation and malnutrition may well now be the end game.

The book “The Hundred Year Hunger” by E. Mark Windle is scheduled for publication in June 2025.

(Copyright 2024) E. Mark Windle is a freelance writer, with a former career as a clinical dietitian specialising in burn injury and critical care nutrition. He has also worked as a senior writer for Story Terrace (London, UK), and as a ghostwriter for Sheridan Hill / Real Life Stories LLC (North Carolina, USA). Full portfolio of work is available at https://windlefreelance.com/portfolio

Troubling the Water: The Power of Song, from the Underground Railroad to Rhythm and Blues

Wade in the water
Wade in the water children
Wade in the water
God said He’s gonna trouble the water

We are the sons and the daughters
We gotta stand up and make it loud
Just like our God told the Pharaoh
Let my people go

We are a new generation
From the ones who have gone before
He’s calling us out of bondage
Let my pеople go

“Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds.” Frederick Douglass (1845).

E. Mark Windle 22 March 2024.

For over forty years now I’ve been immersed in a community that celebrates and explores Black music; placing emphasis on a history that remains largely unfamiliar to mainstream society. If there’s any common ground, it’s the assumption that the advent of jazz, R&B and soul represented a release from the constraints of the Church. Irony then, that Ramsey Lewis’ 1966 take on the spiritual Wade in the Water was among the first of countless vinyl record acquisitions as I set out on my journey of musical enlightenment. Wasn’t this stuff supposed to be all about the Devil’s music?

Don’t be fooled by the popular misconception that Black America has always had a strong connection with the Church. Much to the frustration of white antebellum society, the reality was that Christianity was a slow burner. It took at least a hundred years and multiple institutional influences before any significant religious transition was evident. Scholars suggest that even then, the attraction lay in the Old and New Testament tales of struggle, hope and freedom – themes that paralleled the African American plight.

There should also be no surprise that when this ‘new’ religion was ultimately embraced, bible teachings and prayer were heavily complemented by music and song. Of course, these elements had always been an integral part of ritual celebration and worship of spirits and gods back in the homeland. And pre-emancipation, countless original Christian spirituals were composed by enslaved communities, or existing hymns modified to speak to a different audience. Wade in the Water, one of the most recognisable of spirituals, was first recorded by the Sunset Four Jubilee Singers. At least a dozen other versions followed in what could be described as the golden age of Black gospel between 1925 and 1960. To date, well over 300 published versions of the song sit on the of register of BMI.

But let’s backtrack. Nashville’s Fisk Jubilee Singers were the first to rescue slave songs from obscurity. In the late 1800s, and with direct access to oral history from free and formerly enslaved individuals, the student choir built a repertoire of around 40 spirituals and work songs, including Wade in the Water. The purpose was to perform these across the US and overseas as a means of raising money for their financially struggling school. The upshot? Nashville got its Music City moniker from Queen Victoria (so the story goes), and its first historically Black university. Brothers John and Frederick Work brought things further into public consciousness in the early 20th century, when the lyrics appeared in New Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University. If it wasn’t for the efforts of Fisk University, these spirituals may well not have been preserved in their original form, if at all.

Other than providing a means of religious expression, spirituals were associated with escape from slavery. Opportunities for escape from plantations and farms which followed Native American raids or spontaneous internal uprisings were invariably ill-fated. The Underground Railroad provided a much more organised option for flight, by employing coordinated systems of passage. The Appalachian Mountains offered indirect access to the northern free states and Canada. Mexico was a more logical destination for the enslaved on Texan or Louisiana soil. In any direction, journeys remained extremely perilous – especially for women and children, the weak and the elderly – but by the time of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, some 100,000 slaves sought passage through the Underground Railroad.

Part of its success was the use of code. ‘Passengers’ (escapees) rode the Underground Railroad under the instruction of guides, known as conductors. ‘Stations’ were safe places for rest between each run, taking the form of cellars, churches and rendezvous points in marshland or woods. For communication, the use of code within song was also key; folk songs and spirituals could regularly be heard by slave owners on the plantations and fields, so would give no cause to raise suspicion. Some biblical lyrics doubled as warnings to potential passengers. Others were instructions from guides or co-conspirators to prepare for flight: being “bound for the land of Canaan” referenced a flee attempt to Canada. In Sweet Chariot, “Swing low to carry me home” indicated the imminent use of escape routes to the south. Steal Away meant, well, just that. As far as Wade in the Water is concerned, the literal biblical narrative is the story of the Israelites crossing the River Jordan to enter the Promised Land. For Mama Moses, one of the Underground Railroad’s most notable conductors, it was also code for escapees to enter the streams and rivers, thereby minimising scent and diverting the slave hunter’s bloodhounds from the trail.

With the origins of Wade in the Water in slavery, and the uprising of the civil rights movement of the early 1960s, it was a given that there would be a cross-over to a secular setting. Call-and-response has a way of unifying people, whether for religious or political purposes. The Chambers Brothers frequently included Wade in the Water in their performances at music festivals and freedom marches. Prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, gospel groups including Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, and The Pilgrim Travellers featuring Lou Rawls fuelled the cause with their versions. The Staple Singers secured its status as a song of solidarity with their take towards the end of the decade, as racial tensions were coming to a head in the urban areas of the North. Outside of the political arena, the musical transition of Wade in the Water to popular music featured folk, jazz, and R&B interpretations. Instrumental versions were popular, doubtless a hang-over from gospel church renditions, and the song was easily adapted for the organ. Ramsey Lewis’ infectious piano and horn-driven jazz / R&B version for the Chess label subsidiary, Cadet, took it to new heights. Political timeliness, shrewd marketing techniques and not least dancefloor appeal ensured it reached peak positions in the US R&B and pop charts and across Europe.

Marlena Shaw’s 1966 vocal version for the same record label was also popular at the time. Lyrical content was swapped from the spiritual narrative to one of an intense, seductive and stormy relationship. As Fiona McQuarrie noted in Shindig magazine, this wasn’t well received in some parts: “(The Ramsey Lewis version) inspired vocalist Marlena Shaw to adapt the song’s lyrics for her ‘66 single… an updating which, she said, was put down by the church people in the South who felt that some of the lyrics were a little risqué “. Two years later, Big Mama Thornton presented another alternative lyrical take – and a dramatic switch in tempo – on her rousing recording for Arhoolie, the Californian blues and R&B specialist label.

Thanks then to the unknown composer and the conductors of the Underground Railroad; to the Fisk Singers and the Work brothers of Nashville; and to the activists who adopted Wade in the Water as a civil rights anthem. Let’s not forget the record-buying public either. Perhaps the ultimate recognition of the song’s lasting significance is inclusion in Celebrating Fisk! The 150th Anniversary Album. The Fisk Jubilee Singers picked up the 2021 Best Roots Gospel Album Grammy Award for that one. Messages of hope and freedom from oppression clearly still resonate. Two centuries on, the enduring legacy of Wade in the Water is assured.

(Copyright 2024) E. Mark Windle is an independent freelance writer and biographer. He has also worked on multiple book projects as a senior writer for Story Terrace (London, UK), and as a ghostwriter with Sheridan Hill / Real Life Stories LLC (North Carolina, USA).

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