Phoenix from the ashes – new Hipopera about Dante’s Inferno

Lost in a gathering storm, Dante searches for the cemetery where his girlfriend Bea is buried, stabbed on her way to a party three weeks ago. Bea watches Dante’s struggle from Heaven above and instructs Virgil, Dante’s childhood friend to return to Earth and guide him through the many allegories of Hell to reach her and the truth about that fateful night…



London Urban Collective (www.londonurbancollective.com), the acclaimed youth music project that turns inner city kids into rising stars of the British music industry, returns with its most ambitious project to date – an original Hipopera that sets Dante’s Inferno in modern day London.

Thirty (30) aspiring artists from the streets of London were picked from open auditions in July and empowered to write, record and promote their own album for an independent release under the expert guidance of Freeport Records in association with Universal Music, Community Channel and Youth Music Week.

The album, Inferno, and its feature-length music video, will be released on CD/DVD through Freeport Records, Universal Digital in 2009 along with its making of documentary Phoenix from the Ashes.

London Urban Collective has also taken Inferno live on stage. The first took place at Stratford Circus on Saturday 27th October as part of the national celebration of Youth Music Week and the show is currently searching for national promoters and an official sponsor.

Harry Leckstein, founder of London Urban Collective and managing director of Freeport Records, said: “In the past four years LUC has helped more than two hundred (200) young people, from areas in need of regeneration, collaborate to produce four (4) albums, several music videos and numerous live shows. Inferno is the culmination of a great deal of their talent and hard work.”

Duff Batty, managing director of Duff Press, handling PR for the project said: “Inferno is a totally unique project that fuses a great story with original hip hop, classical, rock and pop music. I haven’t seen or heard anything like it since ‘Tommy’ or ‘Quadrophenia’ and I think the response, from people of all ages, will be sensational when it comes out.”

Previous London Urban Collective success stories include Johnny “Itch” Fox, who recently signed his band, The King Blues, to new Island Records imprint Field Records, Iman Osman who is currently one of the final three (3) artists in the Diesel-U-Music competition and Lady Lykez who toured with Method Man / Redman in 2008 and is currently recording her debut album.