The street piano saved

Sheffield City Council today backtracked on an eviction order to remove an old joanna. Sheffield's street piano was served notice to quit the pavement in Sharrowvale Road - or face the music.
Since last August passers-by have tickled its ivories, schoolchildren have stopped by on their way to school and on occasion it has been the centre-piece of a full-blown street orchestra.

After the Council slapped an "eviction notice" on the battered old joanna, outside number 165, claiming it was an obstruction, there was outrage in the local community.

Local people rushed to the defence of former students Doug Pearman and Hugh Jones, who put it there, with notices of their own.

"Save the Sharrow Street Piano" said one. "This piano is part of the community. It sooths (sic) the soul," pleaded another: "Be nice and let the street piano stay," said a third.

Doug and Hugh, aka the Piano Liberation Army, claim they no longer own it. "It was a gift to the community of Sharrow and to Planet Earth more generally," they told Highways Enforcement Officer Dennis Wyatt in an e-mail.

Dennis sent the PLA a reply in what sounds like Doggerel.

"Acknowledged is your e-mail, the contents of which are noted of your desire to allow everyone to play the piano on a street."Congregations of the people, although not intent on evil, macabre noises they make in the gathering on the street"
No Poet Laureate there.

Doug, who had lugged his piano around different digs, parked the piano on the pavement last year for people to play. It was nicked but a well-wisher donated the current one, now padlocked to the pavement, and Doug has dreams of a whole network of pianos.

So as not to annoy the neighbours, he put up a notice asking people not to play it after 9pm, although he had to stop a group making music at 3am the other morning.

The street piano has become famous. It has its own website (www.streetpianos.org) and Sheffield-based VeryMuchSo Productions is making a mini-documentary for the Discovery Channel. Doug, a student union officer and Hugh, a kitchen fitter are looking for a new street steward, to take care of it or move the piano to another street. And they need a piano tuner.