“Don’t give up / ’Cause you have friends / Don’t give up / You’re not beaten yet / Don’t give up / I know you can make it good …”

As fight songs go, there are few to rival the Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush classic Don’t Give Up. So it’s only fitting that Martha Wainwright is leading the Centennial Academy student band in a rendering of the tune in rehearsal for the Listen to Them benefit concert Friday at the Rialto Theatre, being held to help keep the financially beleaguered school afloat.

“The song is entirely intentional,” muses Wainwright in the school’s basement music room.

This is the second year for the fundraiser, which will feature Martha’s sib Rufus Wainwright along with Patrick Watson, Sarahmée and Emmanuel Bilodeau. And can’t forget the school’s crooners and musicians, including Martha’s bassist son Arcangelo.

Although the Coalition Avenir Québec government just came through — after much lobbying by school parents and opposition politicians — with a $900,000 subsidy to keep Centennial running through the end of this school year, the situation is still dire, as the fight for funds begins all over again come September.

Fresh from a recently completed 29-concert North American 20th-anniversary tour and the re-release of her self-titled 2005 debut album on vinyl, Wainwright has somehow managed to squeeze in time to volunteer services with the Centennial band the last four months. Her commitment goes well beyond her musical involvement, because Centennial serves a largely special-needs student........

© Montreal Gazette