- - - Details
of our latest
Unplugged Concert
- - -
Held on Saturday 17th MArch 2007
To raise funds for
Cystic Fibrosis Trust
SOLD OUT!!!
Last year's raffle was a great success, raising
more than any previously.
We had a range of gifts from many individuals,
as well as prizes generously donated by the following companies:
We don't take anything for granted, and want to thank the generous folk
at Palm for a repeat of last year's performance, where they donated
a Tungsten palm held computer. It was a real WoW with the raffle,
both last year and this year,
and
encouraged a lot more people to buy tickets.
our Maria's experience
of Cystic Fibrosis
We've wrote to Gordon
Brown MP,
to ask him to support us by
purely writing a few lines
of support.
We've just heard from him, and when I get a moment
I'll put the letter here on the site.
pic courtesy of
the BBC
legends, then answer Save if asked to download.
You'll need to have QuickTime installed.
If your computer won't play the clips, you can click here
Please bear in mind that these are just cut down snippets,
solely intended to give you an idea of some of these musicians' material.
They are NOT the full song versions & not CD quality.
Marmaduke Jones is a recently formed band,
but they've all played concerts together in
one form or another over the
last ten years or so.
Each one of them is Annoyingly talented!! In my opinion.
I haven't got any sound clips to offer you here, shame,
but you can pick
up some info and some clips of four
of their songs on MySpace
as well as a bit of
background info and group photos.
This is a picture from one of our
Jurgens Centre concerts a while back,
with Sav as cool as ever on bass guitar.
Click here
for a snippet of Paul.I had to include it, as it's one
of my wife's favourites!
And here
for another great song, 
Having collaborated successfully on some individual performance
items for the Groove Academy, a community project for young
musicians which Angela co-founded with her husband
(composer, arranger and bassist Mark Ramsay).
You can find out more about Keith and Angela's music Here
Here's a couple of clips to listen to
and
Bethany Friery is a great songwriter
and all round musician.
She plays flute, piano, guitar and she sings . . . .
Not all at the same time though.
Here's a short clip of Bethany Friery
And I love this one too
As well as Marmaduke Jones playing for us, for the first time this year,
Tim Young will be performing. He's got a great style and a great voice.
You can see more info about Tim and his band Here.
our earholes with some fine playing.
More talent than the chap knows what to do with!
Here's a clip of him in action
This was a funny time for Brian . . .
he couldn't find his lighter anywhere,
so just had to pretend that he was waving one about!
So, not only is she beautiful, she has an astounding voice too!
My experience of this concert
Well it was a lot of work. In fact it always is, but by the time the next gig comes along, I've well forgotten all the work we had to put in to get it off the ground.
It was a great evening, with around 185 people in the Jurgens Centre, almost it's maximum capacity. There were a lot of faces I didn't recognise, this time around. Which is good news. There was an extraordinary mix of people, from an 8 months old baby to an 88 yrs old man! Not something you'll find at every concert.
I was sad not to be able to get Farrah back again. They were touring Australia and Japan (just shows what can happen when you appear at one of my gigs!!). But there's no shortage of tallent on offer, and mostly local. We had a new line up this time, with Louise Ullathorne doing a whole set, as did Bethany Friery, Tim Young and Marmaduke Jones. Also Paul Gateshill put in a fine performance, as always.
Having chatted with several people in the audience, and having several more e-mails, I can honestly say that all who contacted me had a great evening. We also made more money on the raffle than ever, as well as making more money overall. In fact it surpassed my hopes, and we raised £2,500 for Cystic Fibrosis Research.
Thanks to all concerned:
A hearfelt thanks to Maria & her family for all their help, to all the performers, Maurice Lillis the Hall Manager, all the kitchen and bar helpers, all the people who donated money either via cheques or online, all those who donated prizes for the raffle and Tim Friery & all who helped transform the hall into a real concert venue.
What was great from my perspective is that, not only did the audience really enjoy themselves, but I and all the performers did too. It's not uncommon for performers to be concerned only with their own slot, and to ignore all the other acts. But in this setting, everyone took a positive interest in the whole evening.
Farrah made a big impression on many there, by their humility and willingness to serve. Indeed all the performers made my life so easy, insofar as they were all happy to shorten or lengthen their slot if we weren't running to time. Again, that is very unusual and shows the lack of any ego.
There were some unexpected nice surprises too, in the form of Helmut Jakubowicz, a concert violinist, performing with Brian O'Connell. And a lovely local lady Louise Ullathorne showing that great voices aren't the sole preserve of MTV!
As with previous concerts, the awesome guitar talents of Graham White came to the fore. Totally unfair how all that talent was given to one man!!