Childline Rocks

CHILDLINE ROCKS at the Indigo2
Concert to Celebrate 21 years of ChildLine Charity

Thursday 13 March 2008 from 7pm

A fantastic line-up of rock giants, between them responsible for more than a hundred million record sales, will share the limelight to raise money for ChildLine.
ChildLine Rocks legendary performers will storm the stage at indig02 on 13th March 2008, in a one-off, world class classic rock line-up.

Sponsored by Kilmartin and hosted by Radio 2’s “Whispering” Bob Harris, described by ‘Radio Times’ as ‘one of the greats of contemporary music broadcasting’, ChildLine Rocks aims to raise a six figure sum for ChildLine.

Special VIP packages are available at ChildLine Rocks, including a pre-show reception, a chance to meet some of the artists and a live auction. VIP’s will be able to bid for tickets on the famous Flight 666 piloted by Bruce Dickinson for a trip to see Iron Maiden play live in Lisbon and be personally escorted by Bruce on a backstage tour. There will be guitars donated by Noel Gallagher and Status Quo, a Gibson guitar signed by all the artists appearing at ChildLine Rocks, a Led Zeppelin plaque and other top rock prizes.

Those not lucky enough to hold a VIP ticket can still enter a postal bid for a "money can't buy" auction prize, which will be entered at the live auction on the night.

Marillion: Currently locked down in the country at their Buckinghamshire studio, recording their fifteenth album, a double CD to be released later this year, singer Steve "h" Hogarth, guitarist Steve Rothery and bassist Pete Trewavas will be breaking off from the sessions to perform a special acoustic set for ChildLine Rocks. "We wholeheartedly support Childline and, to be honest, we'd do anything for Bob Harris anyway."

The Coral: Mercury Music Prize/Brits nominees and Noel Gallagher’s favourite band, The Coral have wowed the critics, conquered the charts, toured the world and re-defined the sound of British music with their evolving mix of rock, country, psychedelia and folk. The band will be unveiling their new guitarist and performing an acoustic set of material chosen specially for ChildLine Rocks.

The Zombies: Acknowledged by Courtney Love, Badly Drawn Boy, Paul Weller, the Foo Fighters and the Magic Numbers as one of the most influential British bands of all time, they were responsible for international hits ‘She’s Not There’ and ‘Time Of The Season’ and for the ground-breaking album ‘Odessey & Oracle’.

Russ Ballard: Formerly lead singer with Argent, who hit the charts in the early 70’s with ‘Hold Your Head Up’ and ‘God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You’, Russ also made his name as a successful writer (‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ for Rainbow and ‘Liar’ for Three Dog Night’) Russ will be performing live for the first time in over thirty years, joining the Zombies on stage for a unique performance for ChildLine Rocks.

Brian Bennett, OBE: Revered and multi-award-winning percussionist and original drummer for Cliff Richard & the Shadows, he also wrote many of their hits. He is the recipient of three Ivor Novello Awards and a Gold Badge Award from the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters and has been working recently with Brian May.

Fish: Charismatic and uncompromising, Fish boasts a prolific 25 year career as a writer, actor and vocalist, launched in the eighties with the phenomenal success of Marillion (‘Kayleigh’, ‘Lavender’ and ‘Incommunicado’) and continued through his solo albums, the latest of which ‘13th Star’ has just been released.

Thunder: One of the great British rock acts, Thunder have toured the world extensively since 1989 and released a huge body of records. In all, they’ve scored 18 top 40 UK singles and 8 top 40 albums, including ‘Laughing On Judgement Day’ (No.2/1992) and ‘Behind Closed Doors’ (No. 5/1995). They have won awards galore, including Best Rock Vocalist (Danny Bowes – Burrn Magazine Japan) and Best Live Rock Act (Kerrang Magazine).

Ian Paice: Deep Purple’s drummer since he joined the band (age 19) in 1968. Armed with a dazzlingly fast and influential technique, Ian has also worked with Paice, Ashton & Lord, Gary Moore, Whitesnake and with Paul McCartney on the ‘Run Devil Run’ album in 1999.

Glenn Hughes: Ex-Deep Purple vocalist, bass player and songwriter, Glenn is unique. No other rock musician has carved such a distinctive style, blending hard rock, soul and funk. The KLF famously described him as ‘The Voice of Rock’ after his performance for their mega-hit ‘What Time Is Love’.

Thunder’s Luke Morley says: “The billing for ChildLine’s first rock concert is nothing short of rock solid. Together we’re going to make it a night to remember for rock music fans everywhere. When you buy your ticket you’ll know you’re helping to raising money so that children have someone to listen to them, and a safe place to go for help and advice”.

+ SPECIAL GUESTS To Be Confirmed

Tickets are priced at £50 for a standing balcony ticket, £65 for standing elsewhere, £125 for seated and £200 for VIP. (all tickets subject to booking fee)
Doors open at 7pm.
VIP pre-show begins at 6.30pm.

Ticket Booking: For more information or to book a ticket or VIP package
telephone 0844 844 0002

Auction: To place a bid in the auction please email Charlotte Lock on charlotte.lock@nspcc.org.uk - All advance bids must be returned by midnight on Monday 10th March.

ChildLine Rocks in conjunction with Classic Rock Magazine.

ChildLine: ChildLine is the UK’s free, confidential 24-hour helpline for children and young people, with trained volunteer counsellors available to comfort, advise and protect. In February 2006, ChildLine formally joined with the NSPCC in a move that will ensure even stronger services and a more influential voice for children of all ages. The ChildLine service, now one of the NSPCC’s listening services, still has the same well known telephone number – 0800 1111 – and children and young people can still call 24 hours a day and receive the same crucial service.

WINNER of a copy of the QUEEN 'Rock Montreal' DVD

The DVD also include's the band's legendary Live Aid performance.

Who produced the band's 'A Night At The Opera' album?

The answer is Roy Thomas Baker and well done Jason Spriggs who wins the DVD!

Bearstock 3 gig review - The Hive, Brentford FC 3rd Feb 2008

An early start, well 3pm on a Sunday afternoon, as the sound experts did their stuff and I err just moved some chairs and tables around. Two big worries whenever you organize a gig or event, one will the artists turn up and secondly will any audience appear! Luckily come 4.30pm half of the Veneex arrived and soon after followed the host for the evening Robert Rankin, accompanied by his lovely wife. Of the other performers they all turned up and big kudos to Robb Johnson was doing a ‘Great Railway Journey’ style trip from Brighton – three hours each way by train with the infamous bus replacement service.

Sound checks were done, the doors were open and there were people coming in – yippee! During the course of the evening we had 104 paying punters through the door and add to that the musicians the crowd was a healthy 140-150 – the busiest the Hive has been for ages!

First up the Magpies (who featured my wife and daughter’s guitar teacher) and they were stunning! Superb guitar playing accompanied by bongos and then their tour de force as one played the guitar neck whilst the drummer played a beat on the guitar’s body whilst they threw a shaker between each other and carried on playing.

In between each act Robert Rankin did a few songs and poems plus introduced us to the marvels of the Buff – a remarkable piece of head/neck ware which he moulded into many shapes with his take on Badly Drawn Boy and the noose which he called the Saddam. He really was an excellent host and his Flying V ukulele added a real touch of rock ‘n’ roll to the proceedings.

My daughter Jasmine and her friend Alex Jenkins were on next. Alex played a trumpet medley with Jasmine doing two numbers on her guitar. Both went down a storm with the crowd and good to see two young musicians (they are both only nine) starting out on the live circuit.

Rhode Island Red, a duo, played a set of their own material including ‘Butterfly Girl’, a truly great tune and one cover ‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine’ (some band called Led Zep apparently made this famous?). Like acoustic Rolling Stones, minus Mick Jagger’s lips…

Stepan Pasicznik, the accordion player with the Ukrainians, played a fine set mixing traditional Ukrainian songs with some in English and everyone knew his Ukrainian version of ‘Rasputin’, which was a hit for Boney M. Needless to say Stepan’s version was much better! An excellent set and very enjoyable.

More toot from Mr Rankin! This included his tribute to fellow ukulele wizard George Formby. Absolute genius the way he fits his own words into Formby’s. Of course being an author and knowing what shy, modest types they are he was relentlessly plugging his new book ‘The Da-Da-De-Da-Da Code’, available now I believe from all good bookshops and those friendly online types Amazon.

The Veenex managed to snake an electric guitar onto the stage but being fair their heavy edgy alternative rock needed it and luckily it wasn’t too loud for the neighbours. A good set of tunes – reminded me at times of Hundred Reasons mixed with a bit of the Foo Fighters. Nice touch as well as their lead singer is a Brentford season ticket holder.

Next up is Brentford legend Robb Johnson (and Robert Rankin was chuffed to appear on the same bill as of course his new book features the blues musician Robert Johnson – see how it all connects?) who featured some football themed favourites plus a few new tunes of his excellent new album, All The Way For This’ including ‘Moronland’. Another Brentford legend Graham Larkbey joined Robb for a couple of songs as well!

Raffle time, with ten prizes of which the star prize was a signed copy of…‘The Da-Da-De-Da-Da Code’! Then onto Paul Stead of Scared Heart, who was appearing solo but as luck would have it the band’s former bass player Darren was in the audience and joined Paul on guitar. Great to hear these songs acoustically including ‘Lay It On The Line’ (complete with a few ad libs from Paul!) and ‘Lost’.

One final word from Robert Rankin who was accompanied by his wife on ukulele for his version of another George Formby classic ‘When I am Cleaning Windows’. But his version was about writing fantastic fiction! I have to say personally Mr Rankin was the star of the show as he kept the whole evening running and anyone who does the Prodigy’s ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ and ‘Firestarter’ on ukulele is tops in my book!
Headlining was Swill Odgers of the Men They Couldn’t Hang accompanied by a fiddle player, Phil Martin (Bitter Springs and The Long Decline, formerly with the Subway Sect). Swill is a very talented singer/songwriter in the folk/indie rock genre and he also played a couple of songs with lyrics penned by Robb Johnson. I was that impressed I bought a CD!

With the raffle added on the night raised £632 for the four charities (that’s £158 to each charity) – Diabetes UK, the Parkinson’s Disease Society, Spelthorne Crossroads for Carers and Bees United. Thanks to all who came along and supported the event and BIG thanks to Brentford FC for allowing me to use the venue for free so every penny raised on the night could go to the four charities. A perfect night for me seeing people enjoy live musicians (all of whom were excellent) and raising money for charity.

Jason Ritchie

PS I am still raising money for two other charities throughout 2008…
www.justgiving.com/fortynights
www.justgiving.com/classicrocknewswire

The roll of honour/thanks…

First off all the artists who appeared and gave their time for free and a special mention to Robert Rankin for being the best host you could wish for.

My wife, Nabila and daughter Jasmine; Alex Jenkins; Matt Davis, Peter Gilham, Tony Ashley and all at Brentford FC: mum & dad; Simon the PA wizard; Esther Angel for getting Robb Johnson & Swill Odgers onto the bill; the Stripes/Hive gigs crew of Tim ‘Top Cat’ Collinson, Feltham John, Kath, Bryan Clark (check out his monthly jazz nights at the Hive every first Monday of the month) and Pete Crook; Graham & the great bar staff; Jo Fletcher at Orion Publishing; Heathrow Villager; Staines & Ashford News; Staines Guardian; Feltham Chronicle; Hounslow & Richmond Times; Radio Wey; Radio Jackie; Hayes FM and those who supported the night, you are all stars!

www.sproutlore.com
www.robbjohnson.co.uk
www.myspace.com/swillandtheswaggerband
www.ukrainians.co.uk
www.sacredheartband.com
www.myspace.com/veenex
www.myspace.com/rhodeislandredband