This is something I mentioned a while ago, but it's only a few weeks away now. On 9th March, I turn 40 and I'm doing something a bit different to celebrate it.
A girl from Barnardos knocked on the door about a year ago asking me for a monthly donation. I was about to give her a polite "already give to charity" decline, when I thought to myself, other than a tenner here or there to Comic Relief / Children in need, in honesty, I don't. So I listened to her pitch, then signed up for a tenner a month. But I was still left thinking, actually, that's still not much really. I had the idea to "give my 40th birthday to charity. Initially, by that I meant getting any friends or family that would have bought me a card, present or pint, to instead donate the money to a designated charity.
Shortly after this, I was talked out of musical retirement to form a rock covers band. I played my first gig 15th Jan 1990. I'd been in and out of retirement from it in my mid-late 30's mostly because I couldn't be arsed organising practices and sorting out the logistics involved in getting all the gear to gigs. However much I tried to pack it in though, I still miss getting up and doing my thing. My new band, DYNAMITE BILLY rehearsed through the summer and played its first gig in September. The idea germinated that we could put on a charity gig for my birthday, which as a happy coincidence lands on a saturday night. I talked to the guys in the band and they were up for it. I also talked to a several musician friends who were at the gig who also thought it was a good idea. It started to occur to me that, over the 23 years I've been playing in bands, I've played with dozens of bands and maybe into the hundreds of musicians. "What if," I though, "I got a few of them to get up and do some guest spots?" Everyone I asked said they'd love to do it. Some weren't available and were gutted about it. Song ideas were, and still are being thrown around. I'm crashing peoples' band practices through February, and people are crashing Dynamite Billy practices to run through guest spots.
Next job was to choose a charity to raise funds for. Obvious candidates were either Diabetes research (my dad and sister are both type 1 diabetics) or Heart Foundation (dad had a quadruple bypass last year). However, for this event, what I thought I'd rather do is raise money for a local charity project, rather than throw the money into a national charity that raises millions a year. I contacted the local Barnardos fund raiser to ask if there were any local projects I could support. There were a couple of very worthy projects suggested, but one in particular jumped out at me. Barnardos are working in partnership with a local charity organisation called SoundLINCS on a project called SoundBOOST. They work with 16-21 year olds who are leaving the care system. They teach them to play musical instruments and to compose and perform their material. It improves confidence and self esteem, makes them social connections, and also gives them something positive to put on a CV and talk to potential employers about, in the absence of qualifications, extracurricular activities, hobbies, etc. Once they complete the programme, the intention is for these young people to act as mentors for 11-16 year olds still in the care system, and to start that personal development at an earlier stage and to improve the life chances of kids starting out at a significant disadvantage, through no fault of their own.
The kids on the programme will be using communal equipment belonging to SoundLINCS, but when they complete it, there's no funding for them to be given instruments of their own. That's where money I raise will come in. I'll be able to buy these kids their own equipment so they can continue their musical journey long after they complete their time in the SoundBOOST project.
So, I'm on the scrounge. As I said earlier, all my family and friends will be putting present / card / drink money into the pot for me. We'll also have some Barnardos fund raisers there on the night of the gig with buckets to collect cash donations. If you would consider "buying me a drink" for my 40th birthday, there's a BT MyDonate page. This was chosen over JustGiving because the latter charges the charity quite heavily for the service, whereas MyDonate is a free service and the charity get 100% of the money raised. This is the page:
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/adammason1Any donations gratefully received.
And of course, if you live anywhere near me, you're welcome at the gig.
It's at Chameleon Music Bar in Grantham on March 9th. Live music starts at 8:30 and it'll be a wide range of rock, punk, blues, and metal, but you won't have to be a hard-core rocker to enjoy it. There'll be lots of really well known and well loved songs for everyone to enjoy.
Cheers
AdamM
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