London Rocks Movember

       November 25^th, 2012 – the date that the London Music Community and public came together for a great day at “The House of George” – The East Side Bar & Grill.

The reason – the yearly rally of people to the cause of Movember – the ongoing battle against Prostate Cancer.

I wanted this event to showcase the immense talent in this city of some very special friends of mine – and it hinged not only on their busy music schedules being open, but the generosity of a good friend to lend us his Venue to hold the event this year.

Once George gave us his blessing to hold the event at this bar – I turned to my very good friends Sarah Smith, and Cindy & Rainer Wiechmann to donate their immense talent and time to co-hosting the event along with Ian Hebert & Keith Ford of Bender. Needing a Bassist for our Bender slot, I had a multitude of talented Bassist’s to choose from here in the city. Since Sarah was playing and Ken Ross was going to be present, it was a wonderful chance for me to hook up live with Ken for the 1^st time ever.

Next on the list was Media to cover the event – and the cream rose to the top on this one. FreeFM96, and Jkor from CHRW 94.9 climbed onboard to give the event great coverage.

We had the live aspect covered, now we needed to plan the “meat” of the event – the prizes. Off the top I turned to the Manufacturer’s that Endorse Bender – Schecter Guitar Research and Tee Custom Handmade Drums of Britain. Both companies came thru large for me – Schecter donated a Devil Spine guitar, Alan Tee donated a Spirit Snare Drum.

Local business kicked into the Benefit in a huge way – The PA Shop, Fitzrays Restaurant & Lounge, The Dawghouse Pub, Hair Fantasy, The Hilton, Idylwood Inn, Culligan Water (Claudia Foote), Gary Kendricks through his work, Shari Fulmer of the The Mitten Ball Benefit, and Lincoln McCardle & Cari Ramsey of Movember London.

Then the local bands/artists poured in with a host of generosity, in no specific order:

Hurtin Merv                              Arkham Dispatch                                  Nail

Helix                                        Doug Varty                                          Karl Slick

Backline Revival                       Tom Carriere                                        Beat Red Soul

Scott Brunelle                           Robbie Antone                         Crystal Curran

Zealots Desire                          Rant Maggie Rant                                 Avidas

Deanna Hoyles             3^rd Stratosphere            LSTAR Board of Directors

James Kirk (audio recording)                            Mike W. (Soundman for the Bands)

We had the Performers; we had the Media coverage, the Prizes from a host of companies and local music artists, Audio Recording by James Kirk, Sound/Lights covered by Mike W.

World Class Photography was supplied by Radical Images (Pat Crawford) & The Photoguys (Mark Girdauskas). Stellar help for the Prize tables, Raffle Tickets, 50/50 Draws was supplied by Barb Whitney, Kim Crawford, Laura Kennedy, Victoria & Kim Williston, Candice Lubick & Veronica Robinson.

The Staff at The East Side I knew would be amazing as they kept everyone flush with beverage – but there was two things missing before the public walked through the door.

As a result I drafted my good friend Merv Leyte to be the MC at the Event, and was honored to have the esteemed Dr. Joseph Chin attend the Event to draw the winning prizes.

Now the true test – response to the Event – and I wasn’t disappointed.

As the event rolled along, the word spread, and the amount of people that wanted to attend increased. The day of the event was amazing. People poured in to The East Side to donate their time, money and support for the event – and then the musicians began to pour in. There were a dozen all-star potential bands with the amount of skilled musicians in the crowd that attended the Benefit to show their support. It was overwhelming to say the least, how many of them answered the bell.

Rainer & Cindy Wiechmann brought their Acoustic Act “Best Buds” to the stage, and they were amazing to say the least. Their level of skill riveted the crowd as they tore through one song after another; Cindy’s amazing Vocals were in prime shape as she took stage center with Rainer’s stellar guitar work laying down the background. While their success in their main project NAIL is well known, this was a fantastic glimpse of just how deep their talent runs.

Next came Sarah Smith with Ken Ross and Bobby Reynolds. Sarah’s set was electrifying as she did an acoustic set with Bobby playing the Cajon and Ken on Bass. Then after a short break, they returned to the stage for an electric set – with Bobby playing The Beast and the band being joined by Brian Vollmer onstage. The crowd was very appreciative of the talent that was before them by both acts, they were the absolute perfect fit for the Benefit.

Then our band Bender took their turn onstage – and one of my most admired musicians that I had yet to play with was onstage with us as a special guest – Ken Ross. Ken had not rehearsed once with the band in preparation – and yet tore thru every song flawlessly as if he had been in the band for months. It was magical the way it all came together.

Before I knew it, the event was over.

The prizes had been all awarded, the stage had fallen silent of all the great music that had filled it for 4 hours, the crowd was slowly filing out of the bar that had made the entire day such a huge success – and the $1500.00 that was donated for the London Prostate Cancer Unit was the proof of a day well spent.

London Musicians had answered the bell to support a major event, the public had stood at their side to accomplish the same result – and a month of stress and planning had all come together due to the immense help of local small business, a few large ones and a ton of people who cared and offered me their help.

And most of all, friends. Friends who stepped up for me and came through in so many ways.

The Prostate Unit that day became the beneficiary, but as I spent the day hearing my friends and band-mates onstage, shook hands with all the musicians that I knew who took the time to attend, met new friends, saw my wife and friends doing all the grunt work of making the whole event run so smoothly, digested the array of gifts that so many artists had donated to the event – I couldn’t help but realize that it was I who was very fortunate.

And the thoughts of a London Rocks Movember 2 begin to jell J