Beatles Day Video Playlist.

I've been making and posting videos from a local charity event, in aid of Macmillan cancer Support, called Beatles Day since 2007. I thought it was about time i created a Playlist to include all 18 videos, including 6 from last Sunday's event.
Here it is:



http://www.hastingsbeatlesday.org.uk/index.html

Beatles Day 12 - Prefab Four

"I must be in love"
Featuring: Dirk McQuickly, Ron Nasty, Stig O'Hara & Barrington Womble
Prefab Four are a tribute to The Rutles.

Good fun, as they were last year.

Beatles Day 12 - Geoff and Brooke Sharkey + Bear.

This is their version of "You never give me your money" from Beatles Day 12.
I love the way that the mic picks up Geoff tapping his foot to the rythmn.

Unfortunately, due to camear issues, this was the only song of their set that i managed to record.
A great set, as always. You could have heard a pin drop during it.

Not The End Of The Pier CD.

Below, is a blog post that i recently wrote for the Hastings Rock MySpace page. I realise that it might not be of interest to all you may visit this blog. But, it does help to explain something that i've been heavily involved with recently.

"As some of you may already be aware, i have recently been helping to put together a CD of local bands and musicians, in aid of HPWRT (Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust).
Well, that CD has now been compiled & mastered & is now in the process of being produced, ready for release.

For some more details about this project, you might be interested in this article from our local newspaper, the Hastings Observer:
http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/local-news/not_the_end_of_the_pier_cd_showcases_local_talent_1_1665410

We are hoping to get the physical CD's back within two weeks and will then be able to start selling them and helping to raise some much needed money for the restoration of Hastings Pier.

Further details about where the CD's will be available for sale locally will be given nearer the time. But, i can tell you that the CD will have 15 tracks and will sell for £8.

For those of you who live futher afield, we are planning to sell this CD by mail order. We are currently looking at the costs of postage and packing. There will be a dedidcated CD website for PayPal payments etc and the information about this will also be given at a later date.

But, in the meantime i thought i'd give you a rundown of the track listing for the CD, to whet your appetite.
1: Keith Foster - On The Pier
2: The Vindickers - I Wanna Be Geek
3: King Bathmat - Warrior Square
4: Logan Wilson Band - All The Losers
5: Ian Edwards - True
6: Claire Hamill - Oregon Inlet
7: The Possessed - Beautiful White Moon
8: Dr Fonda - Son
9: Arivmia - Sinners Myth
10: O'Donnell & Bell - Deck Chair
11: Rich Lown - Starting From Now
12: Mick Mepham - Driftwood
13: Soul Sanctuary - Gone Away
14: The Cajun Dawgs - Flammes d'Enfer
15: Red Diesel - Rise

For anyone who knows about music from the Hastings area, you can see that this a nice eclectic mix of styles, genres and ages. This is exactly what i wanted to see when i started to compile the CD.
All of the 15 tracks are original compositions, apart from one traditional song. The CD even includes 2 brand new tracks.

Here is a sneak preview of the CD's front cover:

I will be writing a further blog post when the CD is finally available.
So, hold off buying your Christmas presents for just a little bit longer.

Thanks and keep on rockin'

Andy Gunton"

AudioBoo - A Worthwhile Cause.

Walking, charity, Twitter & heroes.

Tough Decisions.

We all have to make tough decisions sometimes. I had to make one yesterday.
It's not always easy. But, when you know it's the right thing to do, you have to go with your instincts.

A beach vlog.

AudioBoo - Matt Monro and Me

Another story all about coincidences.

It Was 25 Years Ago Today.....

....that Bob Geldof got the bands to play.

I know that this has come as a bit of a shock to a lot of people. But, 25 years ago today, the Live Aid concerts took place across the world. But, most famously in London and Philadelphia.
Yes. it really is 25 years ago. Now, that makes me feel very old.
Judging from the comments i received when i posted this "news" on Twitter and Facebook yesterday, it makes a lot of other people old as well. Those 25 years seem to have flown by.

I did wonder if the reason why Live Aid seems far more recent, is because it was one of those major events where we can remember where we were and what we were doing when it happened? I could be wrong? But, i do know that i can still remember that hot sunny Saturday in July, very well indeed.
It could also be because of all of the events that led up to those concerts taking place across the globe.

I vivdly remember seeing those original BBC images of the dreadful famine taking place in Ethiopia, in late 1984. I bought the Band Aid single, on both 7 and 12", that came out at Christmas 1984, as did just about everybody else i knew at the time. I also bought the Feed The World t.shirts and i still have a photo of my (now) wife proudly wearing one at the time (And yes, that is me on the left!)

So, all of that could well have a bearing on my memories and why i took so much notice of Live Aid. But, another huge reason is that, at that time, nothing like this had ever happened before. Yes, there had been big benefit concerts before. But, nothing on this scale & certainly nothing that was broadcast live on worldwide TV. The BBC more, or less, abandoned their normal schedule for the day and broadcast the whole event, including the concert in Philadelphia. That type of scheduling had only ever been given to royal weddings, state funerals and moon landings before. So, this was a big deal.

There was also the small matter of the fact that the gigs featured just about anyone who was anyone in the field of rock and pop music, at the time.
So, when the words "It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for; Live Aid ...." were spoken by Richard Skinner. Myself, my friends & countless millions of people around the world, were primed & ready.

I watched as much of the concerts as i could. Although i did miss some of the later performances. Well, it was a hot day and the pub was close to home! Having said that, i did have one of those old fashioned video recorders and taped as much as i could.

So, what do i remember about the music?
The performance i was most looking forward to was by U2. Who at that time were not that well known globally. I remember being very disappointed by their performance & thinking that they had blown a really good opportunity to show what they were capable of. Ironically, the rest of the world didn't agree with me & it has become generally accepted, that it was this Live Aid performance that catapulted U2 onto the world stage. What do i know eh?
Apart from that, i vividly remember:
In London:
Status Quo starting it all off with "Rocking all over the world". Very appropriate,
Paul McCartney effectively singing to himself, because his microphone had broken,
George Michaels yellow shirt (I have no idea why, but i bought one afterwards!)
David Bowie giving up one of his songs, so that they could show "That" video ("Drive" by The Cars) & the effect that that had on everybody.
Bob Geldof stopping the Boontown Rats song, "I don't like Mondays", after the words "And the lesson today is how to die..." And the effect that that had on the crowd.
Queen - Their whole set was amazing,
Phil Collins using Concorde to fly betweem London & Philadelphia, so that he could play at both venues.
In Philadelphia:
Madonna, who wasn't very well known then.
"Led Zeppelin", who weren't very good at all. but, at least they were better than,
Bob Dylan (with Ronnie Wood) who was awful & upset many people for suggesting that some of the money raised should go to American farmers instead!

It wasn't the best gig in the world. But, then that wasn't really the point, was it?
Live Aid raised a huge amount of money, for a very good cause & it changed the future of rock gigs forever. Just think of how many more big campaigning gigs have taken place since Saturday, 13th July 1985..


So, yes, i do remember where i was & what i was doing that day & i think i always will.
Do you?

Ignorance Is Bliss?

Yesterday i attended a quiz afternoon, organised by some good friends of mine & my wifes. It was all in aid of charity & indeed a favourite local charity of mine, St Michael's Hospice.
I've mentioned St Michael's Hospice before & have attended a fund raising quiz in aid of them before. I even wrote a blog post about that occasion. Thankfully, this quiz was nowhere near as dramatic as that night was!

Having said that, my team won & quite convincingly too. Which brings me to the point of this blog.
Without wishing to "big" myself up, i am usually thought of as being pretty good at quizzes. So much so that when my wife & i sat down at our table, our fellow team mates said "Oh, we'll be sure to win now that Andy is on our team" Thankfully, this proved to be the case & i did, indeed, get a lot of the answers correct.
But, why me & why didn't the other team members feel confident in their own general knowledge? And why didn't they know as many answers as myself?

As far as i'm concerned & feel free to correct me if you think i'm wrong, this has nothing to do with intelligence. Believe me, i know plenty of pretty intelligent people who have no real general knowledge at all & not a lot of common sense either, for that matter!
For me, it seems to come down to my general inquisitive nature & my wide range of interests.

But, i can't say that i've always been that way. I certainly don't recall having those interests whilst i was at school. Apart from music that is. In fact, i couldn't wait to get out of school to start work & earning money.
The vast majority of my "education" has come since then & in what i call, the University Of Life. I seemed to suddenly find this wide range of interests after starting work. Maybe it was a case of suddenly having the freedom to learn about & explore the subjects that interested me, rather than those topics which had to be taught before?
It's also possible that i just wasn't interested in learning whilst at school & i'm sure that's the case with many people at that age. And of course, if you leave school with few qualifications, the chance of any further education, especially in those days, was limited. I probably wouldn't have been interested in further education anyway. I never found school particularly inspiring, except for a very few exceptions.

Thankfully, after leaving school i started to read a lot of books, magazines, newspapers etc, especially about those subjects that did interest me & i started to absorb all of that knowledge.
I'm also lucky in that i tend to soak up that information like a sponge. But, i'm convinced that that only happens because i want to digest that information in the first place.
I've also never ever been much of a big watcher of TV. Sure, i watch TV, as most people do. But, i only ever turn the TV on when i want to watch something in particular.. Otherwise, i'd rather the TV was turned off.

So, if i'm inquistive, interested & want to learn & digest all of that knowledge. Why don't other people? Some people even seem to be proud of the fact that they don't know anything. For them, ignorance is bliss. They seem to have no real interest in the world around them. That's a situation that i find very hard to understand.
But, maybe that's just me?

What i do know is that, as part of the winning team, my wife & i came home with a bottle of wine & a box of chocolates. The "losers" went home with nothing.
Who says that knowledge has no benefits?

Beatles Day 11 - Liane Carroll & Russell Field "Blackbird"

This was an un-rehearsed performance!
Liane Carroll was not scheduled to appear at Beatles Day. But came along anyway & was asked to perform a couple of songs, to fill in. This was part of the result,
It was amazing to watch this up close.

This is the first of several videos from Beatles Day 11. Some will be completes songs & others, compilations.

Beatles Day 11 was held on April 11th 2010.
The event raised over £15,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support. The best ever total.
Thanks to all involved for a great day.

Once More Into the Breach.

Some evenings just don't go quite as you expect them to, do they?
Yesterday evening, was one such evening.

Together with my wife & some friends, i went to a quiz night. This was organised by & took place at, St Michael's Hospice, very close to my home.
I have quite possibly mentioned St Michael's Hospice before, either in blogs, or vlogs. As with any Hospice, or charity, they are always in need of more money. So, i am only too happy to try & help them out when i can. Last night was a great opportunity to do just that.

The evening started off fairly normally. Although the person leading the quiz was having some difficulty being heard & asking the questions. It then became apparent as to why this was.
Unknown to the vast majority of the people present, the poor man was in the process of suffering a mild stroke! Thankfully, his wife & daughter were there with him & started to realise what was happening.
An ambulance was called & he was treated by the paramedics, before being taken off to hospital.

Thankfully, it appears that he was not to badly affected by this stroke & was even able to apologise on his way out (Why do people always feel the need to apologise, even when they have no need to do so?)

In the UK in recent months, we have had a Government tv & poster campaign showing people how to recognise the early warning signs that somebody is suffering a stroke. Even if that person is yourself.
After all, as the campaign states, every second can count in a situation like this. The quicker that the stroke symptoms are recognised, the quicker that that person can be treated & possibly saved.

The campaign uses the acronym F.A.S.T. Which means:
F - Face
A - Arms
S - Speech
T - Time

One of the things that struck me about this whole episode, was that as soon as the people on our table were aware of what had actually happened, we all started talking about the F.A.S.T campaign.
So, regardless of what some people might think about these Goverment campaigns. They do work.
People become aware & digest the campaign messages without really realising it.
That might sound a little scary & i can see why. But, in this instance, i'm willing to go along with it.
If a Government campaign helps to save just one life. It's been well worth it, in my opinion.

Anyway, to get back to the reason for the title of this blog......

As you can imagine, this incident left us all in a bit of a quandary. We were now left with no quizmaster & also without most of the people who were running the quiz. Which also involved the provision of a mid quiz meal.

Thankfully, the quizmaster had left all of his questions & answers behind.
At first, the one remaining lady tried to run the quiz herself. But, it was soon obvious to us all, that she couldn't be expected to do everything herself.
So, i volunteered my services & ended up being the quizmaster for the rest of the evening. Something that i've never done before. And to be quite honest, i thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The rest of the evening went very well, even though i say so myself. The lady was then able to arrange the food & the raffle, whilst i went into "arranging" mode & ran the rest of the quiz.
Although, i have no problem with doing this sort of thing, the hardest part for me was trying to get my head around the questions. Some of which were a little obscure & also trying to put my own personality into the way i asked the questions themselves.
I always find it easier to say things my way & never find it that easy to read out others words. That is especially true when it comes to questions. We all tend to ask questions in our own style. Whether we realise that, or not.

For me, this is yet another example of my experience with vlogging helping me in new situations & giving me the confidence to take on those new situations. Something i may well not have done, in my pre-vlogging days.

So, how did my team do in the quiz? Well, they came last!
I like to think that this is because i wasn't there to help them. But, who knows?
All i know is that i had a good evening. Even though it wasn't quite the evening that i'd anticipated.
We all helped raise some much needed money for a very worthy local charity & i've now added the skill of quizmaster to my ever growing CV (Or, resume, for all you Americans out there)

I just hope that the next quiz night i attend, isn't quite so eventful.

The Making Of A Calendar.

Don't forget to get your copy.

Entertainment? & Other Charitable Thoughts

I was checking the TV schedules earlier, to see if there might be something worth watching this evening. When i happened to notice the following programme, "7 Days On The Breadline". It turns out to be a programme where so called "celebrities" try to live "on the breadline" for a whole 7 days. The idea, presumably, is to show how the other half live, or try to live.

Whilst i can see that by using celebrities, the programme might highlight an important social issue. For me, this is just the latest in a long line of recent TV programmes pretending to outrage us. But, really using outrage as entertainment. Personally, i see no entertainment value in social deprivation.
Also, if the TV company really wanted to highlight a real issue. Why not concentrate on the families themselves, instead of having to drag celebrities into the mix?
Do they really think that we take more notice of an issue, or are more outraged about something, just because a celebrity has to live it for 7 days?

I'm beginning to think that they do. After all, why are celebrities often dispatched to far flung parts of the world to highlight a certain issue & often in the name of the United Nations, a Government, or a well known charity organisation.

I suppose i can see why this happens now. After all, think of all the money raised by Band Aid & Live Aid in the mid 1980's. For me anyway, that seems to have been the real start of all this.
And, yes, i bought the records, watched the concerts & donated money, just like the rest of us.
So, is this all Bob Geldof's fault? I wonder what he makes of the current situation & whether he ever envisaged this happening?

Maybe this is just another indication of the weird world of celebrity culture that we now live in? We seem to need a celebrity to tell us something before we will either listen to it, or take any notice of it.
I'm sure the particualr charity, or organisation involved aren't very worried as long as the money rolls in. And you can't blame them for that i guess?

After all, this is really just advertising, but on a grander scale isn't it? And, as we all know, advertising works.
They wouldn't waste all that money on it otherwise, now would they?

(By the way. This blog post has ended up being completely different to the one i intended to write. It was ever thus)