Stand Together Against Cancer— the Concert for MATT LONG held at the Thames Side Brewery, Staines Surrey on Sunday 19th May.
The celebration hosted at the Thames Side Brewery at Staines on Sunday 19th May was imbued with a strong sense of togetherness and poignant spontaneity upon learning that Matt had been admitted to the hospital that same morning. However, we were inspired by the love, the harmony, and the subtle positivity that music can impart into every aspect of life.
we were inspired by the love, the harmony, and the subtle positivity that music can impart into every aspect of life…
Raw Ramp
The dapper local (Windsor) musician THOMAS HEPPELL kickstarted this extraordinary afternoon / evening of exceptional artistry with acoustic blues numbers like his tenderly plucked She’s Fine as Wine with his hallmark voice and his praiseworthy guitar skills. He later duetted with the swishy and impressive song-star ELLES BAILEY (pictured) who also introduced all the acts and offered several cameo performances.
MARTIN ABRAHAMS delivered some fuzzy & blistering guitar heroics with his tight band bringing thumping bass and solid percussion. Numbers like Over the Wall had tigerish guitar-play as Martin gave an unwavering vocal performance.
The phenomenally talented ALEX VOYSEY and his accomplished bandmates played some intensifying blues-power boomlets and increased the roar & harmonicity at the Thames Side venue a hundredfold as his megadecibel numbers got toes a-tapping around the Tap Room.
Next to visit the Staines stage was the mesmerising chantress DEMI MARRINER, who delivered an acoustic set of vulnerable naturalness and beautiful individuality. We know that Demi is a remarkably gifted singer-songwriter but the Staines audience also learned that Demi is a truly brilliant guitarist.
The multidimensional & originative musician MIKE ROSS brought his assiduously re-worked blues & Americana roots sounds to Staines. Like all good roots blues, his songs were masterworks of chamfering, clanking, and corrugation; it sounded like Mike Ross and his talented colleagues were attempting to make sense of their sentiments by welding together the castings of this-and-that that life has, perhaps rather brutally, tossed our way. Matt Long was never far from our minds and hearts during Mike’s set. Perhaps life (and song) is actually just about beauty and fragility!
The TRUE STRAYS offered something very special at the Surrey concert. The Bristol-based songwriters Joseph James & James Cameron offered emotional celebrations of blues rock and grungy, almost antique renderings of alternative roots Americana. Their tried-and-true folk-blues savouries were masterfully prepared, dramatically handled, and wonderfully rendered. It was, altogether, a flawless performance.
There were lots of other suprises at Staines including a collaboration between Elles Bailey with Joe Wilkins & Demi Marriner, a Catfish set with Alex Voysey on guitar, a dazzling performance from Alice Armstrong and the tremendous concert headliner Laurence Jones.
Many thanks to Simon Taylor for the sound and to Paul Long for running the stage and, of course, Dorian and Andy plus the whole team at the Thames Side Brewery for putting on such a memorable event. We were told that the day had already earned over £4k (before the show started!) and later learned that £1047 was raised in the raffle (of Derek Pettit’s guitar).
The next Stand Together Against Cancer event is to be held on Saturday 1st June at The Bear Club, Luton. All proceeds to the Matt Long Fighting Fund. And all our prayers go to Matt and his family.
Words & Pictures © Neil Mach
RAW RAMP 