Sixty bands performing at six venues to help fight poverty

Top rock star Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden will open the Oxjam music extravaganza in Chiswick this weekend. Bruce, a longtime local resident, will kick off the fun at the festival’s flagship venue The Hogarth Health Club at midday tomorrow. (Saturday, October 22nd).

The mini-music festival will run until midnight with over sixty bands lined up to play across venues up and down Chiswick High Road.

It's the first time Chiswick has hosted the eclectic music festival which is run by a group of volunteers to raise money for Oxfam UK.
Venues throughout the UK have also organised gigs and concerts throughout the month.

Music lovers are in for a treat. The day-long festival includes rock to pop, indiepop to rockabilly and acoustic hip hop. One wristband ticket will give access to the entire festival from midday to midnight.

The action will be spread across six Chiswick venues: The Gunnersbury, The Old Packhorse, The Barley Mow and The George IV which represent Chiswick’s pubs, the latter being the under-18s venue. Recently joined by the exclusive Soho House Group’s West London venue, High Road House, and the world music venue for the evening -the Hogarth Health
Club- music fans will move between all venues via the Hayes FM double decker bus which will be showcasing acoustic acts en-route

The tickets are limited for this mini-festival and are on sale from WeGotTickets.com (www.wegottickets.com/f/2880), and the Oxjam Charity Boutique shop on Chiswick High Road for £12. On the day tickets are available in limited numbers at all venues for £12.00 each. Visit www.oxjamchiswick.co.uk for more details.

Acts include the nationally renowned vocalists Charlotte Kelly, who has sung with the legendary Soul2Soul, and Sophie Barker - a singer best known for her work with Groove Armada and the British downtempo group Zero 7. She is a co-writer of the latter band’s biggest hit, ‘Destiny’, and sings the song alongside fellow vocalist Sia Furler.

Barker also co-wrote and provided vocals for songs on the Zero 7 album ‘Simple Things’, which has sold more than one million copies worldwide, and she is currently touring and promoting her new double A-side single ‘A Forest/Say Goodbye’. Anoushka Lucas, who has been so popular at earlier Oxjam Chiswick events; family guys ‘The FastLane Roogalators’; and Irish band ‘The Geri-Patricks’, whose song sheets guarantee a sing-along, will also be amongst the sixty performers.

A bespoke Oxjam Chiswick beer has been brewed specially by the team at the Botanist in Kew. This will be available at the Barley Mow, The Crown and Anchor and the Botanist, with a percentage of each sale price being donated to Oxfam.And the Oxfam Bookshop on Turnham Green Terrace will run a Value Vinyl event from 19th-23rd October. Prices will start at 33p.

Oxjam Chiswick have held a number of successful warm up events over the summer, and The Vintage and Vinyl night, formal Sunday Supper, and Zumbathon, alongside the beer sales, have helped Oxjam Chiswick begin to raise what they will hope be £20,000 for Oxfam.

Since the first Oxjam in 2006, there have been 3,000 individual events throughout the UK , attended by three-quarters of a million people.

The organisers say that a donation of £6 can buy 100 school dinners for children in a developing country, and £ 100 buys medicine for an entire village for six months.

The national music festival between the various venues across the UK, has turned into the biggest music festival in the UK. All money raised goes to help the charity which focuses on three main objectives: emergency response, campaigning for change, and development work worldwide. This is the first Oxjam to be held in Chiswick and the group of local volunteers running the show hope it could become an annual event.

Note - All sets are 30 minutes with a 20 minute changeover with the following exceptions

October 21, 2011