OGGGR at Southend Launch

On Saturday 29th September, Oxjam came to the main shopping street in Southend and Jammy the green guitar came to visit as part of the Oxjam Great Green Guitar Relay (OGGGR). Nicola Bott, the local event organiser, has been very busy preparing for her gig on friday October 12 at the Alex and had got a license for the day to give out leaflets and promote and collect for Oxjam. Nicola and her friends Amy and Katy were dressed to be noticed, and passers-by were offered the chance to play Jammy the guitar and be recorded for posterity in the log book and the guitar relay photo log. Twelve people played the guitar, including Luke from the Goodtimes who happened to be passing. The photographer from the Southend Echo came along and took some pics. At the end of the day Nicola counted up £205 from the collection and a lot of leaflets given out.

‘Twas the night before Oxjam…

…when all through the Oxfam shop, not a creature was stirring, to paraphrase the seasonal verse. Last week we headed down to the (top secret) Oxfam shop in London that will host shows from Fatboy Slim and The Kooks next week, to help clear it out and get it looking gig-shape in time for tomorrow’s opening night. Here are a few pictures of how the venue looked as we were clearing it out - compare these to the gig shots we’ll be uploading next week…!

Upstairs in the shop, after hours… all very calm.

It takes a long time for one man to hoover an entire venue.

Getting the book displays right. We found some amazing stuff while we worked, from books given as gifts during World War Two to a copy of the Bible that was over a hundred years old. Plus some hilarious disco on vinyl to sing along to. Nothing makes an evening go faster than ‘I Feel Love’ by Donna Summer.

The newly-decorated DJ booth.

So that’s it. The stage will be going in tomorrow, the stars will be rocking up, and tomorrow night we’ll be giving Oxjam the launch it deserves. Until then, all is quiet, so I’m off to dig out my disco trousers…

The Man of Kent Oxjam Special, Rochester 27/09/07

I know we cheated by starting a little bit before October had got underway, but there was no doubt that our first Oxjam gig in the Man of Kent in Rochester had a big impact, succeeded in raising awareness about the festival, was thoroughly enjoyed by all those who attended and raised more than £400 for Oxjam.

Massive thanks to everyone involved in organising the event, especially Stuart Turner who allowed us to hijack one of his gigs and did a brilliant job of keeping the whole thing running smoothly as well as performing.

We also had acoustic sets from local acts The Long Weekend, The Deccas and The Bresslaws.

All of our performers had made a really big effort just for the night, rearranging their songs to fit the more stripped-down acoustic setup, practising cover versions and thoroughly joining in with the spirit of Oxjam.

But most impressive of all was the atmosphere generated by the regulars at The Man of Kent and those who had turned up just to support Oxjam. No matter how many times we went round with the collecting tins, no one complained about handing over even more of their spare change and everyone and everywhere possible was covered in Oxjam badges by the end of the night.

We reckon this was the first Oxjam event in Rochester this year and we’re extremely confident it is the only one so far to feature a guest hurdy gurdy player. Please feel free to correct me here.

At the end of the evening we were given a donation of £100 from the bar takings and the fees for all the performers went into the pot along with extremely generous donations from the punters. It was a fabulous start to Oxjam in the Medway Towns and has left everyone involved feeling overwhelmed by the way that so many people freely gave of their time and cash to make it such a great evening and excited about the rest of the Oxjam events coming up in October.

A Blog From Oxjam Nottingham - No. 3

Life has been pretty manic since my last blog post to say the least, so I have hardly had time to sit down and gather my thoughts until now.

When I got into work on Monday and skimmed through the diary that I keep on my desk, I had a mini panic attack when I turned over the page and there was October 1st staring me in the face.

Oxjam happens next week. For the whole month. Eek!

This is what the past six months of emails, phone calls, chasing people up, researching contact details, frustration and meetings has boiled down to. It is scary, yet rather exciting at the same time.

As I type this, there are 30 Oxjam events happening in Nottingham throughout October, which is an amazing amount. Almost all of them have been organised specifically to be part of Oxjam Nottingham, whereas last year, I hijacked or ‘tagged’ a lot of pre-existing events. This is why the events are going to be so much more exciting in my eyes this year, as local people have put on gigs specifically to be part of Oxjam Nottingham rather than Oxjam being an afterthought. Plus, it is great to see so many people in Nottingham inspired and  involved, and I like to think that somewhere along the line I had a part to play in this.

For the past few days, my body has been aching, my brain feels like it is made of stone, my throat has turned to sandpaper. The oncoming signs of the dreaded ‘man-flu’! I’m not sure whether it is due to the changing weather (it’s bloody freezing when I set off for work at 7.30am… brrr!), the overindulgent weekend I just had, or the last minute Oxjam panic that is running me down.

But I do remember getting ill this time last year, and coughing and wheezing my way through October, so I am definitely going to be taking it easier this year. But pretty much everyone seems in control of their own events, so I shouldn’t need to ‘fanny’ around as much as last year, and I can just enjoy them, which is what live music should be about.

I know for the past couple of posts I’ve promised to list the events taking place in good ol’ Hood Town, but I am going to save that for the weekend, just because there are some final details that need to be sorted out. If any of you are that interested to know what is happening as part of Oxjam Nottingham, I am slowly putting the events up here. I say slowly, they would all be up there by now, but MySpace has been playing up recently, and I keep getting that dreaded ‘error’ screen that the MySpace users amongst us will be all too familiar with. Plus, you can always keep checking the Oxjam website for the events taking place not only in Nottingham, but all over the country.

Wow, I surprise myself sometimes. I’ve managed to type quite a lot without really saying anything! During the next month, I will be posting more regularly with gig reviews, photographs, any cool developments… and probably all from my hospital bed after my nervous breakdown!

Peace & Love, PX

One Month To Go

Is anyone else scared, excited and stressed all at the same time? It’s good, isn’t it?

I’m Roz, the Stevenage Oxjam event organiser, and I think the only one in north Hertfordshire. I’m very lonely, but hopefully next year more people will know about Oxjam and want to take part. This is the first event I’ve organised on my own and until last week I was fine, but now it’s all hands on deck and I’m working every hour God sends. OK, not quite, but it’s getting close.

I am hosting a talent show on the 19th of October and I have twelve acts from two schools competing (I’m not sure what for yet, but that’s a job for the coming week). After the auditions in July it was the summer holidays so I had six weeks off, which was great, but it means I’m very busy now. I am running rehearsals at least once a week, keeping an eye on things, and last week posters went up and tickets are now on sale.

The band that’s playing in the voting interval confirmed at the weekend (finally) and asked me if I wanted to join them for a few songs… if only I had the time! On top of rehearsals and getting ready for the event, I contacted the editor of the local rag, which I have worked for a few times (it’s true - it’s not what you know, it’s who you know) and he is getting some advertising in the paper for me nearer the time.

Next up, getting a licence from the council, so I can serve wine on the night. Fingers crossed I can get it in time. If not… never mind. Selling refreshments on the night will be a big money earner, but there are still ways to make profit without alcohol. A RAFFLE! I’m buying the raffle prizes from the local Oxfam shop which a friend of mine runs, then people buy raffle tickets to win the prizes, so Oxfam get twice the profit!

What to do now? Ah yes… decorate the venue. But I think I’ll leave that until next week, when I also start my final year at Uni. I must be mad!

Roz

Only 5 days to go!

The music event of the year is nearly here… Oxjam kicks off next Monday! The month of musical marvels launches with four days of special celebrity gigs, which I’ll be reporting back from. The events are being held next week in a top-secret location (all I can divulge is that it’s an Oxfam shop somewhere in London - I could tell you where, but then I’d have to kill you).

How good are The Kooks going to sound playing an acoustic set in the basement of a bookshop? On Monday night Jarvis Cocker is doing a DJ set, on Tuesday we’ll be singing along to superstar Jamelia, Wednesday over and over and over with Hot Chip and on the final night a certain Mr Norman Cook is going to bring the house down.

The mystery shop will also be selling second-hand records and loads of celebrity memorabilia… hmm, Elton’s old specs could be a winning look for me, unless Jarvis gets to them first!

Fifty lucky competition winners and their guests have got their mitts on the golden tickets. I’m expecting to see armies of poor ticketless fans with their faces pressed up against Oxfam shop windows across the capital. If you missed out, you’ll be able to follow all the action on my daily blog.

 

Make and do

With Oxjam Medway’s launch gig less than a week away I decided it was time to start thinking about getting some banners together to put up at the venue. Here’s how I did it in true Blue Peter fashion.

Armed with a rotary cutter, scissors, sellotape, a cutting board, and a mask of deep concentration, I painstakingly cut out all the letters from the downloadable banner to make a paper template.

This is the template. The fiddly bits were the Oxfam logo and the tiny writing, but the Oxjam bit was dead easy.

And now the fun bit. Can of black spray paint, loads of masking tape and a few strategically positioned weights to stop the whole lot blowing away.

If anyone else is considering doing this it would be well worth investing in a pair of latex gloves to avoid spraying your own hand the same colour as the banner. Sadly this only came to me with the benefit of hindsight.

And let it sit for half an hour, gingerly remove the template and this is what you get. Picture that on the wall of your local.

Oxjam - a music festival for all!

A short note on diversityOctober is approaching! The Oxjam team has noticed a surge of events being added to the Oxjam website. As I write this, we have more than 450 events on the line up and more are coming in every day.

I am also very excited about the mixture of music and events in the Oxjam music festival this year. There are all kinds of music groups and musicians getting involved. Along with exciting electronic gigs, rock bands and jazz parties, there’s also been heavy involvement from big classical orchestras, choirs, folk music clubs, world music lovers and even a few theatre productions.

It is also a great opportunity to experience different musical cultures. You can dance Latin salsa into the autumn night, let an orchestra lure you into the world of the classical masters, tap your toes with vibrant folk passion, have a DJ rock your eardrums, swing to the 60s with a guitarist, or explore the ancient imagination of traditional Japanese music. And while you are enjoying all this musical richness from the different corners of the world, you are helping to make the world a better place!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oxjam Medway plans afoot

Just got back from an event organisers’ meeting in Rochester. The hardcore team of organisers is getting pretty excited about the events, which are all coming together nicely. There’s going to be a Japanese evening on 13 October, which is generating a lot of interest - I don’t think any of us has been to anything quite like it before. We’re hoping it can be tied in with a cultural festival in Gillingham to cash in on the local connection and that someone would like to donate some sushi for the supper.

The sixth form students we have working with us are one of the best resources at our disposal: they’re game for absolutely everything, from organising mass musical chairs to running Blind Date or Blankety Blank at an eighties disco event they’re planning, and it’s been really handy having people with contacts who are studying Art and Design at college and who have been willing to design posters and flyers for free. Half term week in October is looking like an excellent time to schedule Oxjam events, with lots of my former students willing to come back home from university to attend gigs and club nights.

My first event is on 27th September, or next Thursday as I don’t like to call it. It’s basically an existing event that’s been ‘tagged’ as an Oxjam show, rather than something I’ve organised from scratch, but I still feel pretty responsible for it. I’m planning to spend this weekend fashioning a banner out of a sheet and the Oxjam logo template off the website and then plugging the gig as much as possible.

Compared to last year, there is a much greater awareness of Oxjam among venues and promoters, so it hasn’t been too hard to get people to agree to run events: it’s just that they need a lot of chasing up once you’ve got past the point of agreeing to help in the first place. Looking forward to getting the first event under my belt though. This won’t stop me panicking next week.

And we’re off - Oxjam hits the news

It’s been a crazy week here at Oxjam Towers. We launched the news story about our charity shop launch gigs on Tuesday, which meant two days of banging the phones, talking to journalists and spreading the word about what’s coming up in a couple of weeks’ time. To complete the authentic Oxjam experience, we sent out a whole bunch of musical instruments, dug out from the depths of Oxfam shop basements across the land, to journalists, from Hungarian flutes to pan pipes. You’d think it was Christmas to have heard the delighted rustling of envelopes and the tooting of woodwind - Xfm Manchester even played the recorder we sent them out on air!

It was a great success all round, but that was really just the beginning. The really big moment comes with the launch shows in two weeks. Fingers crossed.

To round off, here are a couple of links to Oxjam news stories this week for you to peruse at your leisure:

- Jamelia to play charity shop gig
- What is Jarvis Cocker doing in my charity shop?

- Jarvis Cocker and Jamelia jam for Oxjam