Jam4Oxjam – Belham, 05/04/2008

Hot venue, Bar Lemiere hosted Balham’s very own Jam4Oxjam.  The funky decorations and Oxfam visuals made this super cool Oxjam gig unique in its attention to detail. In full Oxjam spirit, discounted entry was given to those who arrived wearing the ‘Oxjam colours.’ With a great party vibe that kept the crowd dancing, dj’s Liam and Dion showed off their skills on the decks with music swiftly switching between rnb, hip hop and electro. Face painting and body art raised a few more pennies for Oxfam and kept those not busting out moves on the dance floor entertained. Full credit and a huge thank you must be given to event organisers Bel and Susanne who pulled out all the stops to make this Oxjam event one to remember. With a packed out venue and raising over £600 for Oxfam the night was a huge success. The girls are hoping to get a monthly slot at Bar Lemiere to continue hosting

 music nights to raise money for charity…We’ll keep our fingers crossed!

 

‘To help those people that don’t have what you have is always a good thing to do’

 (Susanne, 21)

Oxjam Glasgow

Oxjam kicks off today!  I hadn’t expected to be saying that for quite a while, and can hardly believe it has come round again so quickly.  I am very pleased that we have about 50 volunteers signed up to put on events in Glasgow despite the very short lead up time.  We don’t have 50 gigs up yet but hopefully they will appear very soon.  I am hoping the website will be inundated with gigs before the month is up as we have quite a lot to live up to in Glasgow.  We made a whopping amount of money in October, apparently more than any other city including London, so I would love for Glasgow to do that again!  I am also really looking forward to the weekend in Oxford in May when we can make big plans for the next Oxjam and catch up with all of the wonderful Regional Coordinators around the country and the amazing Oxjam Team.  If you want to see what gigs are happening in Glasgow this April have a look at www.oxfam.org.uk/oxjam or www.myspace.com/glasgow_oxjam and then come along to them and have a whale of a time!  I love Oxjam…

Katey Justice

RC – Glasgow

Ed’s top pick of upcoming events

Edmund McGregor/Trading/Oxfam
08/04/2008 16:02
Size :23 Kb
 
 To
 Oxjam team
 cc
 
 Subject
 some great new events on website
 
 
 
 

I was just authorising the Oxjam events and found these new beauties up there that you might like to see.

Bagsy I go to all of these : )

Lisa Lashes
Dance, Techno
www.djlisalashes.com
Badlands
Dance, Techno
www.myspace.com/badlandsspace
Canine Sounds
Dance, Techno
www.caninesounds.co.uk
Beat Repeaters
Dance, Techno
www.myspace.com/beatrepeaters
Type of event:
Club night
Music event description:
A host of supreme house and breaks DJs coming together from all across the country to do what they do best, all for charity! Expect an exciting electro/breaks set from the internationally renowned Lisa Lashes, house beats from Canine Sounds, dirty basslines from Badlands (both very kindly on loan from London’s top Chew the Fat! clubnight) and top quality breaks from Nottingham’s very own Beat Repeaters. Tickets are only £4 advance, £5 on the door. On sale next week from: Oxfam shops in the city, Dogma and http://lolpug.express.ts.com/

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The I Fight Bears Charity Gigathon
2.00pm, 26th April 2008
Gig – Acoustic
Scotland DD1 5EG
>link to Google Maps
I Fight Bears
Acoustic
www.myspace.com/rockcasualty

Type of event:
Gig
Music event description:
How many gigs can we do in one day? 5? 10? 20? Let’s find out! I Fight Bears will be taking part in a 1 day tour of Dundee venues. Oxfam merchandise will be available at all locations, and needless to say all profit goes to the lovely people at Oxjam!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Event name:
Jam Overboard

  
Performers
James Yuill
Folk, Electronica
www.myspace.com/jamesyuill
Kat Flint
Acoustic, Folk
www.myspace.com/katflint

Type of event:
Gig
Music event description:
Ahoy there! Jam, boats, great music and silliness… That’s right it’s JAM OVERBOARD time!!! It’s £6 to get in – turn up early to make sure you get your free scone with jam and cream! Stop the needless sacrifice of strawberries and come and have it large on the charity boogie barge. Splash out and keep the cash flowing, rock the boat and keep the cup of kindness afloat! There’ll be some great live acts and DJs, dancing, games, pinatas, drinks and good times – and all taking place on a big old BARGE! Provisional acts: Live music from electro/folk genius James Yuill, acoustic folk from melodic, beautiful and quirky Kat Flint, then DJs spinning out electro, dance, pop and hip hop – anything to get you dancing! See you there my jammy lovelies! Xxx
Picture:

Venue:
Battersea Barge
Venue URL:
www.batterseabarge.com
Town/City:
London
_____________________________________________________________________

oh, and I also came accross this amazing event that happened last year.

Great night of wiggling and Arabic music. Currently working on arranging some more events for April. There was a representative from Swindon Web on hand with a camcorder and posted photos and footage at: http://www.swindonweb.co.uk/event/?m=611&s=622&ss=0&c=2475&t=Belly%20dancing

How did it happen?

It’s certainly been a whirlwind at Oxjam HQ since the beginning of February, when the decision was made to move Oxjam to April. I can’t believe it’s possible for a group of people to actually sustain any kind of sense of humour with so much happening, but somehow the team are still all warm smiles and easy-going friendliness (and I think I’m still my usual chirpy-if-a-bit-peculiar self too, though perhaps a little worn around the edges). But maybe the pressure – that growing “help-where’s-my-life/work-balance!?” sensation – helps to explain what we’ll be doing tomorrow. Goodness knows we need some kind of excuse for it.

I’m not sure how tomorrow started! I remember a meeting a few weeks ago. Alicia suggested someone took the lead on getting something small happening at the office. Just a tiny stunt to mark the launch. A micro-event. Something to celebrate the amazing things happening around the country. I volunteered. Surely, nothing to panic about… So why am I sitting here at midnight worrying about whether we have enough waxing strips and pondering what we will do with the beard remnants?!?

We had wanted to do something a little bit musical. It is Oxjam, after all. But the noise regulations are fairly tight in an office from which people might be making calls to pretty much anywhere in the world on phone lines that don’t offer much sympathy to office singing shenanigans. So, when we were talking after the meeting about some of the brilliant fundraising ideas Oxjam Event Organisers around the country have come up with, we couldn’t help but wonder if quirky, non-musical fundraising might be worked into the plans.  

 

About 15 minutes later, we were dead set on people losing their hair! It was like an auction gone wrong. Saan’s head was put forward for shaving, to a reaction of classic “yeah no worries” shoulder-shrugging from Saan himself. Mike’s beard was volunteered, though with a warning that it may take us the best part of the afternoon to remove it. Ed passionately declined and has since been rather carefully evading the suggestion that his beard be donated to the cause. And then somehow, and no one quite remembers how, it was agreed that Benny’s legs will be waxed – ankle to knee, both legs, every last hair – if we can raise £300!

As I write on Monday night, £175 has been pledged on the website. If you happen to read this before 1.30pm on 1^st April, have a look at www.justgiving.com/oxjam_waxjam to see how we’re doing and help us out if you can (donations accepted on the page until 27^th April). If you’re reading this later on, you’ll be able to enjoy the pictures (if ‘enjoy’ is the right word!), which I’ll put up as soon as I can. So we’re all geared up for the shave-and-wax-athon (‘Waxjam’, if you will). This team tomorrow, the lads will be sporting a bit of a different look. I’m off to find my camera – watch this space!

P.S. Ladies, you know that post-wax feeling when you just can’t help but keep giving your perfectly smooth pins a stroke? I wonder if that’s just a girl thing. Will keep you posted

Oxjam in Cardiff

Liz lets us know what’s happening in Cardiff:

“So, the launch of Oxjam 2008 is here! It’s been a real whirlwind ride preparing to start the festival again, but I’m really pleased that we’ve got 14 event organisers registered already here in Cardiff, and some fantastic-sounding Welsh Oxjam events uploaded to the website.

One event I’m really looking forward to is the Oxjam Weekender in Llandrindod Wells. It’s going to be a three-day event taking place over the weekend of the 25th-27th April, featuring lots of brilliant local bands and artists. It kicks off with an indie night on the Friday, Saturday’s an acoustic night, and the event will close with a choral performance on the Sunday night. It’s going to be really good fun to go along to an Oxjam event that’s so varied in musical styles, and it’s great to see so many bands and artists coming together to take part in the festival here in Wales. This is just one example of the ace Oxjam line-up in Wales, so search the listings and there’ll be something for you!”

Celebs say do Oxjam!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBRbt5maLaY

My First 2 days in the Oxjam Team

I’ve only been here two days and my head is full to bursting!! I’m a new intern in the Oxjam team and these first few days have been great fun + I’ve already learnt a tonne. Since going to university and getting involved in charity fundraising I’ve wanted to work in this area. Therefore when I saw the opportunity for an internship with Oxfam on their website I jumped at the chance. I’m from Oxford and so Oxfam’s always been one of the main charities that I support, and what I love about Oxjam is that it’s a charity event which spans the whole country and involves so many different communities. Anyone and everyone can put on a music event and raise money for Oxfam and the Oxjam team’s job is to help and support you guys put on these events.

My first impression of Oxfam’s main office was of a place with a buzz of energy. I had a tour of the building and everywhere I went there was someone to explain and give me yet more interesting information about what their department does. There is such a diverse range of departments: ranging from Media to Fundraising to Publishing and it’s going to be interesting finding out how they all fit together to make Oxfam a successful charity.

 

The team I work with here are very approachable and we’ve already had two team lunches and two meetings, which is great as I feel accepted into the group. It’s a fun crowd of people and everyone has a silly side. This side of people’s personalities was clearly visible as we planned an event to get everyone in Oxfam raise money for Oxjam. At this meeting ideas progressed from ‘guess the number of badges in the pot’, to karaoke and then to the idea of waxing the legs of the manager of Oxjam!! That will be fun to see…

My job is to keep track of the social networking sites and I’ve started to learn the language of html. However the first language I’ve had to get my head around was all of the acronyms they use here. At first I was baffled by the conversations they had:
“ There have been 20 MEO’s registered today” “Have you done your IS and VDU inductions yet”. I am now a bit better at the jargon and the conversations are now making sense!

My job also involves being in contact with lots of the people who are organising events for April and I’ve been more and more impressed with what’s going on in the UK. In fact it’s made me want to take holiday for the whole of April and do a tour of all of these events

It’s been a fun two days and I’m looking forward to the next 6 months. The only thing bad thing that I’ve got to get used to is waking up early in the morning. On my second day I came into work wearing two different earrings, due to my sleepy state that morning, and I didn’t notice until 4 O’clock. I’m not sure whether no one noticed or whether they were just too nice to say anything!! Perhaps I’ll find out later when I know them all better.

Tessa
New Oxjam Intern

Fightstar play for Oxjam

Check out Gabby’s brilliant Oxjam event starring Fighstar!

Oxjam regional co-ordinators review We invited all of our Oxjam regional Co-ordinators down to Oxford to report back on what had happened this year and how they would like Oxjam to take shape in 2008.These sessions always play a pivotal part in shaping the festival, as the Regional Co-ordinators are the people who actually make Oxjam happen.17 Regional co-ordinators made it down for the weekend, but the rest of the team was with us in spirit! Friday nightWe met in the porter’s lodge of St Anne’s College (where the residential review weekend was being held).We huddled in here out of the cold until it was time to make the walk up to Summertown to the Spice Lunge for a celebratory curry (complete with Christmas crackers!). Amid the bad joke telling and paper Christmas hat wearing we managed to have a good catch up on how everyone had found Oxjam this year. Then on into town via Broadstreet’s remarkable (??) White Night  light display and to the Kings arms for a few drinks before bedtime..there was a long day of talking ahead of us! SaturdayImpressively there were not too many hangovers as everyone was up at breakfast before 9.30. We began the day at 10.00 by asking a few of the Regional Co-ordinators to do short presentations on their Oxjam experiences. This sparked off a group discussion where we tried to draw up a list of Do’s and Don’ts for Regional Co-ordinators next year.At 12.00 Benny, Oxfam’s project manager, gave a short presentation on what had happened nationally with highlight figures on numbers of events, money raised etc.Unfortunately it was too cold to go outside to bask in the sun at lunchtime as we have done on previous training weekends, but we had a good big lounge area to relax in for lunch (unfortunately there was no log fire or mulled wine though – note for next year)Onto the big bit of the day. We asked the 17 people in attendance to split into two separate groups to discuss how they want Oxjam to change for 2008 – prompted by a series of headline topics (marketing, working with shops, working with volunteers, etc). This was an incredibly productive session as the groups came together to feedback on their findings while we took frantically scribed notes on all their pearls of wisdom.Gareth Simpson (Head of Events and Community Fundraising) then came in to talk to us about Oxfam’s work and gave an inspiring thank you to the group – demonstrating where the money raised from Oxjam could be spent.Finally we gave the co-ordinators a massive thank you from the team and gave everyone an exclusive limited edition Oxjam mug filled to the brim with sweets…a tiny token of our appreciation.Onto a final celebratory Lebanese Dinner in Jericho. Lots of food, lots of drink and lots of memories shared. The evening moved onto a series of pubs and clubs. The less of which is documented here the better. Sunday

A pivotal day for us. Energy was running low in the group after a late night. We were asking everyone to focus in and really make a plan for Oxjam in 2008. We did this by concentrating on the three main areas of work that we think are going to make Oxjam raise more money and include more events and asked the group to develop some thoughts and action points around these. I was gobsmacked at the quality of material that we got back from this session despite the hangovers. Now that we have the feedback from the people who actually made Oxjam happen in 2007, we have a fantastic starting point for making plans for next year. Everyone left after lunch and hugs from the team. It’s been amazing working with such an inspiring group of people this year. I’m looking forward to organising the re-union already!

If you are interested in how to get involved with Oxjam please visit www.oxfam.org.uk/oxjam  or call 01865472369

Drum ‘n’ bass for Oxjam

DnB4Oxjam

(by Gerry Dallas: Oxjam Regional Co-ordinator for Newcastle)

The hype surrounding drum and bass for Oxjam was well established within Newcastle, especially in the student community. Indeed, on the eve of the event, when handing out flyers, some were met with the response ‘oh yeah, everyone’s talking about this.’ This proposed a slight problem, as the chosen venue was one more fit for Hobbits, overlooking the Tyne in the upstairs of an early 19^th-century pub, housing original beams and low doorways.

 

150 tickets were sold before the day of the event, making it a success before it had even begun. This event was tightly planned, with DJs being brought up from the Nottingham d ‘n’ b scene to play. The best of Newcastle’s DJs were also playing, who brought with them MC Vendetta. NIS kicked off the night, warming up the crowd with some heavier than expected tunes. Next up, JedRed, a showman as well as DJ, bouncing off the crowd’s lively mood. Plus8 and Stevie Bones brought the MC to the stage, with just a step and a barrier bearing the Oxjam logo separating the crowd and himself. At this point the room was packed with bodies, many of whom were in fancy dress,  and all of whom were only too willing to respond with a united cheer of ‘Oxjam’ when prompted by the MC. Last to take to the decks was Hydrophonics, a DJ who is more used to supporting the likes of Andy C than playing a pub in the Northeast. JedRed made a second appearance at this point, debuting as an MC.

 

A large network of support meant that this night was a storming success, from friends helping on the door to a huge PA system being lent for the night. The atmosphere was friendly, rammed and inclusive, with those who perhaps thought they would never like drum ‘n’ bass dancing the night away. More than 300 people came and experienced this Oxjam event, all happy in the knowledge that they were helping a great cause whilst enjoying expert DJs and dancing amongst friends.