Now that things have slowed down a little bit, I want to start introducing some of the generous sponsors that make the $50,000 worth of awards possible each year.  So to kick things off, let me introduce Innovate ND Lead Sponsor, Forum Communications Company. 

Forum Communciations Company has been the lead sponsor of Innovate ND since 2009, and the partnership just keeps getting better! New this year, we partners together to create a beautiful and informative entrepreneurial insert. The insert was distributed in November in The Forum publications statewide.

Innovate ND gives a big thank you to Forum Communications Company!

Each year I vow to do things differently.  Lose weight, cut down on the wine and Starbucks, stop worrying so much.  But this year I resolve to look inward.  Oliver Thomas suggests that’s the way to go in his column for “The Forum” in USA Today.  A trifecta of resolutions that seem much wiser and easier to keep.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/12/column-its-time-to-look-inward-.html

For more information on Vicky Collins visit http://teletrendstv.com.

On Monday 21st we held our annual Christmas party at Darlington’s Forum venue. We sold about 140 tickets and most people showed up despite the snow and the sub-zero temperatures: -8 is really quite cold for the UK.

The gig went quite well. We messed up a few openings but people didn’t seem to mind. We managed to play the Pogues’ Fairytale in New York despite not having rehearsed it properly since last year. The venue was freezing cold apparently but hot enough on stage under the lights

My favourite tracks were Street Spirit (Radiohead), Common People (Pulp) and Losing my Religion (REM). It was a great way to end the year and we’re looking forward to our first wedding appointment in the New Year!!

your friendly neighbourhood photographer. 

Promised the guys at The Sats forum I would post some extra pics for them there… so thought I’d share a few more here too!

Soulside Funk

Beginning today, December 11, the winter submission period is now open. As stated on our Deadlines page, we will be accepting submissions completed since the beginning of winter quarter/spring semester 2009 from now until March 12, 2010. Please thoroughly examine all of our procedures and guidelines and proofread all papers prior to submission. Best of luck to all of you that have submitted thus far and happy holidays to you all!

Become a fan of our Facebook Page and all of the new posts on this page will appear on your news feed just as if your Facebook friends posted a new note. Additionally you can participate in our discussion boards to make suggestions and give feedback.

The thing making this gig good was not actually the music, it was the people we met.  From the girls who travelled all the way from Birmingham to the leader of ‘Team Frankie’ who had made the journey from Newcastle to meet her forum friends for the 1^st time (from Edinburgh and Nottingham respectively), or the sisters from St. Albans who were fans of Rochelle and Frankie since the S Club Juniors days.

It was meeting all these fantastic people and seeing their dedication and passion for The Saturdays that made the gig worthwhile – it was heartwarming (and even me like ‘The Sats’ a little more after hearing their stories).

The set was short and sweet, and it started at the lowest point, the stilton-cheese anthem Just Can’t Get Enough.  After that it got a lot better with renditions of Issues and Forever Is Over.   Their music really does come to life when backed by a band and Vanessa’s voice can be stunning when she wants it to be.  The others can hold a tune, but it seems like its Vanessa who really carries the group.

Wordshaker sounded far better than expected (so good they sung it twice), sexed up a little and Ego served as an example of how to perform pop music live.  And just as it started it was over…

One thing about the girls is they know how to pimp themselves to brands (we gotta thank Impulse for Monday’s freebie).  I think (as one of the super-fans concurred) if they focussed a little more on the music and a little less on endorsing each and every brand under the sun they could turn into a very successful  group with longevity because they have a lot more talent and prowess than many give them credit for.

OK, so I am far from a Saturdays fan, however I am really starting to warm to them.  If they go on tour I might buy a ticket because after seeing them for free twice they have certainly earned my change.

Soulside Funk

Have you ever dated someone whose personality suddenly and inexplicably changes? Someone who transforms from laid-back and easy-going to difficult and argumentative, seemingly without reason? Or someone who goes from caring and available to cold and distanced in the blink of an eye?

If you have, there’s a good chance that you were the victim of what I call a sneak-a-break (in tribute to the “sneak-a-date,” which I’ve discussed previously).

The sneak-a-break is where the person you’re dating wants to break up, but instead of being assertive and doing so, manipulates you into breaking up with them by becoming difficult, cranky, whiny, needy, or whatever is needed to drive you away. To me, the sneak-a-break is the ultimate indulgence of the chronically passive-aggressive.

For an upcoming article, I’m going to talk about this nasty habit that both men and women engage in, so I am looking for any stories that you might be inclined to share. (Don’t worry, I promise to change all names.)

So… do you suspect that you might have been the victim of the sneak-a-break at some point? Why? How did you respond? Alternatively, have *you* ever committed a sneak-a-break? Why?

You can comment here, or email me personally if you’d prefer a little privacy.

Thanks in advance for any comments you’d like to make!

Gosh where do I start, this was an incredible night of beautiful music and even more incredible performances by an array of Australian leading lights of the music industry.

At the beginning of the night it was great to hear people in the audience sharing their stories of when they first heard Paul Kelly’s music. For me I remember seeing Paul Kelly and the Dots on Countdown and that was it, I was a goner. And yes, that was almost thirty years ago.

The backing band consisted of some blokes you may know….

Dave

Ed

Kiernan

Adam

And look there were even some

Arnold Horns thrown in

Ash Naylor

Performers included

Bob Evans

Megan Washington

Paul Dempsey

Dan Kelly

Katy Steele

Dan Sultan singing Give In To My Love, does this man ever take a bad photo??

Clare Bowditch

Clare singing To Her Door

Jae Laffer from The Panics

Ozi Battla from The Herd

Adalita from Magic Dirt

Missy Higgins

and the first surprise of the night - John Butler

come on, any excuse to add another photo of Dan Sultan

They were then joined by everyone on stage for the final chorus

it became a great big love fest

Michael Barclay

and Jon Schofield

I love this photo of Clare as it shows just how loved and admired Paul is

………. and a good time was had by all

The End.

It was Sunday.  It had been raining all day, I was cold, I was wet… and the queue stretched for what seemed like miles… and miles… and miles.  For some retarded reason The Forum decided to adopt airport level security (clear plastic bag, metal detectors and no fluids over 25ml) for the conscious rapper’s London show.  I guess they feared terrorism by textbook or something.

It was all good though, because while people outside waited, those inside waited too.  Even those of us who turned up late, queued for about 45 mins to get in, still waited because there is only one thing longer than Forum, and that is the Mighty Mos himself.

I’ve seen Mos a few times now, and he is ALWAYS late – “I needed to get new shoes,” “I was caught up in airport security”… my dog ate my homework.  Hey, at least he didn’t get arrested this time, so actually made it to London instead of spending it on bail.

Mos Def is an actor by trade and is one of those creative types.  He had a clear drum kit set up on stage which he would play with from time to time (you can’t really call what he was doing drumming).  This actually added to the show, and it was good to see he doesn’t take himself to seriously.

The show peaked and troughed and despite the new album being very good, the newer songs did not seem to translate well on stage.  It was cuts such as Close Edge that really resonated early on.  A Michael Jackson tribute (which included more playing with drums) and a little two-step to Rock With You provide some light respite to the heavier content from The Ecstatic.

However, when he dropped Black Star tracks, Respiration and Definition, the crowd got hyped and he never turned back as he fired out the classics.

This was not Mos’ best performance, however it was still a lot of fun – and as much as I wanna be annoyed with him for being on a longers, any man who makes 1,000 odd hip-hop fans sing to Simply Red at the top of their lungs is pretty special.

Soulside Funk

Ps. Left the Forum to find we had missed the last tube.  On a Sunday.  Work on Monday.  Cheers Mos!

Hello Good People who read this blog

I am recovering from my evening out at the Forum last night in Kentish Town ( in London for anyone who might be reading this in Estonia) to see Steve Hillage and Gong.

Our little troupe of Hillage/Gong fans started our  journey to the gig after lots of cups of tea and a supper of winter foods including of course our green vegetables. We trailed up the road happily like well-fed hobbits, ready to face the bright lights and commuters, but had to make a detour after a rather alarming  encounter with Orcs dressed in blue accompanied by their hounds of hell.

By the time we got to The Forum , The Steve Hillage Band was already on stage, playing “Love Guitar” ,one of my favourite soppy songs.  The audience didn’t seem quite warmed up at that point and so we reckon we must have arrived pretty much close to the start of the proceedings.

(double-click on the photos to see them in full-screen)

Steve Hillage Band-The Forum-27/11/2009

Left to right

Miquette Giraudy Keyboards-Synth-Backing -Vocals-Air Guitar and fun

Steve Hillage -Genius Electric Guitarist, Vocals.

Chris Taylor (I think! at least it’s him on the 2032 new album by Gong) – Drums with a zillion tempo changes

Mike Howlett-Bass-player extra-ordinaire

I know that Steve Hillage and Gong have played The Forum before in 2008, and that they have toured quite a bit in the past 18 months or so,but this is the first time I have seen the “Steve Hillage Band”. The last time I saw Steve Hillage  playing live in a “rock” band,must have been around 1979  or 1980 at The Hammersmith Odeon. Also to my embarrassment, I had never seen Gong live until  last night. Although I know their early albums and the fantastic Japanese import  “Gong Live etc.” (Virgin,1977 ) back to front. If you do not have this double album, try to get one.I got mine on vinyl as a Japanese import around twenty-nine years ago now, but still love it.

Steve Hillage and Gong fans are very difficult to get rid of, as we could tell from the average age of the audience, although there was a minority of teenagers looking blissful while cuddling with their significant others.

We didn’t go there to take photos or film, but we took a few pictures and short clips,like the two above . We went to  have a good time in the audience, not to film, and we did have a great time, my sore  feet, sore neck and sore throat (from singing and dancing along) are testimony to this, so I’ll stop writing now and put up some photos and clips enshrined in a couple of comments.

After the first couple of songs, the audience were warmed up and the crowd had swelled, in fact the place was packed out. They had made an early start and this had obviously caught some by surprise. Steve Hillage and his band were on form. Occasionally Hillage seemed to lose confidence with his vocals, as many singers do as they get older, especially if they have not been singing for a decade or two. If you listen to Joni Mitchell in the sixties and now in her sixties, her voice is totally different but it’s good, she has had to change her singing range and vocal style to keep it up.

In terms of guitar playing and performing, Steve Hillage is still at the top of his league. As the evening wore on, he just got better and better ( and better) playing complicated solos, with key changes, tempo changes, etc..

Here is a short clip Intro to Hurdy-Gurdy Man

He played some fast and furious guitar too and the band were great, but we were too busy dancing to film it! No doubt more footage will appear on youtube. Also Mike  Howlett’s excellent bass playing was mixed in a way that was not beefy enough , we wanted to hear it louder,and yet it obliterated a bit of the rest of the band’s sound, not sure how! I guess that’s what live music is about, it depends where you stand (and the taste and/or ability of the engineer).

The set was amazing and the crowd were ecstatic, a great lightshow too with inventive animations adding to the whole performance.

My only complaint about The Steve Hillage Band was that their set was so short. I would have been happy to see them play their first five albums from start to end and would have not got bored for a second or judged them if they had missed a few bits and improvised instead.

Personally I would have been happier to see the evening split equally between Gong and Steve Hillage.

An Interval of Rainbow Dome Musick , while we got our “healing” beer would have been ideal! ( I am joking…kind of)

However,when we saw the long set that Gong played with the same instrumentalists , we realised perhaps why Steve Hillage’s set was short but quality rather than quantity. When we arrived at 7.45 pm, The Steve Hillage Band was already playing and by the time Gong had left the stage it was past 11 pm.

Miquette and Steve ( Forum 27/11/2009)

There was a long break for drinks, just as well as it seemed impossible to get served ( hence the request for Rainbow Dome Musick at this point to keep us all calm). Only two bars on the ground floor, for thousands of people, the bar we queued up at only had one person serving, although after half an hour or so ,he was joined by two others.

The mood was jolly, lots of blokes, average age 50, many still with long hair or bald.But there were also a few women of all ages and also there were young, some very young ,teenage boys occasionally with young,very young,girlfriends in tow.

There is always a new crop of hippies germinating from any background. They emerge at around the age of 13 and by 16 they are either in a band or leading some form of alternative lifestyle with individual image to boot.These budding hippies who appear from nowhere decade after decade, will always gravitate towards the music of Gong and Steve Hillage.

Gong appeared on stage at around 9.15pm. They consisted of the members of  The Steve Hillage Band , plus Daevid Allen ( vocals and  guitar, and much leaping around), Gilli Smyth ( Vocals, “Space Whispers”, Goddess/Witch) and Theo Travis ( playing some rather excellent flute and sax).

Gong at The Forum 27/11/2009 ( minus Miquette)

We couldn’t help but notice that Gilli seemed older than the kind of woman you’d expect onstage with a rock band.We have been conditioned to expect only young people onstage doing weird rock music,  especially when it comes to women in a non-acoustic band.We are super-conditioned that only certain types of sexualised young women or alternatively young teenage rebel girls who shave their heads or dye it some extreme colour, will  be there. But I believe in breaking boundaries, most of the best classic bands are older, too old to rock and roll and too young to die? No! Get on stage, I say!

According to Wikipedia, Gilli Smyth, is 76 years old and used to be in academia, lecturing at the Sorbonne before deciding to do something all the more intellectual by forming Gong with her partner Daevid Allen.

Here is Gilli being a Witch on stage along to a free-form jazz jam from other members of Gong.

The Witch’s Song Performed at The Forum 27/11/2009  originally released 1973 on “Radio Gnome Invisible.Part One”

Daevid Allen is 71. But he bounces around the stage like a kangaroo on acid (and speed). Daevid has such a stage presence  that I can’t help but wonder what on earth he would do if he didn’t go on stage and dispel that energy. He is a jester with apparently boundless tigger-like energy. He definitely needs a stage to bounce on!

Gong- You Can’t Kill Me

Unfortunately the camera ran out of memory before being able to film Daevid in his special silver-white silk catsuit, embellished by CDs, or his “No one Knows I’m a Lesbian” T-Shirt, or when he chased Miquette around the stage, or was she chasing him, either way his energy was impressive.

Daevid Allen at The Forum 27/11/2009

Miquette having fun playing air guitar along to Steve (27/11/09-Forum)

There were times when Gong shouted and repeated the same line over like a cross between a sergeant major barking orders and the rat-rat-rat of a self-loading machine gun, which reminded me of war , riots and abrupt change. At other times, Gong intoned half-sung and half-spoken poems with themes of the collective unconscious and mythical archetypes in a free-from jazz jam, then planting  a strong melodic chorus , wherever and whenever it seemed the least expected. There were times when the music became ultra-psychedelic, the same repeated riff and beat, getting faster and louder with glissando guitars and excessive strobes, it went on in a cyclic fashion until it induced the brain into resistance or acceptance. I could not help but close my eyes to take it in. I felt like I was at some spiritual ceremony and that certain harmonious energies were being purposefully raised. I was pelted with rays of  white light and the sound of repeated musical mantras ,until I felt transported from the middle of winter, to a bright dance tent at some summer festival. People didn’t dance as much as they would in a dance tent though, but then we are older and we were tired by the end of the evening.

However there seemed to be some incredibly strong positive force present within the music. ..and I couldn’t help but notice that at the end of the evening, after a long encore and a very long gig,  Daevid Allen seemed to do a little ceremony to seal off each one of his chakra points, starting at his head and working his way down before leaving the stage.

Aha! I thought to myself , that’s where Daevid gets his energy from: rituals and chakras!

I am somewhat cynical about anything too religious, but they must be getting their energy from somewhere!

Love and Peace ( off to do yoga,meditation and find my chakras now!)

Born2rant

p.s. for more of a spiritual explanation click on Pete’s comment on the upper part of the left hand column of this blog or follow this link  to hear Daevid Allen’s spiritual vision for Gong( thanks again Pete).

http://vimeo.com/1626328

new readers to this blog  might be interested in this entry as well…

Steve Hillage always looking to the future: Part one from Hyde Park to Solfest

Yes I know….it’s about time!!! here are some photos from the last Augie March gig for their Watch Me set tour.

Gareth Liddiard

Dan Luscombe

Adam Donovan - looking all gangster like

Glenn Richards

Kiernan Box

Dave Williams

The Arnold Horns during One Crowded Hour

Ken Gardner

Augie March

Adam during Dogsday

Glenn

Edmondo Ammendola putting on the underwear someone threw on stage

Ed - and they are a perfect fit

Kiernan admiring Ed

ok back to being serious now

Yep…. this would be me, the person who kinda sorta got sidetracked by life and hasn’t captured the last show of the Watch Me Set My Strange Sun You Bloody Choir Tour in Melbourne at The Forum on 29 August 2009.

The title of this blog is a line from The Glenorchy Bunyip, a great song live. Like Pennywhistle, this is another song that I was ambivalent about until I heard it a number of times live.

Dan Luscombe and Gareth Liddiard from the Drones outshone themselves once again as the support act. It really was a great idea to have them join Augie March for this tour.

their set:
1. cold and sober
2. oh my
3. the drifting housewife
4. shark fin blues
5. locusts
6. your acting’s like the end of the world
7. jezabel – I could never tire of hearing this song.

As always, the emotions from the songs seems to stream out of every pore of Gaz’s body when he is singing whilst Dan seems to internalise his energy and is so incredibly focused and intent. It is great to see the dichotomy between the two.

Augie March came on at 10pm. The house lights came down and the band started in darkness,……… We were treated to an excerpt from Believe Me which seguayed into Hole In Your Roof which then flowed straight into Drowning Dream. Two songs I have loved hearing on this tour. Adam’s playing was a highlight for me on this song and they were joined by the Arnold Horns – Ken Gardner, Matt Habben and Adam Hutterer.

The one frustrating thing was that even though we were at the front of the barricade across the front of the stage our view was blocked quite a bit of the time by all of the photographers (must they be so tall??)

Third song was Maroondah Reservoir. Glenn looked a little frustrated with himself a couple of times during this song….. shaking his head and frowning a lot. Maybe he was unhappy with the sound as that seems to give him the most grief on stage.

Next was Pennywhistle with the full complement of Arnold Horns – Ken, Matt, Adam and adding Zach Hutterer (a favourite of the Augie forum-ites). At the start of Pennywhistlethere was a huge cheer from the crowd so it must have been a favourite of many of them. I still hear it quite a bit on the radio.

song number 5 was Glenorchy Bunyip with Adam on the pedal steel and the band joined by Matt Habben and this was followed by The Vineyard. The backing vocals especially were a dream on this song and sounded so clear.

There’s Something At The Bottom Of The Blackpool with the Arnold Horns (3 of them) was song number seven and it was followed by Brundisium with all 4 Arnold Horns. They really excelled themselves during this song and have been fantastic to listen tour on this tour.

Dogsday was next followed by another crowd favourite Cold Acre. there were some sound problems during this song unfortunately.

Dave got out his trusty mandolin for Sunstroke House and Kiernan entranced the crowd with his harmonica.

song number twelve for the night was another oldie The Keepa with Matt, Ken and Adam joining the band onstage.

Thin Captain Crackers was next and then Glenn said that people were forcing them to play the next song - The Offer. How fantastic was it to hear them play this once more. It bookended their tour, being played at Geelong and in Melbourne.

The final song of the main set (15 songs) was The Mothball with the Arnold Horns and the band left the stage at 11.40pm.

Of course the crowd was screaming for more and we knew they would come back and the first song in the encore was The Slant. The audience loved it when Glenn did a rock god guitar move kneeling down on the floor.

Seventeen was an acoustic version of Train and this was followed by There Is No Such Place with the four Arnold Horns.

And then the surreal moment when someone from the crowd launched a pair of tightey whities at Ed …and even weirder, he put them on and continued playing. Up there as an unforgettable Augie moment.

The band must have been exhausted by the time they played Owen’s Lament – 18 songs and a very long show.

And still the crowd screamed ….. and screamed….. and screamed for more.

SECOND ENCORE
Just Passing Through - finally they brought this song out. personally I think this is one of the best songs for them to play live as it has such energy and the audience went wild. Matt, Ken and Adam joining them for this song.

Clockwork had the four Arnold Horns and is yet another song that has been sounding beautiful on this tour.

the 21st and final song for the night was one that later was widely debated by fans – they chose to end this tour and possibly the main part of their touring career with One Crowded Hour. It was their most widely played song and brought them the most accolades and even though many die-hard fans may not like it that much, it is the song that meant they could fill the Forum.

The show ended at 12.25am, so we had almost two and a half hours of Augie March….. not a bad way to end.

I will add photos from this gig on the weekend and then have the fun part of writing up the Paul Kelly tribute gig which had the four Augies minus Glenn as well as the Arnold Horns and the the Birds of Tokyo gig which had Glenn as the support.

The deadline for fall 2009 is November 23, one week from today. After this date papers completed during fall term 2008 will no longer be eligible for submission.

We have now made available a page devoted to explaining the evaluation process. For information please see the FAQ response to the question “How is My Paper Evaluated?“

That our publication requires your submission to be “historically-oriented” should not deter you from submitting. History offers a near-unlimited amount of approaches. I encourage you all to read our response to the question: What makes a paper “historical?” This post outlines a number of theoretical approaches and emphasizes the fact that multiple disciplines may contribute to the study of history.

Here is my last opinion article for the Spectrum:

I remember meeting Joe Chapman several times during my years at NDSU.  I met him at his old house when I was debating whether or not to attend NDSU and several times when I was a member of student organizations.

He always seemed to be interested in me and the other students and genuinely cared about our successes and difficulties.  He did some great things for NDSU and I will always remember the positive contributions he made to this university.

That said, I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend that he didn’t screw up when it came to handling his expenditures and discretionary fund money.

I also will not go and vilify the local media because they were the bearer of the bad news and did a good job of investigating just what was going on with the President’s house and Chapman’s discretionary spending.

Edifying Chapman by remembering only the good and ignoring everything bad or ominous serves no purpose except to set him up as a one-dimensional character and that does a disservice to both Chapman and NDSU.

FDR and Abraham Lincoln are some of my heroes but I don’t remember them as the mythic demigods that history books make them out to be.

I learn about and remember them as they were, warts and all, and the more I learn the more I respect what these men have done and accomplished and struggled through.

The same is true for me with Chapman.  His successes and failures and screw-ups make him more human, and more relatable than any myth of the amazing super president who was brought down by the evil and malicious media.

The media did a good job of objective reporting.  They tried to get Chapman’s side of the story, but he was unwilling to give an explanation when given the chance.

So they then went to NDSU’s Media Relations Director to get the other side of the story, and the NDSU Development Foundation as well.

In the end it was not the media that brought down Chapman, but truth and Chapman’s actions.

Whenever the media reports on the foibles of someone you don’t like, everyone is happy that the media covers those mistakes.  But if the media reports on the mistakes of a popular public figure everyone acts as if the media is this evil group bent on destroying peoples’ lives.

The media exists to keep people honest and that is what the local media has done in the case of Joseph Chapman, trying to keep him honest about what is going on.

In my mind its always better to know the truth than live a lie, and the local media has done a good job and a fair job of shining a light on what the President and the administration of NDSU has been doing over the last few years.

The Forum is proud to announce that we are now digitally archived via the Cal Poly Digital Commons and Berkeley Electronic Press. You may now view last year’s journal here. Enjoy!

A group of people I used to work with in Norwich are doing something amazing.

They’re going to play non-stop Rock Band for eight hours on a 24m screen in an attempt to raise money for The Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust. Cheesemint Productions have a Justgiving site and a group on facebook so why not take a look?

Below is an article about the attempt – it looks like it’s going to be many fun!

Cheesemint, a group of local video gamers in Norwich will use FUSION, the GIANT digital screen gallery at The Forum, as the base for their charity Rock Band Rockathon on Sunday 15th November.

The Rock Band Rockathon is being held in support of the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust and will see the video gamers perform a marathon of 100 songs, non-stop over a period of eight hours.

The Rockathon will be staged using the popular XBOX video game, ‘Rock Band’, where players use a microphone, guitar and drum controllers to rock out to their favourite songs. The performers will be Cheesemint, a group of local gamer friends who meet socially to produce web-videos. They are also dedicated ‘Rock Band’ enthusiasts who have decided to take up one of the game’s hardest challenges – ‘The Endless Set List’ – in order to raise money for their chosen charity.

Performing in public for the very first time, the group of eight friends will tackle the ‘Endless Set List’ which consists of 84 songs of varying difficulty, from the very easy building to the incredibly difficult before topping off the marathon with an encore of 16 other songs.

Opened by The Forum Trust, in partnership with BBC East and City College Norwich, FUSION is Europe’s largest permanent digital screen gallery. Measuring an incredible 24 meters the attraction, installed at The Forum by Snelling Business Systems, has recently won 2nd place and a ‘Highly Commended’ award in the prestigious National AV Awards 2009.

Dave Chapman, one of the founders of Cheesemint, says “FUSION will give us a great opportunity to not only play in front of the enormous digital screen, but also to play in a public place where people can come and watch and for a small donation, have a go themselves”.

Cheesemint is keen to point out that they are not professional musicians. “We just like playing video games,” says Dave. “And Rockband is possibly one of the most enjoyable experiences we’ve discovered on Xbox and a great way to engage the public to help us support this charity, the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust, which has a particularly close meaning for us and many other people.”

The Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust is the leading charity dedicated to brain tumour research, and patient information and support in the UK. They were incredibly supportive through the difficult times after Dave’s wife lost her father from a brain tumour last year.

Steve Falvey of The Forum Trust says, “The Trust is delighted to be supporting the Charity Rockathon. FUSION is incredibly versatile and it’s fantastic to see the space being used by the community in this way”.

Editors Notes:

You can see the gamers play at Fusion in The Forum on Sunday 15th November from 10am to 6.00pm. Admission to Fusion is FREE.

You can support the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust by donating on the day, sponsoring in advance or donating at www.justgiving.com/cheesemint

The Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust (SDBTT), since being formed in 1996, has become the leading charity dedicated to adult and childhood brain tumour research in the UK, raising awareness, funds for research, as well as support to patients and families of those diagnosed. The SDBTT is Registered Charity 1128354, and further information about the SDBTT can be found at www.braintumourtrust.co.uk

Rock Band is created by Harmonix, founded in 1995 and now part of MTV Networks, formed initially not to develop videogames but to create new ways for non-musicians to experience the unique joy that comes from making music. Rock Band 2 was released summer 2008 and is close to having over 1000 tracks of music that can be played in the game. (www.rockband.com)

Cheesemint is the collective name for a group of local gamers in Norwich (www.cheesemint.com). Dave Chapman is one of the main instigators of the Rock Band Rockathon and can be contacted on agentfrankie@ntlworld.com .

I know we have been quiet for a while so here is a quick update:

The Eternal have been nominated as finalists at the Australian Metal Awards for best keyboard player (Chris Stevenson) for ‘Kartika’. Mark and Chris will both be at the awards held at The Forum in Sydney, 7th November. Should be a great night!

The song ‘To Drown’ off our album ‘Sleep of Reason’ is featured in the upcoming motion picture ‘Tomboys’. It’s the first time one of our songs has been in a feature length film so make sure you check it out! The release date was 16.10.09.

We will be entering 301 Studio’s in Byron Bay, Australia, to record our upcoming album on December 3rd. We are very excited to give you some more news on this in the next few weeks, something special is coming your way!

Cheers

Mark, Dave & Marty

http://www.the-eternal.com
http://www.markkelson.com
http://www.vampirefreaks.com
http://www.last.fm
http://www.bebo.com/
http://www.soundclick.com
http://www.myspace.com/markkelson
http://www.myspace.com/theeternalband
http://metal-archives.com
http://www.youtube.com
http://www.zajlik.hu
http://www.purevolume.com
http://www.facebook.com

Please check out our new Legal Info page for information on author rights and more