TEESSIDE-BASED Music v Cancer raked in almost £10,000 after another double-header of entertainment.
The Music v Cancer live sessions have become a key fixture on the regional music diary in recent years, with back-to-back live sessions held at Hartlepool’s Grand Hotel on Friday and Saturday night.
The latest event saw the emerging talents of Anna Pancaldi and Tristan Mackay take to the stage, as well as highly-rated band The Temperance Movement.
The band, which has supported the Rolling Stones in the last year, has enjoyed a string of sell-out shows in the UK, America and Canada and their unplugged acoustic sent went down a storm with the intimate audience of 170 people.
Saturday evening saw Alex Cornish, Son of Dave and Bite the Buffalo perform to another sell-out crowd, with the total amount raised an impressive £9,634.
MvC founder Tony Larkin said: “The whole event was extremely successful and we had fantastic line-ups for both nights. People travelled from Scotland, Wales and London, and we are so grateful for that support.
“There were some special moments, most notably from The Temperance Movement and Son of Dave, and they helped us raise the profile of MvC to a new set of fans.”
More than £184,000 has been raised since the first event in Oct 2010 and last year the charity donated £36,000 to the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, purchasing two bowel probes for early cancer detection and a further £15,000 for a new Endoscopy Training Facility in Hartlepool.
And planning has already started for the next double-header which will take place in October.
Tony added: “Planning never stops, and we’re already well underway in getting things ready for the October Weekender.
“I’m delighted to announce that The Blow Monkeys will be making a return to Hartlepool to headline the Saturday night, so that is yet another major coup for us.
“I think there were some people who thought that the MvC concept may have waned a bit after our early success when we set it up, but here we are 21 gigs later still raising substantial funds for local cancer initiatives.
“It has been great to attract so many fantastic artists such as The Temperance Movement, The Blow Monkeys, Jack Savoretti, Turin Brakes, The Magic Numbers and Black over the last few years, and we are looking forward to welcoming many more in the future.
“We’re indebted to the support given to us by our fans as well as the businesses who sponsor the event and all of the staff at The Grand Hotel who now class us as their primary charity.”
Sponsors of the April Weekender were Total Recycling, Phoenix Steel, Ward Bros, Gowler Project Sevices, Rafferty Finance, Hart Biologicals, Merlin PCB, Coast Kitchens, Gerald Shottons, Reactive Design, BSS, Helios Engineering and Timlin Opticians.
Craig Morris, General Manager at The Grand Hotel, added: “The Best Western Grand Hotel is proud to be part of Music v Cancer, and having worked with Tony for several years now it is fantastic to see the events are going from strength to strength.
“We are delighted to support a local charity and it is good that the money generated goes to the North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust.”
The night was tinged with sadness with tributes paid to Colin Vearncome (aka Black) who was due to play at the event but died in January after sustaining serious injuries in a car accident.
An auction and a collection raised £262 for his family’s chosen charity, Bru Columbanus in Ireland, and the planned third slots for both evenings were cancelled as a mark of respect for Colin, who was also a MvC ambassador.
Tony went on: “MvC are in debt to Colin as he was the first well-known artist to support MvC Live and went on to play at three events.
“He will be greatly missed by us all, but never forgotten.”
To learn more about Music v Cancer, visit: http://www.musicvcancer.com/