Today marks the start of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) and the Fine Line Project team has been busy preparing for it behind the scenes.

Music has always been a key passion, a universal language, a solace, a celebration and an opportunity to gather community – an ideal way of highlighting this important week on the streets of Cambridge.

We’re grateful to have enlisted the support of two outstanding local musicians who will entertain us, right outside the Mind Cambridge shop on Burleigh Street. It’s a pedestrian thoroughfare, always buzzing with activity, which is a real bonus.

Mental Health Awareness Week 2025

Never mind the rain, we’ll gather inside if May’s gorgeous weather breaks. Resilience is our middle name. This year’s MHAW theme reflects that, focussing on mental health being everything, everywhere and everybody. We’re all affected by our mental health and in turn, our mental health affects everything. We’re all on that fine line every day – feeling high, feeling low, feeling centred. This week we are optimistic.

Demian Dorelli

First up is Demian Dorelli, who will play his keys (sorry the grand piano was not an option) on Friday 16 May. A pianist and composer, Demian is based in the UK, writing and producing from his studio in Cambridge. Inspired by his love and fascination with Nick Drake’s music, Demian has reimagined Drake’s music as a new incarnation, using only the black and white of his piano.

His first project, “Nick Drake’s ‘Pink Moon – A Journey on Piano’”, was released in 2021. Now, in 2025, he releases his fourth solo album, “Five Leaves Left – Echoes on Solo Piano”, both recorded at Peter Gabriel’s iconic Real World Studios near Bath, UK, under the Ponderosa Music Records label. 

Demian Dorelli will play piano music re-imagined and inspired by Nick Drake’s magical songs , at 2.00-2.40 pm Friday 16 May 2025 at Mind Cambridge, 38 Burleigh Street, CB1 1DG. Pop that in your diary, time it for a lunch break if you’re working.

Nick Drake in Cambridge

Demian’s support is particularly poignant, as he explains to The Fine Line Project,

“I’m thrilled about the idea of joining MIND’s Mental Health Awareness Week by bringing the spirit of Nick Drake’s music. In the late 1960s, he famously spent time living in Cambridge while at university, just a few minutes’ walk from where I’ll be playing.

If you know his story, you’ll also know that he struggled with his mental health and sadly passed away at the age of 26. I often wonder how different things might have been if he were alive today, when discussing mental health is much less of a taboo. Could he have found the support he needed? Would it have helped? We’ll never know, but it’s crucial that we continue the work and provide the opportunities that people sometimes need to overcome their challenges.

It’s incredible that Nick Drake’s music has the magic that makes so many people feel understood and inspired. If only he knew!“

Resonant thoughts from Demian. Times have changed, care models have evolved, and the conversation about mental health is well and truly open these days. There’s still a long way to go though, and stigma is still an issue, and that’s why initiatives such as MHAW are so important, as is the work of Mind and other charities in the field.

Mind Cambridge

We hope you’ll come and join us with Demian in supporting Mind Cambridge on Friday. Donations can be made in the shop, with every penny counting towards the crucial fight for better mental health. All funds go directly to projects in the area.

Thank you!

With special thanks to Demian, first and foremost, as well as our ace flyer designer, another local talent, none other than Will Hill, typographer, graphic design expert, and Associate Professor Emeritus at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

As we write Will’s flyer files are winging their way to another fantastic team of Mind Cambridge supporters, brothers Billy and Jake at Cambridge-Printing.com. We’ve said it before, you guys rock! Later today, our MHAW flyers will be on the printing presses (here’s to the wonders of digital) so we can promote the first of our MHAW events on paper as well as online.

Check back for details of the second artist in our line-up in the next couple of days. In the meantime, take a look at some of Demian’s links. You can find him on Instagram, Facebook, and best of all YouTube, where you can listen to some of his music.

Mind Cambridge Music Benefit

Demian Dorelli plays original music inspired by Nick Drake, 2.00-2.40 pm Friday 16 May 2025 at Mind Cambridge, 38 Burleigh Street, CB1 1DG. See you on the street!

Donations can be made in the Mind Cambridge shop at any time, the team are there to welcome you 7 days a week, with very few exceptions. Feel free to bring donations, volunteer or purchase from an ever changing selection of pre-loved bargains and new stock. Please follow the team on Instagram if you can – your support is much appreciated.

Thanks for reading, feel free to share this post, but please link back to us, with thanks from The Fine Line Project team.