November 22, 2013 by thefinelineproject

Crowd Funding Campaign: Music Supporting Mental Health Awareness

Today’s the big day! Ralph’s Life has launched a 6 week crowd funding campaign to produce a charity CD featuring 40 brilliant tracks by (mainly) Indie artistes. We know they’re all brilliant because we did a mega micro-review session on Twitter covering every single number during a special show courtesy of the fantastic Radio Kaos Caribou a few days ago.

Wullae Wright, one of the talented contributors to the double album has created some stunning artwork featuring all the artistes’ names and the one and only Ralph, of course. Plans are afoot (apaw?) to get some prints made.

The support for this great music project has so far been phenomenal and now’s the time to turn up the volume by sharing the story with as many people as you can. We want to raise as much awareness and money as possible. Every penny raised will go to charity Rethink Mental Illness – although they’re UK based their reach is global. Rethink also run ground-breaking campaigns like Time To Change with Mind Charity making a direct impact on how mental illness is viewed, discussed and managed at every level. It really is Time To Talk about mental health – this should be in the same breath as physical health – the two go hand in hand after all.

A couple of other artists are donating proceeds from their latest track sales over the next 6 weeks. Check this epic number by Graham Marshall whose track will feature on the double CD and this beautiful song by his friend Jane Allison.

To listen to some of the tracks on Ralph’s Life double album check out The Fine Line Project on Soundcloud.

The most crucial link of all, here is Ralph’s Life’s Charity Music CD’s Crowdfunding page – please make a pledge today (from as little as £1) and ask all your friends, family and work colleagues to get involved with this important cause. Mental health issues affect 1 in 4 worldwide – none of us can afford to be complacent. Let’s all help to bring about some change today.

We thank you in advance for spreading the good word and the great music!

November 11, 2013 by thefinelineproject

Get On The Dog And Bone – We’ve Got News!

Big news at The Fine Line Project and it didn’t come down the phone line, we heard it on Twitter first. The most connected Jack Russell in music, top dog at the Ralph’s Life Music Blog, has decided to crowdfund a charity CD for us and we’re going to donate all the money to Rethink!

It just so happens that it’s a big week for Rethink Mental Illness too. Schizophrenia Awareness Week runs from today until the 17th November. With the tag line Stand Up For Schizophrenia, the campaign focuses on widening understanding about this often shunned and misunderstood illness.

Imagine being bombarded with voices from invisible forces and being stripped of your ability to understand what’s real and what isn’t.

You discover you can’t trust your senses, your mind plays tricks on you, and your family or friends might even appear to be part of a conspiracy to harm you.

This is schizophrenia.

What could be worse than these symptoms?

Sadly, ignorance and fear can be. We can all help improve the lives of people with schizophrenia by standing alongside them and spreading more understanding. Let’s tackle the ignorance, the fear and the stigma together.

The Fine Line Project has raised funds for Rethink before and we’re delighted to support them again, this time with Ralph’s venture. The charity has a national reach and an international impact. They also tackle the harder end of mental health and they run brilliant and inclusive awareness campaigns. We recently delivered a cheque for £1000 to them, raised with multi-media site St Pauls Lifestyle’s support at The Cellar in Southampton. This epic show featured Noah Francis, Where’s Strutter?, Charlotte Campbell and Mog Stanley. We’ve got another live event in the pipeline, but more about that later. Right now we’re pulling out all the stops for Ralph’s fundraising CD – please join us in supporting his efforts and in raising mental health awareness everywhere. Let’s spin this one out, not just this week but all the way to the CD launch and way beyond.

BIG thanks to Ralph’s Life and all the early adopters – we’ve got some brilliant music lined up and this time if you can’t come to the gig you can still support the project by buying a copy of the CD online. Check back soon for a band list and lots more news. You can also get the latest on Twitter and Facebook. We thank you for your support.

June 15, 2013 by thefinelineproject

Yet Another Grand Night for The Fine Line Project

We’ve had some amazing donations in since the Southampton Cellar gig and third time lucky (with a lot of hard work in between!) we’ve managed to raise another grand total of £1000 for charity. This one’s for Rethink Mental Illness whose front line services and ceaseless campaigning benefit those with mental health issues and their families and carers all over the UK.

We have a lot of people to thank!

First up our fantastic line up of artists who together created an evening of entertainment which will go down in history, as anyone who was there will confirm.

Soul star and outstanding singer, performer and songwriter Noah Francis showcased his new album in the headline slot with an amazingly talented band, Pandit Dinesh, John Robertson, Paddy Milner, Peter Hope-Evans and Nihan Redford; Where’s Strutter?‘s Patrick Neville, Lee Broadbent, Dan Green and Josh Leach were utterly awesome and delivered powerful songs and the kind of blistering set which is bound to hurtle them into the biggest musical arenas before long; local singer songwriter Charlotte Campbell charmed everyone with her crystal voice, intelligent songs and engaging manner; and in the opening slot Mog Stanley warmed up the show with his unique blend of blues powered by dynamic guitar playing and one-man band percussion.

Next up big thanks to our fantastic venue The Cellar in Southampton and their team including manager Joe who also DJ’d later on, soundman Pete, Glynn on lights and a great security guy, whose name is to follow.

Huge thanks to Rethink’s Fiona Magor for taking the trip with us down South and Maria in the press office for sterling support.

We were incredibly lucky to have the services of local Prince’s Trust supported photographer Steve Maynard on the night and will be publishing more of his pictures over the coming days.

Thanks to our own always brilliant team of volunteers and faithful supporters including Patrick, Craig, Grace, James and Sue as well as Liam, Angelica, Alex, Stephanie, Sarah and Adam behind the scenes and long term supporters Gerry, Darren and Joe not forgetting the Armadillo Central team.

Special thanks to the equally brilliant team at St Pauls Lifestyle who worked alongside us on the build up as well as on the day and continue to support The Fine Line Project on their site, where we now have LISTED ARTIST status: Rose, Dominique, Angus, Ben, Jessie, Georgia and Jacques. Check their site for special sessions filmed and recorded just before the gig featuring 3 tracks by Noah Francis and his band and also Mog Stanley. To follow, further recordings with Where’s Strutter? and Charlotte Campbell, all in the name of The Fine Line Project and supporting further awareness for mental health charities.

More thanks to Noah Francis’ team including Poorang, Spider and Paddy and Noah himself for generously donating to the funds raised as well as performing for us.

We’re also incredibly grateful for the support of online music blog Ralph’s Life, local press The Daily Echo and Hampshire Chronicle/7 Days, Solent Mind and The Studio Romsey in particular for amazing last minute help with flyer printing. Many local businesses and organisations, too numerous to mention also helped with publicity, Twitter support, poster display and flyers – we hope to get to know you better on the next one. Southampton is one big friendly city and the sun shone all day! We hope to be back before long…

Check back soon for more photos and some reviews and thank you for your support!

May 5, 2013 by thefinelineproject

Noah Francis to Headline Fine Line Project Southampton

We’re unbelievably excited about our next headline act, the incredibly talented Noah Francis.

We first saw Noah perform last year and were totally blown away by his voice, his songs, his band and his sheer presence on stage. Here’s an artist who certainly knows how to capture and hold his audience’s attention from the subtlest melodic tone to the sheer power of the chorus, all tightly controlled yet delivered with utter ease – electricity unleashed. More about this great singer, his band and new album later.

Meantime a word about our hosts, the fabulous Cellar in central Southampton – we’re looking forward to heading South on June 8th to work with this legendary music venue and their great team. We’ll be promoting the gig, which is in aid of Rethink, in collaboration with another brilliant Southern outfit, St Pauls Lifestyle, the cult music site known for their unstinted support of indie music everywhere. These people have soul! We’re also looking forward to some online support from the one and only Ralph, rock dog par excellence.

Watch this space for the rest of the line up. Meanwhile you can join us on Facebook and Twitter or email to be added to our mailing list.

We did say heading South in June – here’s a suitably sunny shot of Noah and Jamboree, one of his acoustic tracks. Back soon with more news.