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Rethink Mental Illness CD Launch Camden

We enjoyed 12 hours of standout talent at the Ralph’s Life CD launch on Sunday. Hats off to all the artists who performed and a special mention for Samuel Simmons and Sisteray – the former for standing in for a missing band at the last minute and some of the finest singing on the day, and the latter for not getting a chance to sing or play with no thanks to the person who accidentally lifted some vital kit thus preventing them from performing. We were all so looking forward to the headline act but Londoners, you get a second chance – don’t miss Sisteray’s next gig, this Saturday 8th. Check their site for more info and other upcoming events.

Big thanks to the Mayor of Camden, councillor Jonathan Simpson for his pitch perfect speech and safe handover of the £2500 presentation cheque to Rethink Mental Illness – the real funds have been digitally delivered and there will be more from Ralph.

TheFineLineProjectSignedRalphPoster

Thanks to Dave at theonlinefestival.com for all his support and the formidable (with a French accent please) RKC team headed by Jérôme who broadcast live from the venue and managed to get the Ralph’s CD aired in between acts – bravo! Three cheers to the Proud Camden team on the day especially the 2 ace multi-tasking sound engineers.

We are grateful to our own little team of volunteers – Grace, Samir, Billy and George – who worked the room for cash donations for Rethink and helped get the longest list of artists we’ve had to date to sign a single poster (2 actually) – we asked the ever generous Fine Art Solutions to print extra large versions for the occasion. The signed posters will be auctioned at a later date.

Here’s a shoutout for everyone who attended, donated and promoted the show in their own way – thank you for your support which is much appreciated.

Last but by no means least, thanks to Mike Lindley aka Ralph and Lynn for pulling the whole show together – crowdfunder, CD and the launch gig – a bit of a roller coaster ride… Keep an eye on the Ralph’s Life blog for an announcement on monies raised and future plans.

Meanwhile we urge you, not for the first time nor the last, to buy one of the brilliant CDs featuring most of the artists from the 2nd March gig and a whole load of other talent, 40 fantastic indie tracks with all proceeds going to Rethink Mental Illness. Find out who donated tracks here

and listen to some sample tracks here.

To follow, with big thanks for his ongoing support for The Fine Line Project, some amazing photos by Patrick Barthès – trust us, they’ll be worth the wait. We’ll also be posting some CD reviews featuring acts from this truly epic day.

One more shoutout for the artists and bands that performed, some seriously great sounds – check them out:

Snippet, Debs McCoy, Ambrose Chappel, Plum, Samuel Simmons, Mono Life, Ded Rabbit, Twin Hidden, Stillia, Titors Insignia, Culann, Elia and The Low Tears and Feral Five.

Thanks again folks and let’s all keep talking about mental health, and music and creativity! Follow us here and on Facebook and Twitter and help spread the word.

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Our Very First CD, with Ralph’s Life!

2014 is off to a mighty fine start for The Fine Line Project and friends, in particular Ralph, rock dog supreme. If you’re new to this blog, Ralph is a Jack Russell whose master Mike runs a popular Indie music blog and a weekly show on Radio Kaos Caribou, also a big supporter of ours. Ralph spent his Christmas and New Year leashed to Twitter, Facebook and an online crowdfunding project to raise money for a CD in aid of mental health charity Rethink Mental Illness. You can read more about that in our last blog, including a full track listing – 40 brilliant artists have donated their sounds to the project.

Ralph Fine Line Project Rethink CD cover

If you haven’t come across a crowdfunder before, it’s basically an all or nothing situation. Either you raise your cash in the allotted time or you don’t get a penny.  So things were a wee bit tense down at Ralph’s kennel on 2 January, as the 11th hour drew in and the money was still short. Thanks to an epic (this is definitely the right word) number of Tweets, including Christmas messages and personal appeals to every single one of some 5000 followers, and a rather sleepless night (we set alarms to follow the action from down South, at least we got some sleep), Mike managed to pull it off at the very last minute, topping his target of £5000 by an extra £120 on 3 January around 9 in the morning.

WOW! £5120 almost all thanks to the power of music and creative people who’ve supported this cause on Twitter, supplemented by a crowd of well wishers from further afield.

Some of that total will be wagging its way straight off to the charity – look  out for a swishy presentation cheque, currently being designed – while the rest will fund the CD and a launch gig in London, with ticket sales once again donated to Rethink.

*** We’ve always maintained that it’s not just about the money – awareness goes hand in hand with fundraising and we reckon generates much bigger and better things. The Ralph’s Life CD fundraiser has achieved way more than £5K+ in donations over the last few weeks. Forty fantastic artists have pledged their beautiful music and have lent their voices to a small campaign with a massive impact, hundreds and collectively thousands more have shown their support through Twitter, Facebook and via blogs and radio stations across the land and way beyond – lots of other countries joined in – with everyone united for one cause: talking about and raising money for mental health awareness and helping to counter the stigma which so often accompanies mental illness. ***

A lot of fun was also had along the way, especially in the build up to Christmas and New Year with extra music tracks donated, CDs, downloads, restaurant meals, artwork, T-shirts, cocktail recipes, special cassettes, knitted owls (we so wanted one!), poems, guitars, airtime, blog space, newspaper articles, interviews, RTs, MTs, SOs, future promises of support and so much more – it’s been an incredibly creative campaign all round.

One of our favourite things – listen to the RKC jingle:

Hats off to everyone who supported the cause and made such a big noise helping Ralph to achieve his goal with special thanks to RKC / Radio Kaos Caribou!

This is just the beginning of course…  Ralph’s master is now rather busy sorting the 240+ pledges from the crowdfunder, organising production of the 40 track CD and preparing for the London launch, a 14 band all day gig at Proud in Camden. We’re helping as much as we can. Whether you’ve been supporting this campaign all along or have just joined the ride, please help us too – let’s take this to the next level.

Support and Follow:

@fruitbatwalton (that’s Ralph) and @FineLineProject on Twitter, Ralph’s Mental Health Awareness Page on Facebook, The Fine Line Project on Facebook and please spread the word about the launch gig. Here’s the Facebook event page for that and here’s the crucial link:

2 MARCH 2014 – RALPH’S LIFE CD LAUNCH NIGHT TICKET LINK

The Proud Camden gig is due to feature 13 of the bands from the CD and one local guest band –that’s 14 bands, all for a mere £10 and with all proceeds to Rethink:

If you can’t make it to the gig, please keep an eye out for the CD – we’ll need your help to sell all the copies and raise even more money for Rethink.

Once again folks, THANK YOU!

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Ralph’s Life Fundraising CD

It’s been a busy week for Ralph, top dog on the Indie music scene. He’s now managed to secure a grand total of 40 brilliant tracks for The Fine Line Project / Rethink fundraising CD with graphic design work donated by Simon Meakin and SCG Advertising. You can listen to all of the artistes’ tracks on Ralph’s special show on RKC / Radio Kaos Caribou tonight at 9pm GMT and tune in to some of them talking about this amazing project.

Ralph Fine Line Project Rethink CD cover

Later this week Ralph will be setting up some crowdfunding links for supporters to make pledges and get their paws on this incredible double CD, loaded with supreme sounds. Here’s a list of all the generous artistes who’ve contributed tracks to this project, in alphabetical order and with our BIGGEST thanks:

Ambrose Chappel – Pick It Up ( ft. iKashflo)
Culann – Jerusalem
Debs McCoy – Wendy
Elia and The Low Tears – Sweet Lies
Fat Goth – Creepy Lounge
Feral Five – Skin
Fiona Soe Paing – Daymoon Sun With thanks to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s Daphne Oram Trust who gave permission for the sample on this track
Graham Marshall – Freedom Call
Great Reckoning – Bleed For Your Life
Have Mercy Las Vegas – Pappy
Helen McCookerybook – Monday’s Mood
Jess Harwood – Feeling Fine
King And Queen Of Sorry – (Couldn’t Get) High Enough (track TBC)
Matthew Hidden – A Berry Bursts
Mog Stanley – Devil In My Head (track TBC)
Mono Life – Disco In Paris
Plum – Casting Shadows
Pumajaw – Mask
Robb Murphy – Never Letting You Go
Shiny Rhino – I Love My Radio
Snippet – Celebration
Steve Heron – Eleanor
Stillia – You Only Live Once
Tea Street Band – Push The Feeling On (Tom Eno Remix)
The Bedroom Hour – X Marks The Spot
The Fireflys – Hummingbird
The Folk Remedy – Sirens
The Low Countries – At The End Of The Day
The Mutineers – Tell Me Why
The Ninth Watch – Forever’s a Long Time
The Travelling Band – Took My Soul
The Varese’s – Spotlight
Tingle In The Netherlands – Prostitute’s Handbag
TiTORS iNSiGNia – Beg, Plead And Pray
Tom Robinson – The Mighty Sword Of Justice
Velocets – Secrets
Vukovi – Schwagger
We Came From The Sea – Animalskin
Whispery Club – The Boy
Wullae Wright (prod. by Ambrose Chappel) – Fight Or Flight

There have also been donations for the pledges from The Dogs in Edinburgh and Food by Jonny Marsh in Manchester. Every single penny raised will be going to support Rethink Mental Illness.

Big thanks to the acts who’ve been bigging this story up on Twitter – we’ll tag you all as we progress through this project.

We’re particularly grateful to Graham Marshall who, as well as donating a track to the CD, is pledging his fee from his next gig and all proceeds from the independent sales of his track to the cause. Go check him out live in London on the 5th December at Cecil Sharp House if you can. Here’s his track, Freedom Call (buy it now! All funds to Rethink) and here’s a little sneak preview, The Mighty Sword of Justice by the legendary Tom Robinson, both to feature on Ralph’s CD. To hear the rest, don’t forget to tune into RKC tonight at 9 – click on their logo below for access. There’ll be more news from us and the heroic Ralph soon.

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