November 1, 2012 by thefinelineproject

The Fine Line Project November 2012 Music Benefit for Rethink Mental Illness

Time to announce a few gig details! For those of you who’ve been watching this page, our second music benefit, hosted once again by the legendary (it really is!) Troubadour Club in London, is in aid of Rethink Mental Illness and in support of the ground-breaking Time to Change campaign (run with Mind), which is England’s most ambitious programme to end the stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental health problems.

We’re really excited to have the evening open with Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Leslie Mendelson from New York. Leslie was spotted by Joel Dorn, the legendary Grammy Award winning producer and record label exec, who helped her sign her first record deal. The young singer then worked alongside hit songwriter Steve McEwan (Keith Urban, Faith Hill, Eminem) and award winning producer/arranger Rob Mounsey (Paul Simon, Mary J. Blige, Steely Dan) to shape the sound of her album, Swan Feathers, which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009. Leslie has since played all over the US, sharing the stage with legends such as Roberta Flack, Dr. John and Levon Helm from The Band. The songs Turn It Over and Be My Baby from Swan Feathers were featured in the AMC show Rubicon and the Lifetime original movie Too Late To Say Goodbye starring Rob Lowe. All Come Together was featured in the 2011 Yahoo End Of Year campaign. Leslie is working on a new album scheduled for release in early 2013.

You can check out her sounds here: Leslie Mendelson live.

Next on stage will be the hugely talented Matthew Neel and his brilliant band. Their New Maps of Hell album has been described as “Unique and totally mesmerising, this is an album which proves difficult to turn off”. Read the full run down of accolades on Matthew’s website. In his own words: “I left school at 18 and came straight to London with the express intention of joining a band. Via the back pages of Melody Maker, I found one. We were not good. After a year or so I stole the guitarist and went off to form a new band, then spent a couple of years firing everyone and finding sparkly, talented new people to put in their places. We lasted a few years but eventually became allergic to each-other, dying of toxic shock in a rehearsal room in Putney. Since then, thanks to snapping my wrist and not being able to strum for 8 months I taught myself to fingerpick, and from there came new songs and an album. I’ve always been a sucker for dark folkiness and recently this is the way the songs seem to go. The lovely Luke Brighty plays guitar, Ricky Barber is managing bass duties, Jimmy Shoo is tub-thumping.”

Check out Matthew’s site and sounds here: http://www.matthewneel.com/

Living up to our name, The Fine Line Project’s headline act is due to be announced shortly.

Last but by no means least, the evening will be rounded off by regular Fine Line Project supporter, ace DJ and record producer Liam Rogue State Wild aka UK Rogue State, who will spin his grooves into the early hours. Liam, who hails from Sheffield, has DJ’d all over the UK and Europe and enjoys a massive following wherever and whenever he shares his unique blend of sounds. We’re so happy to have him on board for a second round of great music.

Hear some of Liam’s sounds: http://soundcloud.com/ukroguestate

Here’s how the flyer is shaping up so far…with big thanks to Patrick for the graphics!

Tickets will go on sale once we’ve annouced our headline act. You can join the mailing list to get advance notice of ticket sales by emailing thefinelineproject*(@)*gmail.com. We’ll also post up details on our Facebook events page along with links to our guest artists’ pages.

Link through to Rethink and the Time to Change campaign websites to find out more about them, or check on our Charities and Support page.

October 18, 2012 by thefinelineproject

Creativity and Mental Health: New Research

The latest research relating to connections between mental health and creativity has just been referenced on the BBC News site. We’d thought we’d republish a link here.

After a quick straw poll around the office and friends we’re all agreed that everyone has some creativity in them and as mentioned in our About section, we all tread a fine line between wellness and dis-ease, whether we consider ourselves creative or not.

Here’s a link to the BBC news story: Creativity ‘closely entwined with mental illness’ by Michelle Roberts

What do you think?

Since writing this piece we came across the following blog post by Howard Robinson on ‘The Unofficial Blog for Brit Writers and Writers Everywhere!’ It refers to the same research as the BBC and adds some interesting comment to the whole question, from a writer’s perspective. With thanks to Brit Writers and Howard Robinson.

Here’s the link: http: You don’t have to be mad to be a writer, but maybe it helps! by Howard Robinson

September 29, 2012 by thefinelineproject

Next Fundraiser for Mental Health – Time For A Rethink

It’s official: our next fundraising gig will be in aid of Rethink, who celebrate their 40th anniversary this year. They started out as the National Schizophrenia Fellowship, operating at a time when conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar (then know as manic depression), were barely spoken about. Anyone diagnosed with or caring for someone affected by these wide ranging and often debilitating conditions was almost utterly bereft of any support, let alone information. Thanks to the work of Rethink, and that of a few other pioneering charities including SANE (the beneficiaries of another of our ongoing campaigns), times have changed.

Speaking of pioneering efforts and times changing, the now aptly renamed Rethink Mental Health and Mind’s joint campaign to address stigma, Time To Change, has had a massive and wide-reaching impact on people’s perception and understanding of mental health issues. Their approach has been inclusive and broad, bringing the stigma commonly associated with tackling mental health to the very top of the agenda on TV, radio and also crucially through social media channels and onto the internet. Thanks to the web, people from all over the world are now able to access resources which continue to improve almost daily.

Please take a few minutes to watch this powerful and ground-breaking film produced for the Time To Change campaign. It’s not just relevant to young people and clearly it doesn’t just concern the British population:

Time to Change film link: The Stand Up Kid

As I write, the number of viewers is 53,410 – this video was published on the 12th September 2012, 17 days and less than 3 weeks ago.

There are lots of interesting comments and currrently 504 likes and 21 dislikes – the latter making you wonder who and why they felt the need to disapprove. Therein perhaps lies part of the story about stigma. Anyone touched by mental health issues, whether personally or professionally, knows that stigma remains one of the biggest issues. This is no time for complacency. Whilst the dialogue is more open nowadays, we still need to keep talking. The Time To Change film highlights how difficult talking can be and how crucial it is, from both sides of the fence. The more we can communicate this to others the better. Please share this film and please keep talking.

Find out more about Rethink via our Charities page where you can also donate direct to any of the organisations that we highlight.

To find out more about our forthcoming music benefit for Rethink, please check back soon, join our mailing list thefinelineproject (at) gmail (dot) com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

August 21, 2012 by thefinelineproject

Cheque Presentation to Mind

We were delighted to present a cheque for £1050 to Richmond Mind’s director Val Farmer a couple of weeks ago. The event took place at The Troubadour in Earls Court, London, where our last fundraising gig was hosted. The cheque was handed over in the presence of one of the Club’s directors, Susie Thornhill.

Our designer Patrick Barthès created a wonderful fake cheque for the occasion which we’ve reproduced here, another opportunity to thank everyone involved especially the artists who performed at the fundraiser: BluesClub, Yolanda Charles’ The Deep Mo, Black River Wild, Max Fletcher and last but by no means least, DJ Liam Rogue State Wild.

We’re also grateful to our own team, The Troubadour’s, Richmond Borough Mind’s and Armadillo Central’s, not forgetting all the wonderful people who bought tickets and donated their money, time, energy and skills to make the event such a success. We couldn’t have done it without you!

We’re now working on the next gig so watch this space for more news. We’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter. To receive news by email please ask to join the mailing list by sending a message to: thefinelineproject *at* gmail.com.

July 20, 2012 by thefinelineproject

Fine Art Prints from Armadillo Central to Benefit SANE

From music to art and from Mind to SANE, we’re onto our next project.

Armadillo Central artist Jennifer Copley-May has just agreed to pledge 10% from each sale of her new Tao prints to The Fine Line Project.

Jennifer Copley-May Tao Armadillo Central

“This painting, which I have called Tao, symbolises for me the ever evolving universe and our lives in it. Attitudes towards mental health/illness evolve too and they have long been a concern both for personal reasons and in the context of the wider world.

Taoism in its more pragmatic form has interested me for a long time. I recently dipped back into the ‘Tao of Politics, Lessons of the Masters of Huainan’, a book full of everyday wisdom, very profound and yet easy to read. The version I have has been translated and edited by Thomas Cleary. One aphorism seemed particularly relevant: “Those who comprehend the Tao are not focused only on themselves, they are also connected to the world.”

It seemed appropriate therefore to use Tao as my contribution to raising funds for The Fine Line Project.”

Tao, which has been reproduced from an original watercolour painting, is printed on heavyweight 310 gsm Hahnemühle Fine Art Paper using archival inks and is available in 2 sizes from www.armadillocentral.com.

Find out more about SANE’s crucial work via their website, linked from our Charities page.

June 29, 2012 by thefinelineproject

Troubadour Encore – some more pics for your delectation

Photographer Patrick Barthes has just resurfaced with some more shots from The Fine Line Project Mind Benefit at The Troubadour.

And we’ve had some more donations in. Cheque presentation story coming up soon, in the meantime, hope you enjoy these…

BLUESCLUB BAND

YOLANDA CHARLES’ THE DEEP MO

BLACK RIVER WILD

Live at The Troubadour Club, June 2012 forThe Fine Line Project Mind Benefit.

If you’re using any of these pictures for publication elsewhere on the web, please respect copyright conventions and be sure to credit both the photographer and The Fine Line Project. If you want prints, please get in touch with us. Thank you! It’s all for a good cause.

June 13, 2012 by thefinelineproject

The best shots: The Fine Line Project Mind Benefit @ The Troubadour Club June 2012

It’s been a tough call picking the best from an already brilliant selection by ace photographers Patrick Barthes and Martina Weselowski – if you’re after something in particular, give us a shout. You can contact us in the comments section of WordPress, by email (see ‘About ‘section), Facebook or Twitter.

Here goes….kicking off with BluesClub, followed by Yolanda Charles’ The Deep Mo, Black River Wild, Max Fletcher and for the late owls, DJ Liam Rogue State Wild.

Enjoy!

June 13, 2012 by thefinelineproject

A Grand Night for Mind

We’ve now completed the accounts and are delighted to announce that together with event sponsorship from Make Life Easy and a very generous anonymous donor, we’ve raised a total of £1000 for Mind’s Richmond Branch. Pretty good for our first ever event!

We couldn’t have achieved this without our seamless team (Angelica, Grace, James and last minute help from Elle and Joanna). Also Patrick for all the great graphics, including our logo, and Stephanie, Debbie and Jane for extra social networking support. In the wings Sue, Jenny, Andy, Gerry and Darren. And Simon W, who’s got a little surprise up his sleeve for the music lovers – watch this space for news in a few weeks time or join our mailing list/like our Facebook page to be kept in the loop – it will be worth it.

Once again, thank you to the legendary Troubadour Club in London, especially Simon T for the venue and brilliant support from their highly professional team (John, Alice, Vaskan, Rita, Frank, Arren and Gabor plus everyone else who helped us out on the night).

Biggest thanks go to our fantastically talented artists, name checked in our last post. The music throughout was mind-blowingly brilliant! Feel free to add comments here or on our Facebook page – we’d love to hear what you all thought.

Event pictures have been streaming in and will be uploaded shortly. Big thanks for those to Patrick, who covered just about every angle and Martina, who kindly supplied some great extra shots. Next time we’ll improve on the lighting – they had a pretty challenging job. So did a couple of the bands, squeezing onto the Troubadour’s stage!

This didn’t stop it being an epic night for live music and a great success for our first fundraiser.

Last but by no means least thank you to everyone who bought tickets – what a great crowd! Hope to see you all at the next one…;

May 17, 2012 by thefinelineproject

Tickets On Sale: Troubadour Mind Benefit 9th June 2012

It’s ticket time – here’s a link for you to buy tickets to the Mind Benefit at The Troubadour Club. If you’re buying more than one ticket you’ll need to email us with names of attendees. There will be no tickets as such but a list of names on the door. Please book asap to avoid disappointment. Looking forward to seeing you there for some great music!

Buy tickets now.