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.