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Home | Community Service | Blues at Burstead - June 2012

Sun Jun 10th 2012
This open-air music event featuring the Grapevine Blues Band was held at Ivy Cottage, Little Burstead in aid of Little Havens Childrens Hospice.

Blues at Burstead

Each year, the Rotary Club of Billericay holds an open air music event in the garden in support of a local Charity. This year's event was in aid of Little Havens Children's Hospice, and was held as usual, at the home of Rotarian Peter Strong in his beautiful garden at Ivy Cottage, Little Burstead.Getting Ready

The event featured for the first time, Blues music  - and featured the well-known Grapevine Blues Band.  The Band was formed in 1997 by Mike Chase who is lead singer, and comprises four other musicians of outstanding quality, Dr. Ika on Guitar, who hails from Tbilisi in Georgia, Dave Lennox on Keyboard, Dave 'Roy' Rogers on Bass, and Ivan Hoe an outstanding drummer from South Africa.    Dr Ika was twice voted top guitarist in the U.S.S.R.

Many Club members participated in getting the grounds ready for the event, putting upEd Harrison and Ken Smith marquees, setting up and arranging tables and chairs, ensuring everything was ready for the event and, most of all, for selling tickets to the event.  Over 250 tickets were sold in advance thus ensuring the event would be a financial success.

Primary thanks go to Christabel and Peter Strong for making their garden available for the event, and working so hard to make sure all the grounds of the cottage were ready for the influx of visitors.  They arranged the hire of the Marquees, tables, chairs and "facilities", drew up and policed the table plan (guests were able to pre-book tables and chairs according the number in each party), and worked tirelessly through the day to ensure the event was a success.

Free parking was available in the meadow adjacent to the house.

Gates opened at 12 pm, and the music started at 1.00 p.m. eventually closing after the band's third and final set, at 5 pm.  Tickets were £12 per person in advance (children under 12 were free), or £15 on the day at the gate.  In addition, funds were raised from the sale of Tea and Coffee, and of tickets for the Grand raffle.  (A total of over £2,000 was raised from the event, with over £800 being raised from the Raffle alone).

The attendees started arriving just before 12.00 p.m., and made their way to their tables to lay out their food and drink.  Tables varied from light snacks to feasts!

The music started at 1.00 p.m.  In total, the band played three sets of music, which were all extremely well received by the audience - each group within the set being greeted with great applause.

Many thanks are due to Ben Cracket for quality contribution by playing with the band in the final set for a few numbers, and to Roger Barnes for playing his accordion in the quiet period of the second interval.

It seemed that when the day finally ended, everybody went home talking enthusiastically about the quality of the music and how much they had enjoyed the day.  Many attendees sought out President Malcolm Acors to compliment the club and thank him for such a wonderful event.

The event was a great success, from an entertainment point of view, socially and for the amount of money raised for Little Havens Children's Hospice and other Rotary Charities.

Prior to the event, our host for the day, Peter Strong, was interviewed by Phoenix FM and you can hear his interview here (as long as it is on the radio website) by clicking on the photo of Peter on the left.

Immediately afterwards, Mike Chase was also interviewed about the Grapevine Blues Band and you can hear that interview by clicking on the Band's Logo on the right, and find out more about the band by clicking here.