The planned launch of a crowdfunded EP will still take place this Friday, but instead of a traditional gig, the event will be streamed live and raise money for Esquires.
Friday 1 May should have been the live launch of the blender selects EP, a curated record of four of the county’s brightest musicians.
The EP features tracks by Sarpa Salpa, Sara, Elijah Miller and Banton. All will be performing live from their lockdown locations from 7 – 9pm.
“We had the launch of the ‘blender selects’ EP planned for 1 May and we needed to mark that despite the physical event being postponed,” said Alan Cooley and Neil Frankel who run blender.
“It seemed an obvious thing to do a live-streamed gig raising money for Esquires – as we all know the venue is going through a tough time.
“To test the waters, we decided to put together a streamed gig with Adam James Urwin (The Scruff), Cameron Godfrey (Tragic) and the Roll Your Own Records DJs to give people a taste of what a proper night out would be in the comfort of their own homes.
“With the government seeming to suggest social distancing will be in place for the rest of the year, we can’t see a way out of this for pubs and clubs.
“They are going to be hurting the longest. The whole live music community – on a national level – will have to come together to keep the live music places they love alive. It needs to start now. This is just our little bit to help the venue we love and grew up in.”
The four artists featured on the EP: Elijah Miller, Sarpa Slapa, Sara and Banton
The first live-streamed Friday Night Blender: the lockdown sessions took place on Saturday 17 April and reached an audience of over 8,000.
“We thought maybe 50 people might watch and we would have been really happy with that”, said Alan.
After the success of that night blender have put together a series of sessions across May featuring some of the town’s favourite performers. All money raised at these events will go direct to the staff that work at Esquires.
Friday 1 May: blender selects EP launch, featuring Marcus (Sarpa Salpa), Elijah Miller, Sara and Luke Banton – streaming live from 7pm, with our favourite selectors Dave and Andy from Roll Your Own Records spinning tunes between the performances.
