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BIG-HEARTED entertainers are aiming to stage one of the biggest musical events ever seen in Chesterfield in a fund-raising salute to war heroes.
Musicians and a comedian will perform at the Winding Wheel, Chesterfield, on April 17, in an event called Turn Out For The Troops which will raise money for the Help for Heroes charity.
John Grant, drummer in the rock band Riffler who will headlin
ADVERTISEMENTe the show, said: "The cause is something we all strongly believe in and support. We want to raise awareness of the cause and also from personal experience of the effect that war can have on soldiers, their family and friends, we want to do what we can to help.
"Our keyboard player Richard Bettie, who lives in Sheffield, has a brother-in-law who is at present serving in Afghanistan as a bomb disposal officer. A colleague, boss and close personal friend of this man was unfortunately killed on duty in Afghanistan just after Christmas. This prompted us to stop talking about helping and start acting!
"At this time we booked the Winding Wheel and took it from there.
"We have sold tickets to people as far afield as Germany, Scotland and London, now we just need the locals to get involved."
John's band Riffler will play rock covers from the Seventies to present day at the fund-raiser. The band draws its members from Chesterfield and Sheffield areas and has decades of experience in the music business. They are due to play at Europe's largest festival in north Germany and are awaiting approval to go out and entertain troops in Afghanistan.
Entertainers who have also signed up to the fund-raiser are north Derbyshire-born comedian Roland Gent, now based in Manchester, and special guests The Ancient Brittons, a Sheffield-based band who have been performing for 26 years.
John added: "We have been lucky enough to acquire two of London's top front of house sound engineers, one of which has worked alongside Eric Clapton." - http://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk
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Probably the UK's most exciting new covers bands with a loyal fanbase.
Recently organised and headlined at a huge concert in Chesterfield to raise money for Help For Heroes, and now have just been booked for a gig in Moscow, so we're pretty busy as a band.
We've all been playing in bands of different formats, doing our thing to our own tastes for years, but it was time to create a covers band that really stretched us, made us better musicians and played what we new the crowds would love to hear!
I should mention we're all working people, so Riffler are part-timers, but we put in so much effort, experience and passion in to the music, we don't think you'll notice we're not a full-time professional band.
Steve's one of the best singers you'll come across and he's also a gifted songwriter with a huge catalogue of his own work which he's never got around to getting out there, but we're all hoping he does because it's such great work.
The rest of us are all just passionate musicians who do it for the love (without being too cliche!) of it. Getting up there, seeing the crowd on their feet singing with you and never sitting down is one of the greatest feelings a musician can have. We're lucky to have experienced that already and just hope we can keep on getting that feeling.
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