Ralphstock

After the success of Ralph's All-Dayer for the charity Rethink Mental Illness in London's iconic venue Proud Camden last year in association with Radio KC who transmitted the whole day live; with 14 bands playing over 12 hours, he thought it was about time he did another but closer to home. 

So with that in mind Ralph's taking over another iconic venue on August 23rd and unleashing 11 bands on Night & Day Cafe in Manchester over 10 hours. 

Available to buy on the day will be the Ralph's Life CD to raise funds for Rethink Mental Illness.

In association with Hourglass Promo it'll be an outstanding day of live music and; as usual, Ralph's got something to say about everyone on the line-up.



Ambrose Chappel is a Southport DJ/Remixer par excellance who kicked of Ralph's Rethink All-Dayer last year. He collaborates with US Rap artist iKash Flo to produce some of the most funky ass hippety hop this side of the Big Pond. 

He creates a unique blend of Hip Hop fused with House and Electro and is always in demand for his remixing skills. His influences range from the ubiquitous Mr Oizo to Berlin based producer Siriusmo.

Mint are an East Coast (sounds better than saying Grimsby) Indie band fronted by Zak Rashid who are starting to make a name for themselves on the local music scene. 

what better time to bring them over to Manchester and spread the good word about their music which - and I quote - "makes you kiss strangers."







Pusher are a very much up and coming Barnsley band who are making a name for themselves on the live circuit and are a welcome addition to Ralphstock.


Their debut single Shoot Life was described by none other than NME as - "Hair raising slides of guitar and moody vocals make for an absorbing track."







The Loving Memory are another Grimsby band formed by Sam Simmons who performed an outstanding solo acoustic set at the Ralph's Life gig in Camden last year. 

Currently working on their first single Ralph's prediction is they're going to go on to bigger and better things whilst producing their self-proclaimed 'ethereal noise'.









The Fireflys are a highly acclaimed Runcorn band whose musical back catalogue has long been popular with Ralph's Life. Lee and Adele from the band will be performing an acoustic set which will include their recently released single Branches.

Focusing nowadays on their consumate brand of Indie Americana they've honed their music to a very fine point and are popular both locally and beyond. With a hometown gig coming up soon Ralph's glad they've found time to join him in Manchester!







The Mantells are a three piece Indie band from Manchester who have featured regularly on Ralph's Show on Radio KC thanks to their infectious brand of Alt Indie.

Their critically acclaimed debut single went straight into the iTunes Alt Chart and they've not looked back since. Thei new single Payday Playboys is released in June and they have some top gigs upcoming including the the BL9 Music Weekender which features among others The Happy Mondays and Razorlight.







Sixty Minute Man are another Manchester band that are making quite a name for themselves on the local live scene as well as some heavy radio plays.

They're a six-piece Alt Rock outfit that are just launching a new EP and will be playing the highly recommended Blackthorn Festival this year on the SOTN Stage.









The Jade Assembly from Bolton have just released a new single and are gigging fervently to appease 'The Jade Army', including a couple of the local Festivals.Their brand of guitar driven Indie is causing quite a stir in the North West, so it's great to have them on board for Ralphstock. 

Deja Vega are again from Manchester and making no small impact on that city's music scene. Described by Louder Than War as - "Manchester's best kept secret." - they're gigging relentlesly and Ralph's delighted that they've agreed to join the Night & Day line-up.

Ralph's Spinning one of their track Fun Time Jack on this Sunday's Indie Show on Radio KC.








Great Reckoning are a 5 piece Indie Rock band from Tyldesley that take no prisoners with their heavy guitar-based sound. Regulars on the Ralph's Life Indie Show on Radio KC this will be Ralph's first chance to catch their high-powered live performance. 







Culann from the West Coast of Scotland are no strangers to Ralph's Life featuring regulary on his Radio KC Sunday Show and coming all the way down to London to play at the Proud Camden charity gig for Rethink Mental Illness.

They won the Scottish Alternative Music Award Best Rock/Alternative category in 2013 and are high energy performers on stage. One not to be missed!






Duke and The Darlings are big favourites in Manchester's musical world and regularly perform sell-out shows. Their addictive brand of Alternative Indie Pop makes them a huge favourite with their 'Darlings' and Ralph's Life alike.

Such is the regard that Ralph holds them in they're the Ralphstock headliners!





So there you have it, a whole day of the best in UK Indie in Manchester and you can buy your tickets at the Early Bird price right now from the link below or the ralphslife.co.uk website - but be quick!

Come along and say hiya to Ralph!

Ticket Information

TICKET TYPE	REMAINING	SALES END	PRICE	FEE	QUANTITY
Early Bird	100 Tickets	23 Aug 2015	£8.00	£1.13	Ticket Quantity Select                      1                     2                     3                     4                     5                     6                     7                     8                     9                     10

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The Phantoms

Ralph's been a big fan of Edinburgh band The Phantoms since he covered them back in April last year after they played a set at the Ralph's Life CD Launch in Electric Circus for the Rethink Mental Illness charity. They've since played a succession of gigs including the one and only King Tut's in Glasgow.

He's played their single Revolution a few times now on his Radio KC Sunday Show along with a few of their other tracks and they featured in his 2014 Top 100 tracks. Good news is, The Phantoms have released Wasting Time as a single with video and it's a great follow up to the anthemic Revolution.

Focusing on their driving guitar sound backed by thumping drumming and strong vocals it's a fair bet Scotland's DJ's will be pricking their ears up and The Phantoms will again see some serious air play.

No wonder XFM's Jim Gellatly was quoted as saying - "Soaring atmospheric Britpop -What Oasis would have sounded like if they'd listened to The Doors rather than The Beatles." 

Catch them live if you can as they support Cold Ocean Lies in King Tut's on the 14th of March. The Phantoms are Ralph's 'ones to watch' for 2015.




Wasting Time takes their sound to a whole new gritty level, acompanied by a powerful vocal as The Phantoms are very quickly proving to be Scotland's answer to Catfish and The Bottlemen. 

The Phantoms must be favourites for T in The Park's T Break stage this year (Ralph predicted it for The Vigo Thieves three years ago and they've never looked back since).

Stand Up To Stigma - Time To Change

Now it's no secret Ralph's always up for a laugh and that he has a soft spot for raising mental health awareness after the Ralph's Life CD, so it's no surprise that when he heard there was a project in St Helens using comedy to help end mental health discrimination he quickly checked it out. 

The Stand Up To Stigma project in St Helens is funded by Time To Change and they have established a Comedy Course in conjunction with The Comedy Trust alongside a number of events in the offing that are aimed at ending mental health discrimination through public interaction and the medium of laughter. 

What's the connection between Ralph and mental health? Well depression is called Black Dog and there's a big black dog in a very funny video by Time To Change called Wolfpack. That and the Ralph's Life CD to raise funds and awareness for Rethink Mental Illness of course!





Time to Change is England’s mental health anti-stigma programme run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness and funded by The Department of Health, Comic Relief and Big Lottery Fund.  The programme is distributing grants to local community-led projects as part of its drive to improve public attitudes and behaviour in relation to mental health.

Stand Up To Stigma, which is led by people with mental health problems, will use the grant to establish meaningful and open conversations with others in the local area. The aim is to bring people who don’t have mental health problems into social contact with those who do. 

Evidence suggests that this kind of contact is one of the most effective ways of breaking down stigma and discrimination.

The project will run a series of short stand up comedy courses that use a variety of creative techniques to help develop the skills and confidence of people living with mental health problems. 


Each course will culminate in four comedy events taking place in local libraries across St Helens, where course participants will engage audience members through their stand up routines and one to one conversations which will enable them to talk about their mental health issues. The Stand Up To Stigma project will be delivered in partnership with Addaction, St Helens Mind and St Helens Council.

Stand Up To Stigma comedy events are the finale to the six week comedy course involving people with lived experience of mental health issues. The events will showcase the routines written and performed by the budding comedians and will be introduced by Liverpool stand-up, Sam Avery. There will also be a chance to chat to the participants about their own experiences after they have performed. So please do come along, have a laugh and help to ‘stand up to stigma’. Comedy events are free. 

As said, Ralph's always up for a laugh, so I've joined up too! The relevant expression is - 'bricking it'.

Update:

Having just 'broken my bones' on evening two of the six week course by doing three minutes of 'comedy' material that I'd written, I can only say that I have the utmost respect for anyone that gets up on stage and performs stand up. As Sam Avery was quoted as saying - 'it's easier to become a Jedi'. 



Update:

The six week course is long gone and I've since performed a couple of times in St Helens. The second of which was in front of over 50 people in Central Library where the project finale will be taking place on January 16th.  There's 120 tickets available for that one from this link (word on the street is there's only 20 left) and they're free!

If you want any more info call a mental health helpline & choose the relevant option - For OCD, press 1 - repeatedly...if you're co-dependent...get someone else to press 2.



I'm here all week...however here's a video of the wife killing it at the big Stand Up To Stigma Finale in St Helens Library on January 16th...

Here's just a few pictures of the Stand Up To Stigma Comedy Event in Newton Le Willows Library...it was a tremendous success with both the performers and the crowd enjoying a great afternoons entertainment and afterwards, discussions about mental health issues.