Musicians Against Homelessness

You can donate to Ralph's Just Giving Campaign for Musicians Against Homelessness and 
Crisis UK by clicking here - Ralph's Life Just Giving

OASIS guru Alan McGee is teaming up with local bands in St Helens as part of his new campaign against homelessness. The music mogul launched a new nationwide campaign called Musicians Against Homelessness earlier this year to raise funds for the homeless charity Crisis. It is supported by Happy Mondays legend Shaun Ryder, Irvine Welsh, Cast, The Buzzcocks, Black Grape, The Jesus & Mary Chain and hundreds more bands.

Bands in St Helens have rallied to the cause with The Boston Shakers, Stillia, Scarlet, Vukovar, The Bordellos, Titors Insignia and The Pretty Pennys as well as, Ambrose Chappel, Bloch Eyot, Graham Marshall, Museum Of Backward Hats and The Loving Memory from other parts of the UK playing Zoo Bar, Westfield Street, on Saturday 17th September from 12pm to 12am.

Alan McGee said: “I am delighted that bands of this calibre want to be part of this campaign. “The support in St Helens has been tremendous and inspiring and it’s fantastic to see so many come forward to take part.

“Although our primary concern is to combat the scourge of homelessness it is vital that the MAH gigs also give up-and-coming combos a chance to play to larger audiences.”

The St Helens event is organised by Ralph's Life who said: “We are delighted to have Stillia at our event as they’ve just signed a management contract plus a host of other local bands and others from all corners of the UK. It will be a spectacular 12 hours of music in Zoo Bar.

The event is hosted by Ralph’s Indie Show and will be transmitted live by Radio Kaos Caribou to 158 countries worldwide.

Tickets are available from Hudson Smokehouse, Bridge Street, St Helens - The Deanes House, Prescot - Pop In The Attic, 8 Commercial Street, St Helens and Stillia or online from: www.wegottickets.com/event/363936.

Sponsors of the event are

Zoo Bar, Jasper PR and Radio Kaos Caribou

Ambrose Chappel

Southport producer Ambrose Chappel has been a long time favourite of Ralph's and his debut live performance was at the Ralph's Life event for Rethink Mental Illness in London's iconic Proud Camden.

We're delighted that Ambrose has agreed to come and kick off the proceedings in Zoo Bar on September 17th.




The Bordellos

St Helens band The Bordellos have long been a part of the local music scene and have just released their latest EP Garry Glitter (as recently reviewed on Ralph's Life) to no small amount of critical acclaim.

Ralph was of the opinion that lead track was a cross between The Fall and Joy Division, no bad thing!

We're looking forward to this all to infrequent opportunity to catch them live.

Graham Marshall

Scottish born but now resident in the North east of England, singer sonwriter Graham Marshall has had a long and varied career which included making an award winning film of his epic busking trip the length of Britain.

To quote Abel Folger of The Miami New Times - "Gravel gargling vocals that are full of pop hooks, melody and harmony accompany anthems that blast out of Graham's acoustic guitar. He's immediately infectous!"





TiTORS iNSiGNiA

St Helens band TiTORS iNSiGNiA have gone through a few line-up changes but under the stewardship of front man Stu Oggy are one of the hardest working and consistently rocking it out bands in the North West.

They also played at the Ralph's Life event for Rethink in Proud Camden and we're extremely grateful to them for agreeing to play for Musicians Against Homelessness at Zoo Bar as part of Ralph's 'get On The Wall' event to raise funds for Crisis UK.




Bloch Eyot

We're extremely privileged to have the enigmatic Bloch Eyot volunteer to come all the way from London to perform in Zoo bar for Musicians Against Homelessness. Bloch has had a career that has seen him appear on Top Of The Pops with Feeder, manage a famousrecording studio in The Lebanon and written music with people as varied as Pink Floyd's Rick Wright and Chris Difford of Squeeze.

He now performs house and barge concerts throughout Europe and the UK so this is a rare chance to catch him at Zoo Bar in St Helens!




The Loving Memory


Based in sunny Cleethorpes over on the East Coast The Loving Memory are making their way over to the North West to join the local bands playing for Musicians Against Homelessness on September 17th.

The band are fronted by the talented singer songwriter Sam Simmons who is currently at No 1 (week comencing 29.8.16) in Ralph's Top 10 blogs.





Vukovar


Local lads Vukovar are self-styled idealists, voyeurs and totalitarians who play music that John Peel would have featured on his show on a regular basis back in the day.

Ralph was heard to say in a blog about this dystopian outfit - "I may have invented the phrase Bleak Pop just for their album Emperor as it lays it's foundations in all that's good from Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground to Joy Division and The Fall."

Their live performances are a thing of legend and not to be missed!




The Pretty Pennys


A popular band on the St Helens live music scene, The Pretty Pennys always deliver a high energy, guitar driven set.

They've acquired a strong following locally and throughout the North West as they extend their gigging and last year they performed an excellent set when they supported Blossoms at Central Library, St Helens in June of 2015.





Museum Of Backward Hats


Liverpool based Museum Of Backward Hats are another band best savoured live. Always popular in Merseyside, it will be great to have the chance to see these veterans of the Scouse music scene live and loud in St Helens.

With a strong collection of material behind them, they're very much ones to stir up an audience and guaranteed to get Zoo Bar jumping.




Stillia


Prolific young band Stillia need no introduction to St Helens live music fans as they're already stalwarts of the local scene. Their star is definitely in the ascendancy though as they've just signed a management contract and are currently recording their debut album.

Next years Catfish & The Bottlemen or Blossoms maybe - only time will tell, but watch this space!

They're also another band that travelled down to play Proud Camden for Ralph's event for Rethink Mental Illness in 2014.




Scarlet


Female fronted, Liverpool based Scarlet are quickly establishing themselves on not only the North West scene but also further afield, in fact they've just performed at a music festival in Tallin!


They've long been favourites on Ralph's radio KC Indie Show and it was with with great pleasure that we were able to announce they were playing the Musicians Against Homelessness event in Zoo Bar.

They're a force of nature live, St Helens won't know what hit it!




The Boston Shakers


Ralph had this to say of Liverpool based The Boston Shakers - "They bring their own brand of in-your-face, blues infused rock 'n' roll to the table with heavy beats, a smattering of rap and no small amount of swagger."

They've enjoyed lots of radio play from BBC Merseyside and worldwide via internet radio stations including Ralph's Indie Show on Radio KC. A crowd pleaser to close out a stellar day of live music!

Tickets are available from

Hudson Smokehouse, Bridge Street, St Helens

The Deanes House, Prescot

Pop In The Attic, 8 Commercial Street, St Helens

and Stillia

or online from www.wegottickets.com/event/363936.

Sponsors of the event are

Zoo Bar, Jasper PR and Radio Kaos Caribou

Tickets are available from Hudson Smokehouse, Bridge Street, St Helens - The Deanes House, Prescot - Pop In The Attic, 8 Commercial Street, St Helens and Stillia or online from www.wegottickets.com/event/363936.

Westfield Music Festival

Unless you live in Glastonbury or Kinross it's not often a music festival turns up on your doorstep, however, Ralph's got lucky because the inaugural Westfield Street Festival in St Helens is just over a week away! Taking place over a number of venues in the town's Westfield Street and featuring some of the North West's best Indie bands it's a breath of fresh musical air for the towns live music fans.




The day kicks off at 12pm-ish with Becky Leigh in The Sefton, Cold Turkey in The Zoo Bar and 2 Piece Suit in Tank. Highlights for Ralph later in The Zoo Bar will be a first time viewing of the excellent Jeremiah Ferrari and a catch-up with St Helens own Titors Insignia who were good enough to travel down to London and play at the Ralph's Life CD charity gig in Proud Camden.

From Manchester, the four young men in Jeramiah Ferrari fuse reggae, rock, ska, punk, and more to create a sound influenced by the likes of Bob Marley and Sublime, yet unique enough to call their own.

They won the 2012 Key 103 City Soundwave competition appearing at The MEN Arena with Will Young, Labrinth, Tulisa, Taio Cruz, Professor Green, Rizzle Kicks & One Direction.

Titors Insignia formed mid 2008 and have supported Paloma Faith, Alabama 3, Don Bronco, Steve Craddock, The Guillamots and Proud Mary, building themselves a solid reputation in the process with a crowd pleasing live set and pride themselves on raw performances show after show. Their debut album "Fair City Riots" is an electrifying concoction of influences ranging from Britpop to classic rock with a sprinkling of Indie, and healthy dose of Punk thrown in for good measure.

They released the single 'Freedom Fighter' to help raise funds for ABF The Soldiers Charity.  The single and video was launched in The Cinema Bar, St Helens to a full house including a number of local celebrities including Andy Reid, a former corporal with the 3rd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment and was the inspiration for the song. 











Another highlight is local band Stillia, who also played the Ralph's Life CD Camden gig. They're self-taught musicians who've come together to create a unique sound influenced by their rock 'n' roll heroes.  They've spent time in the rehearsal studio refining their sound and their musicianship and the end result is a tight hard rocking unit with strong songwriting ability.  Whilst they have many influences they've managed to carve out their own style.

I'm also looking to catch Scarlet. in Bar Java so I'll be wearing my running shoes! After touring the UK as lead guitarist and backing vocalist of up and coming band The Thespians, being signed in Japan with Vinyl Junkie Records and supporting bands such as Catfish and the Bottlemen, Findlay and SPACE, as well as receiving support from Elbows Guy Garvey, Radio 6, Radio 2, and XFM, Jessie Scarlet launched her solo project Scarlet. in February of this year.







Needless to say there are a legion of acts playing over the day and at a number of different venues, so I'll leave you to peruse the list and make your own mind up as to who you'll go see on the day.