“Matt used his voice for the first time” – Matthew’s story
In his twenties, Matthew sustained a brain injury in a motorbike accident that caused multiple physical injuries, problems with speech and language and more. Here’s his music therapy story.
Autism Awareness Week is this week and we’ll be showing how important music can be for people on the autistic spectrum. For more information and advice on how to get involved use the button below.
Amazon Smile – donate to Nordoff Robbins as you shop
Through Amazon Smile, every time you shop on Amazon a charity of your choosing will receive a donation from each purchase, at no extra cost to you. It’s super easy, all you need to do is set your chosen charity and shop.
Nordoff Robbins presents Share the Stage – starting 7 April
Share the Stage is an online community space for musicians to share music, ideas and experiences. There is a virtual Jam Night on Zoom on the first Wednesday of each month, starting on 7 April. More details will be posted in the group and it is open to all members to either perform or spectate.
We want to add musical value to your life, which is why we’ve created a suite of musical resources you, your family or friends which are inclusive and accessible to all. If you’d like to learn an instrument we also have our Accessible Music Learning available.
In association with Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy charity, Wet Wet Wet will stream an exclusive one hour online show at 7.30pm on Saturday 17 April 2021. Use the button below to buy tickets.
As a charity we receive no government funding, so we rely on the generosity and support of people like you, our supporters. Here are a few ways you can help Nordoff Robbins and the people we help. Fund music for others – you can make a one-off donation or become a regular giver to Nordoff Robbins here.Share your music therapy stories – We would love to hear your stories of how music therapy has helped you or a somebody you know. You can share your story here.Spread the word – We would love you to share our news with your friends and family and encourage them to sign up to our newsletter.We hope you stay safe and are looking after yourself. The Nordoff Robbins team
It’s starting to feel a lot more like spring outside, and with the different parts of the UK mapping our way out of lockdown, we’re looking forward to providing more face-to-face music therapy and bringing together our musical communities in person.
“What a gift Hannah’s music was to Levi” – Levi’s story
Levi is five years old, lives with anxiety and has trouble socially interacting. To help with this, he was recommended Nordoff Robbins music therapy.
Sadly, he lost his Grandad shortly before his music therapy started. His Grandad used to play the ukulele and guitar for him, so this was a huge loss musically as well as in every other way.
He has now been having sessions with music therapist, Hannah, for a year. Here’s what Levi’s mum, Laura has had to say.
We love to hear about how music therapy has helped you or someone you know, or how music has helped you through the past year. If you would like to share your music story with us then please use the button below.
On Stage at Home Live! Would your child like to make music with the Clangers?
We’re back making music with BBC children’s TV show, Clangers, on Wednesday 3 March, 10:00am. The Clangers are a family of loveable, pink, mouse-like creatures who communicate in whistles and live in space on their Little Blue Planet.
This time we’re putting on a live online (Zoom) music making session for children (under 5) and their parents to sing, clap and move along to, led by our music therapist, Emily, and Tiny and Small Clanger.
If you know someone who would like to join On Stage at Home Live! then sign up below, we’d love to see you there.
We’ve created brand new, fun, interactive music making video resources for children to be used at home (or school). They are all fully accessible and made specifically for children and young people to make music with our music therapists.
There’s something for everyone with five different activities and 20 videos, including music making, sensory music time, singing and signing, mindful music and Lou’s digital music makers.
Got a taste for whisky? Join our virtual whisky tasting evening on 25 March
Join us on Thursday 25 March, 7:15pm for a virtual whisky tasting fundraiser from Seamus Bar, Isle of Skye.
You don’t have to be a whisky expert to join in, it is open for anyone who enjoys the taste or simply wants to experience an evening of whisky tasting.
There’s a lovely line up of whisky (from Glenfiddich to Balvenie) and all proceeds will go towards helping us to provide more music therapy to vulnerable people across the UK.
The long-standing Legends of Rugby event in aid of Nordoff Robbins, which sees the world of rugby and music come together in a celebration of one of England’s Rugby heroes, will take place virtually on Friday 26 February 2021.
To run alongside the event, they are running a virtual auction with some really cool prizes.
So, if you fancy getting your hands on a Ronnie Wood or Jimi Hendrix print, sports memorabilia, hospitality sports packages or even a Michelin star meal then check out the Legends of Rugby auction today.
Specsavers Scottish Music Awards 2020 shortlisted at the Digital Awards
We’re thrilled to be shortlisted for the Best Digital Fundraising Event at this year’s Digital Awards.
The virtual ceremony saw some of Scotland’s biggest stars come together and raised over £90,000 to help us to carry on providing music therapy in the middle of the pandemic.
Don’t worry if you missed it, they’ll be a very special edition coming out soon, so keep your eyes peeled as we’ll be sharing more in the March newsletter.
Ways Nordoff Robbins can help you
At Nordoff Robbins we want to bring musical value to your life. The power of music has never been more important than during lockdown, where many of us find ourselves isolated from friends and family. Below are musical resources for you, your family or friends which are fully inclusive and accessible to all. On Stage at Home Live! – Join us and the Clangers live on Wednesday 3 March, 10:00 am for a live online music making session for preschool children. Sign up here today, there are only limited spaces available.Music Making – Brand new musical resources for children to use at home. Fully inclusive and accessible, there are over 20 interactive music making sessions available. Find out more here.Inclusive online choir – Our inclusive online choir runs every Tuesday from 4pm and is suitable for people of all ages and abilities. If you’d like to find out more or get involved click here.Singalongs – Singing is an essential means of staying well, of promoting social bonds and strengthening communities. Our music therapists have created a suite of singalong packages to suit people of all ages and abilities. Click here to view our Singalong packages.Musical Conversations – Musical Conversations give you the opportunity to talk about music with one of our music therapists – who are all musicians and understand the importance of music in everyday life. Find out more here.
Ways you can help Nordoff Robbins
As a charity we receive no government funding, so we rely on the generosity and support of people like you, our supporters. Fund music for others – you can make a one-off donation or become a regular giver to Nordoff Robbins here.Share your music therapy stories – We would love to hear your stories of how music therapy has helped you or a somebody you know. You can share your story here.Spread the word – We would love you to share our news with your friends and family and encourage them to sign up to our newsletter.
Music brings us closer together. Music can be made and enjoyed by anyone. And at times like this, the connectivity that music brings is more important than ever.
Whether it’s listening, creating or performing, we truly believe that the shared experience of music will help bring us together.
We have created a number of musical resources and activities aimed at people of all ages and abilities and we’ve made a playlist of our singalongs and On Stage at Home with Clangers videos you can use to help stay connected and upbeat 🎶
As national lockdown restrictions are starting to be relaxed, we’re assessing what this means for our charity and our mission to provide music therapy, train the music therapists of tomorrow and carry out research within music therapy.
Over the last few months, we’ve been developing online and virtual approaches to music therapy so we could continue to support people through music. This will be continuing until at least September as it is still not safe enough to provide face to face music therapy sessions at our centres around the UK. However, we are slowly starting to return to working in organisations like care homes, mental health units, and schools. We hope this will continue to increase in the coming months.
Our education provision has finished for the summer but when the new academic year begins in September our aim is to be able to restart our Master of Music Therapy and PHD programmes with some face to face tuition alongside the online teaching we’ve put in place. We continue to pause our music therapy research work while our focus is on getting our music therapy provision and education back up and running.
We’ll continue to monitor the situation and respond to what people need from us at this moment in time so we can make the most positive impact with music possible. “The Mountbatten choir has helped me so much”– Sue’s Story
The Mountbatten Hospice community choir is run by Nordoff Robbins music therapist, Fraser Simpson. It is made up of around 80 people who used to meet every Wednesday in the hospice’s day centre, but it has now moved online since lockdown. Sue joined the choir in January 2017 not long after it was first started. She joined after her husband passed away, who had been cared for by the Mountbatten Hospice teams. Below we hear from Sue about how the choir has helped her and how it has adapted since lockdown.
“The Bereavement officer in Mountbatten Hospice mentioned to me that the Mountbatten choir was open to everyone, should I like to join.
The choir has helped me so much since my first attendance in January 2017 following my bereavement. I have attended nearly every Wednesday evening since then and it has become a very important part of my life.
Fraser, who runs the Mountbatten choir, has such a unique and special way of welcoming us, and despite the fact that the choir has grown enormously since it started, he always has time for each one of us in a very individual and caring way.
It is a wonderful thing to be able to look forward to each week. To know that there is no pressure and that I will be with people who have been through or experienced similar situations to myself, with who there is an immediate bond. I have made many friends, which has been invaluable in building my new way of life alone.
When ‘lockdown’ occurred, Fraser and Mountbatten were able to assist the choir members who wanted to carry on attending the choir and continue to sing online through ‘Zoom’.
This has been an exciting new challenge and I am so pleased that I have been able to achieve this, using new skills acquired and being able to continue to enjoy singing at this particularly difficult time of lockdown and the feeling of isolation.
It has assisted me in so many ways and I am absolutely sure it has helped my health and well-being enormously over the past three years – all due to Fraser and Mountbatten, to whom I remain indebted.” Watch the Mountbatter Choir perform before lockdown through Joy’s storyMusical Conversations We’ve always wanted to help people access the benefits of music, especially during these challenging times.
This is why we’re introducing Musical Conversations from our music services team. They give you the opportunity to talk about music with one of our music therapists – who are all musicians and understand the importance of music in everyday life.
We hope it will be an opportunity to share musical interests and to think together about how music can help in coping with the demands of everyday life.
Unlike counselling or psychotherapy, the conversations won’t address specific personal problems or delve into a person’s psyche. Rather we hope it will enable people to focus on the potential benefits of music, listening to music and making music in the contexts of their own lives.
If you think that you or someone you know would benefit from having a conversation about music on the phone with one of our therapists, complete the registration form using the button below and someone will be in touch soon. Register your interestNew Singalong Videos To Help You Stay Connected We’ve got three brand new Singalong videos for you to join in with.
We know lockdown may be easing, but that doesn’t mean we should all stop using music to connect. With the aptly timed We’re Walking on Sunshine (depending where you are of course), Lean on Me, and Stand By Me, there are three classic songs to sing to and make music with our music therapists. Get involved and sing todayNordoff Robbins Music Quiz More than 465 perople came together in 93 teams from across the music industry to take part in the hotly contested inaugural Nordoff Robbins Online Music Quiz earlier this month. The event not only brought together people from across the music industry, got colleagues and friends in the same (virtual) room and tested some serious music knowledge, but it also raised £6,000 for Nordoff Robbins, helping us to carry on providing music therapy and to safeguard the future of our charity.
A big thanks to our partners at Bose, Bulldog and Sporcle for helping us make it happen. After four very close heats and one tense final, a big well done to our winning team from IMG Golf.
After such success, we’ll be looking at rolling out more quizzes later in the year so watch this space. Virgin Money Online Choir After moving our inclusive community choir online and seeing how it can help with mental health and well-being during the lockdown, we wanted to offer its therapeutic benefits to organisations. We knew it had the possibility of bringing colleagues together and helping mental health and well-being in the workplace.
Virgin Money took us up on our offer and we’ve been working with them for several weeks now to set up and run their first workplace choir for over 50 of their employees.
“I’ve never had any experience of singing with other people, so I was quite nervous. But Emily you were great. I really enjoyed it.”
If your organisation could benefit from a workplace choir get in touch by replying to this email. If you’d prefer to join our inclusive community online choir sign up button below. It runs every Tuesday from 4pm and is suitable for people of all ages and abilities. Sign up to the choir todaySupergrass perform for Nordoff Robbins and CALM on Friday 21 August Goose Island are giving you the chance to witness the legendary live show of Supergrasswith the band performing at Manchester’s Band On The Wall, playing the festival headline set they wanted to perform for thousands of fans this summer.
Creators of some of the most defining tracks of the last twenty years, Supergrass boast a massive repertoire of hits including ‘Alright,’ ‘Moving’ and ‘Pumping On Your Stereo.’
Click the link below and get your ticket for just £2. All proceeds go to Nordoff Robbins and CALM. Buy a ticket or find out moreMonkey Music Aiming To Raise £20,000 For Nordoff Robbins Monkey Music offer music classes for babies and young children and have supported Nordoff Robbins for many years now. This summer, they’re aiming to raise £20,000 for Nordoff Robbins from their sing and play challenge.
Here’s what they had to say: “We are a large team of Monkey Music families from all over the UK who will sing and play songs during August and September to raise awareness of the importance of singing and playing music in our daily lives for our well-being and mental health. We want to raise awareness about the vital work Nordoff-Robbins music therapists do to enrich the lives of the people they work with.” A Big Thank You To The Worm Club A huge congratulations and thank you to our music industry friends from the likes of Warner, Virgin, SYCO and BMG who dusted off their cycling gear to raise £10,000 for Nordoff Robbins. Members of the ‘The Worm Club’ cycled a total of 300 miles on Friday 24 July to raise as much as possible to support our music therapy work.
Worm Club’s Jeremy Marsh of Warner Music said: “We chose to support Nordoff Robbins, as three of the group have been closely involved in the music business and we’re all touched by the dilemma facing the charity, due to the loss of fundraising events during the Covid crisis” As usual, please let us know if you have any feedback. You can do this by responding to this email.
With the current coronavirus pandemic it has affected live music like never before, with artists seeing their live revenues disappear, plus the related venues all close for now and many people associated with the music industry also losing their jobs and income. Coupled with this charities have seen their fundraising diminished as we all socially distance and events are cancelled.
But it is not all doom and gloom as musicians are rapidly adapting with live streaming gigs, Q&A’s, although it will only go some way to replacing the sales from merchandise. Charities are adapting too, with Nordoff Robbins hosting various events including streamed live from their music therapists.
So I am going to ‘piggy back’ on bands/artists doing gigs to see if they will kindly promote the wonderful work of the Nordoff Robbins charity, along with of course the bands/artists kind enough to mention the charity. Plus I will also be highlighting the work of NHS Charities Together as they help support the NHS workers, their families and the volunteers.
If any band/artists (including authors!) would like to join in please feel free to contact me.
Below are the bands/artists that have kindly joined in to date. Either by dedicating a streaming gig to Fifty Gigs In A Day/Nordoff Robbins and/or kindly mentioning Nordoff Robbins on their social media. Please visit their pages and give them a listen & support. Thank you
Well – what a difference a week makes?! We really hope you’re receiving this email safe, well and staying positive in the face of this truly awful global crisis. It’s certainly been a bit of a roller-coaster for us, and we’re sure many of you can relate to that. We’ve had our wobbles in the last week – but we’ve taken the decision that positive mental attitude is the only way to approach a situation such as this.
You’ll have probably heard by now that we’ve postponed all of our concerts between now and the end of June. We’re in the thick of rescheduling all of those and we should be able to announce details of that very soon. If you currently have a ticket for one of those postponed concerts, your ticket will remain valid for the new date. If you can’t make it, you can just approach whoever you bought it from and a full refund will be issued.
So that’s the slightly depressing bit of this email!
But look – we’ve never been ones for wallowing in self-pity and we’re not even going to let something like COVID-19 get between us and bringing music to all of you!
It’s been an incredibly exciting few months since we last contacted you. Huge thanks if you’ve managed to catch us over the last few weeks. We’ve had a string of wonderful rural touring shows – all sold out thanks to you and the wonderful promoters that have been working so hard behind the scenes.
And you might be aware we also managed to win BEST DUO in the Folking.com awards. Thanks so much if you managed to find the time to vote for us. Being a public vote, it almost feels more special than some of the other awards we’ve been up for in the past – without the support of people like you, we just wouldn’t be able to achieve this stuff, so we really are truly grateful! 😊
And finally…we’re still recovering from a superb ‘double choir’ concert which we held down in Poole on Saturday. We were joined from far and wide – with people even coming all the way from Wales to see the show. It really was a corker too!! We’ve got two more choir concerts coming up this summer – so do take a look at the gig list if you’re interested in catching one of those!
The Ninebarrow Band is born!
So THIS is very exciting indeed. We’ve had this one under wraps for a little while now, but we’re so excited to announce that on September 14th this year, we’ll be having the first ever Ninebarrow Band concert at the Towngate Theatre at Lighthouse Poole. With John Parker on double bass, Evan Carson on percussion and Lee MacKenzie on cello, this is going to be something rather special. We thought maybe you’d like to have a look at a wee snippet from our first rehearsal a few weeks ago. It’s a little clip of For A Time – our song about the ‘lost’ village of Tyneham.
Poole Lighthouse is the same venue where we had our album launch last year, and it was such a wonderful evening – an amazing theatre and a full lighting show to accompany the band. We just thought it’d be fantastic to do it again and have the opportunity to not only recreate some album arrangements from over the last 6 years, but also come up with some totally new song arrangements as well.
Tickets have literally just gone on sale for this. We do understand that the south coast is quite a distance for many of the people on this mailing list, but we were delighted that so many of you were able to make it down to the album launch last year, and we can promise you – this is going to be even better. 😎 Click below for details!
New dates announced!
And of course – we’ve just announced a raft of new duo dates elsewhere around the country too – and it’d be lovely to see you out and about sometime soon! Check out the map on the top right and, as always, find all our upcoming dates over at www.ninebarrow.co.uk/gigs.
Until next time!
All the best,
Upcoming
Shows
Wed 15 May 2019
Ely Folk Club
Thu 16 May 2019
St Peter’s Church,
Dunchurch
Fri 17 May 2019
The Ram Club
Thames Ditton
Sat 18 May 2019
St Andrew’s Church,
Letcombe Regis
Wed 22 May 2019
Cottingham Live
Hull
Thu 23 May 2019
The Place Theatre
Bedford
Fri and Sat 25 May 2019
Ireby Festival 2019
Sun 26 May 2019
Chester Folk Festival 2019
Chester
Fri 07 Jun 2019
St Michael the Archangel
Chagford
Sat 08 Jun 2019
Bickerton Village Hall
Cheshire
Sun 09 Jun 2019
Wimborne Minster Folk Festival 2019
Fri 14 Jun 2019
St George the Martyr Church
Milton Keynes
Sat 15 Jun 2019
St John the Baptist Church
Stanton-St-John, Oxford
Sun 16 Jun 2019 NINEBARROW CHOIR
CONCERT
Crediton Congregational Church
Thu 20 Jun 2019
The Atkinson
Southport
Fri 21 Jun 2019
St Andrews United Reformed Church
Sheffield
Sat 06 Jul 2019
Kimpton Folk Festival 2019
Hitchin
Sat 13 Jul 2019 NINEBARROW CHOIR
CONCERT
St John’s Church, Totnes
Sun 21 Jul 2019 BBQ CONCERT
Manor Green, Cossington
Fri 9th Aug 2019
St John the Baptist, Horrabridge
Devon
Fri 16th August
Broadstairs Folk Week
Sat 17th Aug 2019
Moira Furnace Folk Festival
Sat 14th September LIGHTHOUSE POOLE BAND
CONCERT
Dorset
Tues 17th Sep 2019
Wurzel Bush Folk Club
Coventry
Wed 18th Sep 2019
Ripon International Festival
Ripon
Thu 19th Sep 2019
Rolleston Village Hall
Newark
Fri 20th Sep 2019
Harwell Village Hall
Abingdon
Sat 21st Sep 2019
Peopleton Village Hall
Worcestershire
Fri 27th Sep 2019
St Mark’s Church
Croydon
Sat 28th Sep 2019
Chard Church
Somerset
For more info on these gigs and many more see the gigs page on our website.
Generally, it’s been a quiet time for Fairport. However,
Chris has been on the road with Feast of Fiddles, Ric has recorded a new
album with his trio, and Simon has been walking the Cumbrian mountains
in the rain.
It hasn’t rained much here in north Oxfordshire however. In fact, as
we write, it’s a lovely spring day outside. Appropriately so, for it is
under a week before we head out on our annual Spring Tour which kicks
off next Tuesday 7 May in Leamington Spa.
As many of you know our semi-acoustic Spring Tour gives us a
chance to try out new arrangements of favourites from our repertoire as
well as road-testing some new songs for our forthcoming album. Compared
to the Winter Tour gigs, these shows tend
to be in smaller venues and have a more intimate feel.
We have thirty shows planned throughout the British Isles. This year
we’re crossing the Irish Sea to play in Dublin, Limerick, Armagh, Cork,
Kilkenny and Belfast. For these shows across the water we will be
accompanied by The 4 of Us who many of you will
remember from their appearances as our Winter Tour guests.
We’re really looking forward to this run of gigs and it will be great to see you all.
Spring is certainly in the air around Cropredy. The meadow grass is
growing lusher by the day, the trees are vivid with new foliage and the
River Cherwell is glinting and sparkling in the sun as it meanders along
the boundary of the festival site. It all
adds up to the perfect venue to celebrate our festival’s fortieth
anniversary on Thursday 8, Friday 9, and Saturday 10 August 2019.
As we’ve said, we have a great line-up this year. By way of reminder, the headliners are
The Waterboys (Thursday), Frank Turner (Friday) and us on Saturday. The barnstorming
Gogol Bordello join us on Thursday with Richard Thompson and Seth Lakeman playing the Friday.
A reminder too that May is the last month to get your Cropredy
tickets at the early-bird prices. From 1 June all tickets go up by £5 so
buy now and save a fiver per ticket to spend at the bar!
As we always say, please don’t leave buying tickets until the last minute – we’d hate any of you to miss out!
The 2019 summer concert calendar has just been lit up with the announcement of YES’ North American concert tour, “The Royal Affair Tour.” Headlined by prog rock pioneers and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees YES, who triumphed last year with their acclaimed and hugely successful #YES50: Celebrating 50 Years of YES tour, this must-see best-of-British-rock show will also feature Asia with the return of founding member Steve Howe in a special performance, John Lodge of The Moody Blues, and Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy with guest vocals by Arthur Brown. View the trailer:
The first set of dates for “The Royal Affair Tour” has been announced. The trek will launch Wednesday, June 12 in Bethlehem, PA and visit cities including Holmdel, NJ; Toronto; Nashville, Hollywood, FL; Phoenix; Las Vegas; and Irvine, CA before wrapping Sunday, July 28 in Saratoga, CA. Most shows go on sale Friday, April 5. More dates will be revealed in the coming weeks.
YES is Steve Howe (guitar – joined 1970), Alan White (drums since 1972), Geoff Downes (keyboards; first joined in 1980), Jon Davison (vocals since 2011) and Billy Sherwood (guitar/keyboards in the 1990s and the late Chris Squire’s choice to take over bass/vocals in 2015), with Jay Schellen on additional drums. See quotes below from YES.
Look for YES to perform songs from throughout their storied career, one of rock music’s most prized bodies of work, and their set will honor the memory of YES members Chris Squire and Peter Banks.
• Asia will play their signature songs and pay tribute to their late founding member John Wetton. A portion of their set will feature original guitarist Steve Howe in a special performance. Asia will also introduce its new line-up featuring guitarist/lead vocalist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal and bassist Billy Sherwood.
• John Lodge’s set will encompass his classic hits by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Moody Blues and pay tribute to the band’s recently departed member Ray Thomas.
• Carl Palmer will honor the memory of his fellow Emerson, Lake and Palmer members Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, with vocals by British vocalist Arthur Brown.
• As part of the evening’s British theme, there will be Alan White of YES’ tribute to John Lennon; White was the drummer on Lennon’s solo material including the recording of “Imagine.”
Steve Howe: “Yes is delighted to headline this celebration of British music which has been so warmly received in America over the past five decades.”
Alan White: “I’m looking forward to joining a number of classic British talents that have delighted so many fans over the past half century.”
Geoff Downes: “This is a unique celebration of the British contribution to classic rock over many decades. It will be inspirational to be a part of. And I know it is what John Wetton would have wanted.”
The idea is to have a whole host of gigs/events mention via their social media posts the work of the Nordoff Robbins charity on and around the 8 February each year
The long-standing Legends of Rugby event in aid of Nordoff Robbins, which sees the world of rugby and music come together in a celebration of one of England’s Rugby heroes, will take place virtually on Friday 26 February 2021.
The event not only brought together people from across the music industry, got colleagues and friends in the same (virtual) room and tested some serious music knowledge, but it also raised £6,000 for Nordoff Robbins, helping us to carry on providing music therapy and to safeguard the future of our charity.
Fifty Gigs In A Day 