Jackstock

November 20, 2016 Off By Jon

Barrington Theatre, Ferndown

Featuring: Mikey Ball & The Company, Southern Brotherhood, Matt JR Hurley & Jamie Lacy

On Sunday evening I was honoured to be asked to Stage manage/Compere a charity event called “Jackstock”. The event was to raise funds for a young guy called Jack Sims who suffered a life-changing injury in a mountain bike accident in the French Alps, where he suffered a serious fall. The fall resulted in life changing spinal injuries with Jack being hospitalised at Salisbury Hospital Spinal Unit. Andy De Rosa; guitarist with Bournemouth band Southern Brotherhood was the instigator of the event as Jack is his daughter’s boyfriend, and he felt he needed to do something to help.

The event was staged at the Barrington Theatre in Ferndown; where the vast majority of the £10 tickets were snapped up by many of Jack’s friends and family, along with a host of music fans who wanted to see the four local acts on the bill.

Jamie Lacy

The first of these was Jamie Lacy who kicked off the evening with a great set of covers that included an excellent stripped back version of “Toxicity” by System of a Down, followed by a reworked version of Jamie T’s “If You Got The Money”. Next up was a local singer/songwriter Matt JR Hurley who performed some well-crafted uplifting original songs which included a lovely tune about his home town of Swanage called “Sailors of the Bay”.

Matt JR Hurley 1

Southern Brotherhood are currently in the process of recording their new album and this gig gave them the chance to get out of the recording processes and perform some of their new songs in front of an audience. The band clearly relish performing with soul brothers Jeff and Andy standing side by side, giving it their all with some excellent work on the guitars. The band have a heavily blues-influenced sound with injections of Rock coming out from all angles of the spectrum. The hour-plus set delivered in all areas with new songs “12 Reasons” and “Throw it All Away” showing a slightly ‘poppier’ style than previously. The highlight of their set was another new track from the new record called “Down to Mississippi” which shows some lovely new progression from the guys. They were all having so much fun on stage they went over their set time (I blame the Stage Manager!!) by doing an extended version of the Blackberry Smoke song “Whipporwill”.

Southern Brotherhood 1–2–3–4–5

The headline band was Mike Ball & the Company who I confess to being one of my local favourites. They had a slight change of line-up due to two of their members being unavailable; with Scott Farron stepping in on bass, joining Matt Sawyer on Guitar and Lloyd Whitbread on drums. They surprised everybody by opening with a great choice of cover, Feeder’s “Feeling a Moment” which sounded great in this large hall. The rest of their set is made up of mostly original material that the audience really took on board and seemed to enjoy. Mikey has a real talent for songwriting creating varied tunes that are both infectious and entertaining in equal measure. A perfect headliner and a great end to a fantastic evening of music.

Mikey Ball 1–2–3–4

The evening was a complete success with plenty of money raised from tickets sales; as well as a whip round by the venues volunteers, who raised over £200 alone. Jack Sims himself was present and was overwhelmed by the love and support shown to him by everybody who came along. Andy De Rosa should be very proud of what he has achieved here with a little help from his friends, so that Jack’s progress continues and he can live as normal a life as possible.

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