The Peoples' String Foundation was founded in 2005 by Ben Sutcliffe and Zaid Al-Rikabi. We met on a recording session for a short film directed by Dan Johnson (winner of the 2004 Cornish Film Festival), and quickly set about writing and recording their project - "Making Waves". Our vision was that of a long term musical partnership supported by a collective of fellow musicians.We then hit the acoustic circuit around the South and South West, as a jazz/blues/folk duet for good practice. A highlight of these shows was a charity event held in Bath for a Romanian gypsy orphanage due for closure. Word soon spread, and a collective of like minded musicians got together in support. There was some real talent on show that evening, a young soul singer from London - Fahan Hassan, and an ecclectic guitarist - Damiri Topham. Overall, the band raised well over the expected target of £1000.In 2007 things really started cooking for us. We had just finished a 5 month tour as MD's for 'Rogue Theatre' playing gypsy/circus music for 'Madame Lucindas Wonder Show'. This went down so well that a new tour has been booked from September 2007 to May 2008, heading all over Brittain. The most exiting venues being the 'Royal Opera House' for a two week stint, and the 'Battersy Arts Center'.Our plan for 2007 was to make a living from music, to put us in a better position to perform and promote our 'Making Waves' project. We have certainly kept ourselfs busy! We have worked as session musicians for Phil Innus in projects for the 'Hall for Cornwall' and the 'Minack Theatre'. Our most permanent work has been for 'Boogie Nation' under the direction of Will Garwood. Boogie Nation is a versitile covers band of seventys funk and glam rock, dedicated to having a good time - the audiences seem to enjoy it too!! We play to well over a thousand people a week in this project, be it weddings, army bases, holiday parks, or festivals. This has been geat practice for us, and the constant gigging has certainly put some perspective on stage fright! We have also been playing with a talented live funk band '4 Tons of Funk' which has been great fun - playing a fair bit of James Brown and other 70's classics. Our most recent contract has been working with children at the 'Lit Fest', a festival run by Rick Worthy (promoter for Glastonbury). Rogue Theatre was running a tent called "Mucking about with words". Our part in this (along with the talented Wendy Taylor) was to do workshops with young people who had written their own ideas for songs, and to help those songs develop, the finishing touch being a performance in the live tent. Brilliant fun, and a whole array of talent.All of the above has kept us busy enough, and has developed our skills as musicians and composers allowing us to bring more to the table for 'The Peoples String Foundation' . One of the highlights of the year has been playing for BBC Radio Devon on the Jon Govier show,10pm-1am. We first played for his Friday night live session - the two of us wrapped around a single mic rocking out three of our songs and having a chat inbetween. We really hit it off with Jon and his assistant Kev and had a really enjoyable time. The live broadcast can still be heard on Jon Goviers web page - check it out! A couple of months later we had an urgent call from Jon saying that he needed a band to play at a live show in Plymouth for the shows 1 year anniversary. Of course we jumped on this oppertunity and a couple of days later were on stage playing to a few hundred people in an old cinema, but the exiting thing was the live broadcast to well over 50'000 listeners. The show was a big success all round, and a milestone for 'The Peoples String Foundation'. Our relationship with Jon and the BBC continues, we have since been involved in their summer sounds project 2007. This involved radio devon going on the road and recording various local bands from different locations. We had great fun doing it and, again, it was a huge success.We continue to gig sparadically, with different members of our collective supporting us each time. We had an exciting time performing at 'Lit Festival' both in the Cabaret Tent and on the outside stage (luckily for us the sun was shining - so a few Bob Marley numbers went down a treat!). And were the headlining act for the post show party for Rogue Theatre. And have played some fantasic venues all around the south west from St. Agnes to Totnes and Port Elliot to Penzance. The album, "Making Waves" is in the final stages of mixing and will be available soon to download, so 'watch this space!' Also our Website is well on the way and should be finished by the winter tour. And we are also on Myspace and Facebook so check us out and become friends with, "The People's String Foundation" to keep up to date with our music, gigs and progress.There has been a keen demand for session work from various artists all over the country. names include - The Stranglers, Jim McCarthy ( The Yardbirds ), Fahan Hassan, Alcatraz Swim Team to name but a few.
Get this myspace layouts
MySpace Layouts
MySpace Layouts MySpace Codes MySpace Backgrounds
..
