MERCI BEAUCOUP. MUCHAS GRACIAS. आपका बहुत बहुत धन्यवाद. много вам хвала. Ευχαριστώ πολύ. THANK YOU.26/6/2019 We both wish to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed to this year’s Mearfest at Farnham Royal Village hall. Starting with the delightful Marie Edwards, Karen Barker, Aiden Tierney, Ultan Tierney, Pete Hood, Keith Adams, Peter Adams, Barrie Dorling, Linda Dorling. You guys made this all happen, setting us up, keeping the bar stocked, keeping the cake and tea in full flow, cleaning, clearing away, answering stupid questions, sorting out tricky situations, and we must mention your total honesty and generosity with donations made at the bar. A total of £850.00 including tea and cake, which no other venue has ever offered nor matched.  Next a big thank you to John Thomas Bell our Lord of light and sound, along with Abi Martin from Chapel Bell studios for all your incredible technical expertise, it was an audio delight of pure perfection, your combined dedication and tireless hard work was certainly noted by everyone of us. Denial of Humanity DOH, for loaning us your 4 by 12 guitar cabinets for the whole weekend, and for being brave to be first on stage to kick the weekend off, hats off to you fellas. Dave from Saffron Studios High Wycombe for your search and magical finds of very urgent Thunderstick drum stuff! Phew we did it. Andy Wallis for all the VIP backstage passes, Graham Orion Pax for your legendary posters. A massive thank you to the divine Martyn Turner who took excellent photos as ever. To the mighty John Lambton who travelled from Newcastle to take photos and roadie, Nicky, and Mike Richardson from Rebel Crow for all your amazing photographs and we hope film to come, and Nick Grimley for capturing special moments on disc. Robin Brancher for the original 40th anniversary t-shirt design and how could we not mention Martin Walkyier-Maia for printing them so perfectly and on time.   ABI MONDAY AFTERNOON AFTER FINAL CLEAN UP   LIFE SAVERS John Bellinger was everything over the weekend, set decorator babysitter between our official babysitters, tea maker, bunting and lanyard provider, t-shirt seller, clearer upper on both days and on Monday morning we salute you good Sir, and Carl Burridge for your support and kindness in many areas. Daniel Boon our man on the door, thank you for the amazing family canvas. T-shirts and auction raffles hosted by the delectable Ruth Moore and divine Jim Miller, and Gareth Memory for your hard-selling organisation and honesty. Ian Warner and Richard Johnson for our efficient Mearfest south security. (And to Mrs. Danielle Johnson for your donation. Keeping it sweet!)   THANK YOU TO ALL THE BANDS DOH, GANG, QUARTZ, THE CLAN, VICTORIUS EMPIRE, WEAPON UK, CULLODEN, AIRFORCE, BLACKMAYNE, MANDORA, CHEMIKILL, SNATCHBACK, THE DEAD CAN WAIT, RAMPANT, MALLEUS, AND THE MIGHTY THUNDERSTICK. A SUPERSTAR thank you to the one and only Steve Grimmett from The Grim Reaper and his lovely wife Amelia who spent the whole day with us on Sunday (we love anyone who stays to the end) but who also made a few guys from Newcastle very happy, he sang ‘See You In Hell’ live. It was truly amazing, dream big people, it can come true. Weapon UK’s Danny Haynes and Jeff Summers for months of promotions on our behalf, for answering all the online Mearfest questions, when we were too busy elsewhere, and for bringing Pippi. Bill and Agnes and the whole of the Gang, for coming all the way from France, you know what you did for us, for which we thank you. Nick Grimley, again…. for his fine legendary Mearfest ales, which now have their very own Mearfest page.   RAFFLE-AUCTION & DONATIONS Firstly, THANK YOU to Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath for his kind donation of his book, personally signed for our auction. And to Tim Perry Quartz, for his extensive collection of Black Sabbath donations which made quite a bit of money for us guys. Dave Bonney, for being there both days and to Diamond Head and Karl Wilcox for all your merchandise donations, and support in wearing our t-shirt in front of a million people in France! Thunderstick for signing their great poster. Andro Coulton from Malleus for his bass guitar. Montreux who donated a wonderful amplifier. Blackmayne’s Phil McDermot for his guitar. Troyen’s Jeff Baddley for all your merchandise and constant support. Paul Chatfield and Desolation Angels for all your merchandise. Mick Atkin from SYZ who donated singles one of which sold for £70.00! Andy D’urso and all at Traitors Gate for your kind donations. Cameron Vegas from Metal Mirror. Marek Chudzikowski for donating Dave Mustaine signed book for the auction…£££££ Adam Mear, Charlotte Hazell, Simon Meer and Charlie for selling our legendary raffle tickets.   Dibs Hawkwinder and Sam Kirwan our patrons, for being there for us always, and for bringing the most amazing BOOZY BRANDY CAKE, which we are not sure if this made any money as it was demolished in seconds. But wins first prize for being the team building pick me up slice of the day… Nick and Nikki Patterson for all your medical assistance and extra help kindness and very generous donation, which helped us buy a much-needed new printer scanner copier and stationery. Karon and Mick Hanley for your kindness and amazing collection of unicorns for Amélie but also for your donation of £97.00 from the staff of Kilburn nursing home. Paul Binyon’s donation from all of his work colleagues at EC Outsourcing in Bouldon Newcastle of £70.00 Chris Tinkham for your amazing Mearfest cake creation to his partner Joan Howard for donating a fantastic keyboard. Joanna Watson who brought a ton of home-made cakes, delicious! And for everyone who hand baked or bought cakes we raised £250.00. (…as part of the bar donations) Bo Bennett for your very special Molly rock. The legendary ‘Patrick’ and Ronnie who yet again travelled all the way from Belgium to be with us, along with Talea Boelsems who came from Hamburg bringing Amélie an angelic keepsake which is now in her special box of treasures. John Dunn for expert T-shirt deliveroo. Rob Byrne from Montreux who just came by to help out where they could. Rob Grain and Joanne Purkis from Thunderstick for your help in setting up the stage Sunday.   BABY DUTIES Angela Holland and Carol Lyon for the biggest job of all, looking after Amélie Mear age two. She just loved the nursery green room at the back of the village hall, especially all the hundreds of new toys that did not belong to her. Everyone there was so good with her, and thank you for all her gifts. It was also her first time live on stage, where she tried to grab the mic a hundred times.      FUTURE PLANS We hope we have not missed anyone out, we can add later if we have. But after all this we are so proud of this event. The vibes were infectious. We raised £3,000 profit to give to Down Syndrome North East. Which is now a grand total of £9,000 in just TWO YEARS!!! We announced at the time, that as of now Brian and I are in the slow process of setting up our own charity, based in Norfolk where we now live. It was Amélies health visitor who suggested the absolute obvious to me! It seems we have moved to a county with no real baby loss bereavement safety net, for parents who have had to go through a stillbirth or miscarriage. We are in talks with various agencies about this and will announce our plans at a later date. We are in the process of setting up a new bank account, then looking to raise £5,000 to become a registered charity with an official number. So folks....until October 20th where MEARFEST NORTH will be in Newcastle once again, it's been a great experience for us both. We thank you all for everything each one of you has contributed. Brian, Claire Amélie and Molly Mear.   FINAL SPOOKY NOTE Oddly, all day I used my perfect little camera, it had been cleaned and checked prior, most of the photos had a glow about them, with some crazy light orbs, even though I was outside and inside the hall, no flash used, day and evening light. Shortly after we had all left for the night, a mysterious vision was captured by the village halls CCTV. Light orbs literally dancing around the hall. One big light orb is prominent, it comes right up to the stage turns left and comes back. At this time there were no cars parked in the car park, stage right has a small parking area away from any main roads, it was dark and empty. No security lights were left on. Brian remembers that they had all left the building and car park about 2am. These photos were 13 and 16 minutes after. A video is on its way and will be added later. Molly and her spirit baby friends carried on the party after we had all gone home to bed. It looks like we really did set the spirits free. The village hall was built in 1921 and under the stage are pegs where soldiers hung their guns, lots of strange things happen all the time here. The CCTV footage from the previous nights had no activity on them at all, the camera only picks up movement, there is a ton of movement here tonight. This is not dust..... I like to believe my baby is dancing in there somewhere.   Hand glow?  SEE YOU ALL 20TH OCTOBER
|
