Family Of Man

Today has been Oxjam Day. Over twelve hours of music across Beeston, at different places including cafes, pubs and the former Barton's bus depot.

There has been in the regions of seventy bands, singers and musicians playing to raise money for Oxfam.

I managed to see quite a few through the day. One of the highlights was watching The Jar Family at Barton's. Unfortunately I couldn't watch the whole of the gig, as I had to pop over to another venue to catch The Madeline Rust.

This has been the third time that the Jar Family have done Oxjam in Beeston, and the audience enjoyed themselves, with dancing and cheering along to the band's infectious style of music. Industrial folk they call it. So I thought this sepia tinged photo would complement it.

Music Makes The World Go Round

As you can imagine, being a very keen photographer and practically shooting every day for the past seven years or so, I have built up quite a very large collection of images.  So many in fact, that my Mac's hard drive is now almost full.

So to make some space, I have been partially deleting lots and exporting others to an external hard drive.  It's a long job, but one that desperately needs doing.

As I have been working away through the many folders, I came across this photo that I took last year of  Geordie band The Jar Family. They were playing in Beeston Square as part of the Oxfam music festival, which aims to raise money for Oxfam.

It's quite fortuate me coming across the photo, as it's just been announced by my friends at Oxjam that they will be playing in Beeston again this year, along with about 50 other acts scattered across various pubs, cafes in Beeston and Chilwell, and of course in Beeston Square.

Jammin For Oxfam

Beeston was taken over by music and musicians of all kinds today, all in the name of charity.

The town hosted the second Oxjam event; a countrywide celebration of music, with the aim of raising lots of money for Oxfam.

Things kicked off at lunchtime with a gig by The Jar Family in the Square. A band clearly influenced by groups like Oasis and the Stone Roses. And very good they were too. Melodic, and all original tunes as far as I can tell.

The crowd loved them, and people kept popping coins into the collecting buckets. I put some in too, as they were worth it.

Music fans have been invited to buy a wristband for £5. For this they could visit all the locations and see all the bands that were appearing during the day and evening. The locations include cafes, pubs and Barton's, which presently are showing an art exhibition.