over the years 69x hosted many live music events raising funds and awareness of homelessness. the events were held in various venues across the uk supported by hundreds of bands and artists devoting their time and talent for a good cause. 69xmusic was created as a collective journey for bands and musicians to showcase their awesome music whilst helping others. For me this has been a personal passion/obsession / goal call it what you may, to raise as much awareness as possible. i have self-funded 69xmusic since it began, essentially worked for free for 5 years, this has included the hire of every venue and all of the overheads, software, licensing. for every event hosted i made sure 69xmusic donated 100% of every penny raised from each event to the selected charity and where possible handed out funds to bands and artistS to cover fuel.  each event hosted took weeks / months of planning,  i recruited teams of volunteers along the way to lend a helping hand and i thank each and every person for their kindness and time. every event hosted meant securing the venues, managing the social media, advertising, sound tech, and communicating with all the bands and in some cases, it included hiring vans and driving backlines.  i managed to borrow backlines from various studios. Starfish studios in lewes helped out many times by lending drums, amps, monitors and general backlines. Starfish studio was a community-based project set in the heart of lewes, east sussex, making a safe space for kids to learn and play music, the studio relied heavily on donations the last two years of their trading as the council had pulled all the funding. Therefore in March 2020 just before I relocated to Hereford, I called up steve the manager of the studio as I knew I would probably not get to see all the staff for a long time since I was moving so far away and wanted to give back something to the studio that had helped me so much through the years. I  donated a full van worth of kit back to the studio, which included lighting, monitors, amps, mic stands and pa’s.  so far 69xmusic has been quite a journey in every way. the intention moving forward is to build on all the experiences thus far and continue to grow 69xmusic always with a core ethos of promoting bands and raising funds and awareness of homelessness.

“  it was 2.30am finally the backline was all loaded in the long wheel based van, I had loaded and unloaded the kit three times that day and still had the last load to unload, it was time to head home after hosting an event in eastbourne across two floors at the same time ie two separate stages, im not sure that was a great idea in hindsight,  as it was incredibly difficult to be in two places at the same time as equally I was not just hosting the event but sound teching both sets. One of the base bins failed but apart from that,  pretty successful, we must have had 250 people attend the event, it was hectic and a lot to manage which I could not have done without the some of the band members to lend a helping hand. I remember driving that huge white van home from eastbourne to lewes, east Sussex, I was on my own,  It was pitch black I was following a sat nav, the day had taken its toll on me physically and mentally and I was incredibly emotional, the weather had taken a turn it was raining and windy and as I continued to drive home I felt grateful that all those people attended the bands were so amazing both musically and personally and helped so much for the cause. Looking at the road ahead I thought about all those people the funds would help and how an earth they were managing in this weather, this is why I do this I said out loud, to “make a difference”

armed with a basic tarpaulin cover, warm clothes and a mobile phone i headed to littlehampton to take part in a sponsored sleep out. this included minimum provisions and had to make a bed for the night out of a couple of crisp boxes. it was pouring with rain and quite windy, the temperature was around 11 degrees and i had limited food. i managed to get through the night in my temporary tent I HAD MADE with the help of some trusty gaffa tape. The night was endless the ground was tough, I didn’t really sleep at all. The key memory I take away from this experience was how quiet it was, how venerable I felt and the thought of spending every night like this was overwhelming. I am really not sure how anyone manages to live on the street for a long period of time, mentally this was a real challenge but I knew I had a home to go back to, I cannot imagine how the street community feel living this life, having no one, no possessions, no secure warm home and being completely alone. This experience for me felt like a very light glimpse into the real world but an experience that I am pleased I was involved in. if anything it really inspired me to do even more to help as many people as possible in whatever I can. the sponsored sleep out in littlehampton – raised £1785. 00 for wchp now known as turning tides.

One of my most vivid memories along this journey has to be this one! Throughout the journey over the past 5 years I have rarely taken a day off, there is always so much to do. I had traveled by train to Leicester to attend a gig and interview a band, the journey took all in all-around 5 hours but finally, I arrived. It was a great night and I managed to grab a great interview with the band. The following day I was up early and getting ready to head home, honestly, I was shattered the trip had cost me around £250.00 overall all out my own money but I was keen to get the interview and get the music of the band out there as they had always been great supporters of 69x sharing all the posts and shows so it really was the least I could do. I headed back to the train station to find most of the trains had been canceled so I had to find another route, the train was absolutely packed but I managed to squeeze on the end of a seat, it was really tiring we all know how those journeys take their toll. Finally, I reached st pancreas international, I need some fresh air so decided to wing it and just catch the next train whenever that maybe, I got myself a coffee and stood in a crowded area just out the station. As always my headphones were on and I think at the time I was listening to pearl jam ten, then in front of me a man, maybe around mid 30’s talking to me, I couldn’t hear him as my volume was pretty maxed, i took my headphones off and even though pretty smartly dressed he proceeded to tell me he was homeless and that he was trying to raise funds for a night in the hostel. I asked how much it was and was shocked, not naming the hostel but how an earth can people seek shelter with these prices. He proceeded to tell me his story, if im honest im sure it was a script he had vocalized many times over but I stood to listen, suddenly he stopped mid-sentence and said ‘if you don’t mind me saying you look lost’ he didn’t mean literally but me as a person. I told him I was tired and actually do lots for raising awareness of homelessness, but the truth is he was indeed right. I give him all the coins I had in my pocket, not knowing if this would go towards his shelter for the night but at least I helped him in some way. The train ride home was a little surreal,  all I could think about is what he had said to me, he was so right, I was lost, the journey of 69x at that point had meant I had no life of my own, it had literally merged into one pot of working towards the next project. I had to make some changes. So it was at that point my strategy once again changed and believe me this business model has evolved into so many versions it bonkers, but this time I would open the old skool folder I had created back in the day and design a better path and better process to manage all the projects, shows platforms I wanted to create whilst trying to find a way through all of that to raise awareness for homelessness. to be continued to See the  Home Page