UK - The recent Classic Rock Awards ceremony held at London's, Park Lane Hotel provided an appropriate and high-profile launch-pad for a major fundraising announcement by Yamaha Music Schools and ChildLine Rocks. Guests, who included Slash, Ronnie Wood, Brian May, Iggy Pop, Aerosmith, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Iron Maiden, all applauded the free music lesson scheme whilst Joe Bonamassa who is a patron of the initiative also received the 'best breakthrough act' award on the night.
The programme sees Yamaha's national network of Music Schools offering free music lessons aimed at introducing people of all ages to music making for the first time. Participants will be asked for a voluntary donation of a few pounds for each lesson session and it's expected substantial funds will be raised for ChildLine, the free helpline for children provided by the NSPCC.
Musician supporters and ambassadors backing the scheme include Paolo Nutini, Joe Bonamassa, The Enemy's Tom Clarke, double Grammy award winning producer and Sting band member Kipper and long time ChildLine advocate Thunder's Luke Morley. They are joined by Jazz -ace Jamie Cullum, Jools Holland and drummers Troy Miller (Amy Winehouse), Skunk Anansie's Mark Richardson and Andrew Small from Massive Attack.
The ambitious programme is open to people of all ages and the tuition will be provided by fully trained music teachers via the 90 strong national network of Yamaha Music Schools which already teaches over 9000 pupils every week.
The campaign will have an underlying theme aimed at raising awareness of ChildLine, which is currently able to answer just two thirds of the 2m calls it receives every year from children and young people in distress. A point Yamaha's Ricci Hodgson is keen to reinforce: "Yamaha are really proud to be involved with ChildLine Rocks, recognising the hugely valuable work that ChildLine undertakes. Yamaha is founded on a culture of enriching people's lives through music making, whilst ChildLine offers a lifeline to the most vulnerable children in our community. We'd like to think that this partnership will help the more fortunate to help the less fortunate in our community. "
To supercharge participation and fund raising, this year's programme will culminate at the 2010 ChildLine Rocks Gig at the O2 Indigo, where a band formed from Yamaha Music School pupils will be invited to open the show following a public vote. The band will then become Young ChildLine Rocks ambassadors touring schools to raise funds and awareness following the concert.
Joe Bonamassa Comments: "I think the fact that Yamaha are able to offer free music lessons to people of all ages, and help raise funds for ChildLine, presents an amazing opportunity for people to experience music that wouldn't otherwise be fortunate enough to afford it. To me music is a form of expression like no other, which everyone should be given a chance to discover."
