Menu

News

Launch2

Launch of New Music Therapy Service at Ipswich Hospital

Incredibly excited and proud to be able to announce the official launch of a brand new music therapy service for children and young people at Ipswich Hospital. We’re delighted that Jess Grant Celebration has been able to provide funding to initiate and support this new service at Ipswich so soon after the creation of Jess’ charity.
Daisy Williamson of Suffolk Music Therapy Services (pictured in the navy polo shirt on the right) will be providing Music Therapy at Ipswich Hospital 1 day per week, starting in January 2020. She will be working closely with the brilliant team at Ipswich Hospital, who have wanted Music Therapy on the ward for many years.
Today was very special: Daisy leading the carol singing on the keyboard and harp, with many of the patients, staff and Jess Grant Celebration representatives in great voice, or at least great sleigh bell jingling 🙂
Thank you so much to all of our supporters for all the fundraising efforts during 2019, please see our website and social media channels for news about our 2020 events which will enable us to continue to support this fantastic initiative at Ipswich hospital for many years to come.

formerly20

JessFest success

Drum roll please… We have a total for JessFest! Very excited to announce that JessFest has raised an incredible £5340. Wow, an amazing total that far exceeds our expectations and means that we are able to start putting our plans for music therapy into action right away. More updates on that very soon.
Many thanks and congratulations to everyone who has been involved in the success of the very first JessFest.
A massive thank you to all the fabulous acts who performed at JessFest & made the day such a wonderful experience.
JessFest has been made possible by tremendous support from Chris King at Planet Music. Chris selected the acts, provided equipment, & designed & sponsored promo materials. Thank you to Chris and Steve Calver at SR Epic Sound & Lighting, who worked incredibly hard behind the scenes before, during & after JessFest creating the perfect sound & light show for all the acts.
Huge thank you to Planet Music, SR Epic Sound & Lighting, Kesgrave Community Centre, ZED Security, Best Badges, Screens Printing, Austwick Berry, the NCS fundraisers, The Moving Plaice, Maureen Soames for their donations, sponsorship, discounted rates, & their expertise & time, & all the local businesses & friends who provided wonderful raffle prizes. Their generosity meant that all of our costs for JessFest were covered.
Thank you very much to Brian May for his very generous contribution for the online JessFest auction. The sale of the 5 signed items raised a whopping £954, & we’re very grateful to everyone who supported the auction.
Thank you to Jo Palmer, Kath Gosling & Suzanne Gledhill for their continued support. Many thanks to everyone who volunteered & helped on the day:- Jason Jacqui & Erin Yeomanson; Julie & Sophia Bradley; Kath Josh & Andrew; Jo Palmer; Jill McKay; Tony Felgate & Andy Flatman.
And of course, a massive thank you to everyone who came along to JessFest & showed your support. Without you, JessFest couldn’t have been the huge success it was. Finally, a big thank you to everyone who donated on our JustGiving page, with lovely messages of support for JessFest. That was an unexpected bonus, & really boosted our fundraising total.

Olympics1

JessFest auction, featuring Brian May signed items, is now LIVE!

Jess Grant Celebration charity are very excited to let you know that our Patron, Jess’ pal, Brian May wanted to support our fundraising for JessFest and has kindly donated 5 very special signed items to auction. We’re extremely grateful for Brian’s support and have just launched a 10 day Ebay auction at https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jessgrantcelebration, running betweeen 18th and 28th September, and finishing to coincide with our charity music festival, JessFest. So, we’ll be able to announce how much has been raised at the end of the night.
The items Brian has signed consist of:- 2 stunning photographs of him playing at the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games; his fabulous Red Special book; Queen + Adam Lambert’s North American Tour 2017 programme; Brian and Kerry Ellis’ CD ‘One Voice’ that Suffolk star Kerry has also signed.

Jess Grant Celebration charity is registered with EBay and PayPal, which means there will be no fees to pay for the auction, and 100% of the money raised will go directly to Jess’ charity.

formerlyknownas-website

Introducing FORMERLY KNOWN AS…….

As part of the promised introduction to the fabulous acts performing at JessFest 2019, delighted to get the show on the road by introducing FORMERLY KNOWN AS…..Enjoy reading their very entertaining bio. Then grab your tickets from our Events page.
 
FORMERLY KNOWN AS…………….
 
The five members of FORMERLY KNOWN AS… have joined together for a one-off performance at JessFest. Their set list will be heavily inspired by the songs that Jess used to love playing on her guitar. Expect songs from Arcade Fire to Queen and anything else in between, such was Jess’s eclectic taste in guitar driven music.
 
Nisha Gaskin – Lead Vocals
 
Nisha’s passion for singing brought her to front her first band at age 16. Since then she has sung in various choirs, musicals and as a backing singer. Her singing career high point (until now) was as a member of the Fat Spice Girls tribute band.
Nisha brings a powerfully soulful voice to the band and has an amazing ability to flex her vocals around various musical styles.
 
Nisha felt compelled to join the band as her sister passed away with the exact type of bone cancer as Jess. Also, JessFest just happens to be the same date as her sisters birthday… so serendipity has played its part in pulling this band together. Nisha just knows that her sister will be up there somewhere dancing along with Jess.
 
One final thing you should know about Nisha, is her unhealthy obsession with panpipes. You won’t catch her playing one, but you might see her rocking out to her favourite Amazonian wind-instrument based tunes.
 
James Baker – Guitar
 
James started his addiction for playing guitar at the tender age of 12. His musical adventures have brought him to be the driving force in various bands, prior to joining Racing Green – where he first met Jason.
 
Since leaving Racing Green, James went on to play in other groups before ‘retiring’ however he now finds himself returning to stage after a five year absence. His signature rock tinged blues solos are a nod to his hero Chuck Berry, however, James can turn his hand to most musical styles and just loves ‘turning it up to 11’.
His driving force in joining FKA is that 10 years ago his mother passed away with Cancer.
Also, he simply could not turn down a chance to share the stage with Jason again, although you will never catch him admitting it!
 
James offers a towering presence both sonically and physically, quite literally you can’t miss this half-Swedish man mountain of hairy talent.
 
Curtis Redden – Keyboards
 
Curtis has been delighting audiences since 1997 when he formed a Beatles tribute band with the three brothers of his music teacher. They played their ‘final gig’ last year after 22 years. With the same three brothers, Curtis went on to play in bands The Loungeroom Wizards and The Key whom could be seen performing the length and breadth of Northamptonshire.
Curtis then moved abroad for a few years to seek fame and fortune as a professional singer.
 
From 2005 Curtis dabbled with performing music from the 60s/70s and more recently if you had attended a function with a live band playing, you may well have been lucky enough to catch his nimble fingers swirling symphonic sounds with The Invited.
 
The primary motivator for Curtis to return to the stage is that he taught Jess at Cedarwood Primary school in Year 2 and Year 6 and is proud and honoured to have experienced Jess’s talent for music and her beaming smile.
He says he will always cherish their wide ranging conversations about music.
 
Not only does Curtis bring great depth to the band’s sound, he has a great theoretical knowledge of music, which certainly comes in handy with this sometimes excitable bunch of musicians.
 
Jason Yeomanson – Bass
 
Jason is the relative new comer to playing music, having first picked up a bass guitar at the ripe old age of 22 3/4.
It was not long before he took up songwriting, lead vocals and bass playing duties with Insomnia, playing gigs in Essex and London mainly to an enthusiastic audience of family and friends.
 
After three years Jason decided that elusive fame and fortune was just too far out of reach and pressed pause on his musical career.
Then having moved to Suffolk he found the urge to stride around the stage again, too irresistible to ignore and formed Racing Green. For nearly five years the band hit the heady heights of headlining at various venues across Suffolk, Essex and London (sadly Wembley and the O2 not included).
 
Fame and fortune decided to move even further away from his chubby little fingers, so he hung up his guitar for what he thought would be the last time in early 2000.
 
That is until, he became close friends with the Grant family and became inspired by Jess’s love for music. As her skill as a guitarist blossomed, so too did Jason’s desire to pick up the bass again and show the good fellows of Kesgrave, what the world of music has been missing all this time.
Jason really hopes that Formerly Known As, coming together for this one-off performance, can do justice to the enthusiasm, passion and skill that Jess had for this wonderful thing called music.
 
Phil Green – Drums
 
Phil started playing at the tender age of 12 and has been in bands ever since.
Yes, he is the only band member that does this sort of thing as a job! And as a consequence, he is the band member most likely to remember how each song goes from beginning to end!
Phil has lost count the number of bands he has been in, although he is certain the figure runs into double figures. To name a few, if you have seen Catch22, Tattered n Torn, Idle Hours, Starfish or the Dukes of Mayfair, you will have seen this hugely talented musician, laying down his killer beats with metronomic precision.
 
Phil has also taught drums professionally for the last 15 years and had the pleasure of teaching Jess at Planet Music.
 
He is incredibly modest about his sizeable talent and also appears to have an abundance of patience, which comes in handy when the band want to rehearse the same song, over again and again and again……and again.
 
So, three members of the band have come out from musical retirement specifically for the event. Two have tinnitus and one is partially deaf, paired with the limited rehearsal time that they have had together, should bode well for an interesting performance.
Witnessing this band, could truly be one of those moments that you can say in the future “I was there when………”
ncs1

Fantastic project helps Jess Grant Celebration

Many congratulations to a fabulous team of young people who graduated from their National Citizen Service course today. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for Jess’ charity and for inviting us to attend today’s award ceremony. As part of their NCS course, they undertook a community project, and Jess’ friend Sophia Bradley put forward Jess Grant Celebration to benefit from their efforts. During the project they created leaflets and raised awareness of Jess’ charity in Ipswich and Felixstowe. They also held sponsored events, including a fancy dress walk along the promenade in Felixstowe, to raise funds for Jess Grant Celebration. Today I may have shed a tear or two when we were presented with 5 ukeleles, all beautifully hand-painted by the team, for us to donate when providing musical instruments to support music therapy. They also raised enough money for us to buy promotional merchandise for Jess’ charity, which we will sell at JessFest and at future events. So, our wonderful logo, designed for us by our friends at CHP Design, will be getting the publicity it deserves very soon.

IMG_0994

Treefest funding

We are delighted to announce that your fabulous fundraising efforts have meant we were able to support an amazing event today. TreeFest is a mini music and creative arts festival for the children and families that East Anglian Children’s Hospices (EACH) care for in Suffolk and North Essex. It is an opportunity to go to a festival that is completely accessible and tailored to meet a wide range of needs. We were invited to go along and to see how it had all been put together. Ray Travasso, Music Therapist at EACH, showed us around and introduced us to a number of the musical acts performing at TreeFest. These included The Stowmarket Strummers, a local ukelele band, who give up their time for free to play at EACH events. It was very interesting to be introduced to just some of the ‘junk’ instruments brought along by The Junk Orchestra. We got to hear the ‘fire extinguisherphone’, which was surprisingly tuneful. The ‘flipflopaphone’ was also played for us, and yes, flip flops were part of the instrument!
Jess would have loved today’s TreeFest, and would have been keen to have a go at playing all the instruments. It was lovely to see the children and families having fun listening to the bands and interacting with the instruments.
We know first hand just how much of an impact music can have on well-being and we have big plans to support music therapy at the hospitals and hospices that helped Jess through treatments. But, we can’t do this without your help. Our own music festival, JessFest, in celebration of Jess’ life and to raise funds for Jess Grant Celebration is approaching. Please get your tickets on the Events page.
Thank you x

IMG_0980

Football fundraiser

Many thanks to Adam and Steva Cronin for raising a fantastic £222.20 for Jess Grant Celebration at the charity football match between Northam Celtic FC and Saxmundham Sports Ex 18’s. Adam, who manages the club Northam Celtic FC, had the idea to donate match ‘subs’ to Jess’ charity, and he and Steva also organised a raffle for after the game.
We joined them at Saxmundham Sports Club to cheer on the team, who played very well in the friendly Sunday League match against Saxmundham’s higher division team. It was fun watching all the action from the sidelines, and celebrating the goals with Adam and Steva’s family.
A huge thank you to both clubs for donating their ‘subs’ to Jess Grant Celebration. Thanks to everyone who donated prizes for the raffle and bought raffle tickets, to the staff at Saxmundham Sports Club, who opened up the bar for the charity match, and to the referee who waived his fee.

Load More