News

Amazing People Doing Amazing Things!

We love it when people write there own News stories for us! Here’s news from the wonderful Bravado!

Following the success Headcase goes Green – Recycled Prog in memory of Paul Milsom raises £430! in 2021, Alan, James, Matt & Terry persuaded BRAVADO – A Tribute to Rush, to return to Gloucester for a repeat performance

Little did we know that lightning would strike twice!!

We set the date for the beginning of September 2022, thinking well post Covid there shouldn’t be anything to mean postponement like before.

Wrong!!

Gloucester Guildhall (the venue again) had closed in August for refurbishment.  This over ran and we were advised to push the date out a few weeks.

Fresh date set late September, but building works being the unpredictable beast it is meant even this date was out of reach – hence Deja Vu and a repeat of our first venture of 2019-2021 as promoters – gig postponement times 3 again.

As it turned out this proved to be our (and ultimately Headcase’s and the band’s) good fortune.

The management at Gloucester Guildhall waived our hire fee as a goodwill gesture (easily re-couped this at the bar I’d say).

As some of the band reside in France now it meant we had to push the date out to March 2023.

This, added to the extra time to promote further a field (Matt & I went out as far as Forest of Dean, Stroud and Bristol with flyers/posters), we also had a guaranteed amount of ££’s  we knew we could split between Headcase and the band.

The extra time proved dividends as we pulled in easily a 100+ more fans over the 2021 gig – the venue wasn’t far off the 400 capacity (you can tell in one of the photos).

This ensured, with the fee waiving too, that we could give the band a very healthy “thank you” (compared to 2021) and still give a worthy amount to Headcase – almost triple 2021’s donation, an amazing £1100!

This year’s gig and donation was especially poignant as Alan, in our group; not only marking Paul Milsom’s memory once more, had further cause – having  lost two more acquaintances to GBM.

Furthermore, one of Alan & Terry’s work colleagues; who had passed on to a friend a flyer for the gig, were then subsequently drawn in by the charity cause; a young member of their family having recently been diagnosed with GBM also.

Plus of course the engagement with Bravado in relation to Rush’s renowned drummer Neil Peart.

All of which felt even more significant in how, what started out in 2019 as a “what if we asked the band if they could…at a one off gig”, purely for the love of live Rush music, is now becoming a growing annual event that hopefully continues and allows us to give something towards supporting research into a cure for Glioblastoma – something, as with any cancer – recognises no boundaries – striking anyone from the young, the ordinary to even the revered.

Alan, James, Matt and Terry have persuaded Bravado to return for 2024 and put on another show, this time to mark the band’s 20th (and Rush’s 50th) anniversary year – May the 3rd 2024 – Gloucester Guildhall.

It would be amazing if this blog draws even more in for 2024, given we won’t have the advantage of a fee waiver, and be able to match or better 2023’s outcome.

Best regards

Alan Waine, James Barnes (promotion design), Matt Williams, Terry Barnes.