St John at Hackney Church will prove its worth once again as a leading concert venue with Sound:check next weekend.
Stac Dowesdell and Marie-Claire Denyer dreamed up the concept, which will see artists performing a night of live music in a manner best suited to the venue – this time with stripped back acoustic sets.
All money raised will go towards ChildHope, which helps protect vulnerable children from child abuse and exploitation in Asia, South America and Africa.
The charitable venture comes hot on the heels of Mencap’s Little Noise Sessions which saw Gary Barlow, The Macabees and Olly Murs take to the stage of the church in Lower Clapton Road last November.
Sound:check will see four acts playing completely un-plugged, who have all been offered the chance to work with the 15-strong all-female One Taste Choir led by Ms Dowesdell, as well as a string section and the church organ.
Ms Dowesdell, who will perform one song on the night, said: “We picked St John’s because of the acoustic, it’s incredible, the sound it creates is just awesome, it carries on for a second or more longer than you are singing.”
She added: “It will be incredible to have that in a live performance with instruments that are sympathetic to the acoustics, it’s just going to be beautiful.”
The line-up features Zimbabwean-born, London-raised vocalist Eska whose folk sounds have been compared to Joan Armatrading and Joni Mitchell, alternative four-piece band Hejira, described by Mercury Prize Recommends as an “understated amalgam of heady Post Rock and instinctive, otherworldly Pop”, and vocalist Mara Carlyle who combines choral music, jazz, bluegrass, electronica and R&B.
Each artist will be filmed during their sound check by production company STITCHTHAT who have previously worked with Rudimental, Take That, Labrinth - hence the name.
This will mean they will each have a professional one-shot live music video, to which they will eventually hold full rights.
Ms Denyer explained: “Promo videos aren’t necessarily live, they are usually several cameras being edited together and are often out of synch - so the idea is to do one shot videos which will be an honest representation of the night itself.”
Tickets for the concert on Saturday March 2 are priced from £10 and are available at www.wegottickets.com/event/206173
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here