2006 Fund Raising Concert
18-10-06
Dear Friends,
What a night WE have made happen!!!!! What a fantastic performance we did in every area, from the tech room down to the stages and from the stages out to the bar and from the kitchen across to the box office!!! People were going home pleased and I am sure the concert will stay in their mind for a long time.
I have been so touched with the support we have. It was so wonderful to see so many of Ian's friends working together to honour him. I went back to the Sidetrack Theatre yesterday and stood up in the tech room and tried to recall the concert from Ian’s eye level.
Perhaps like many of you, I was very emotional and overwhelmed with sadness and joy! I was speechless, but trying to force words out of my mouth especially when I was called out on to the stage in the end. The biggest regret I have had was that Sunday night I didn’t get to say what I really needed to say when I had the opportunity. I felt we should be all standing up on the stage. Or at least Barbara, Kyle, Lenore, Benni, Richard, Nerida, Karleena, Chris, David, Simon, Imogen, Louise, Aylar, Steve, En-En, Terry, Linh, Victoria, Sylvia, Lesley, Dave, John.…. should be called to come up to the stage !!!!!
As I have said, without you, this concert would not have been able to be come true. CONGRATULATIONS TO US ALL!!!!!
In this email, I would like to express my gratitude to people who were involved in this project.
SIDETRACK STUDIO THEATRE Many thanks go to Don Mamouney the artistic director and Assad Abdi the manager of Sidetrack Studio Theatre for their generous support . Having the Ian Bowie Memorial and Fund Raising Concert at Sidetrack Theatre was so wonderful as we all know Sidetrack was the home of Ian Bowie. Thank you very much Don and thank you Assad! And I hope we will be able to do it again next year!
BANKSTOWN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT SERVICE (BYDS) I would like to thank BYDS for temporarily hosting the Ian Bowie Memorial Fund before the Fund is registered as an independent Trust Fund. I would like to thank Tim Carroll, the Art Officer for his generous support.
Bankstown Youth Development Service (BYDS) is a youth based, CCD organisation. Since the mid eighties BYDS has been working in conjunction with different government, community organisations, theatre groups such as Urban Theatre Projects and Vietnamese/Australian Theatre Group Citymoon, Casula Powerhouse, CCDNSW, the NSW Ministry for the Arts and the Australia Council. They also work with young people and adults to create work. The work they create is usually orientated around visual arts, performance and writing.
SHOPFRONT THEATRE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE – Nerida Woods, TJ, Karleena Marjoram and David Kirkpartrick Thank you Nerida, TJ, Karleena and David for your love and fond memory you have for Ian Bowie. Thank you Nerida for your great energy and time you had given us! Karleena and David were the two beautiful young people who worked with Ian and were some of the young people who Ian was very proud of. It was wonderful to work with you both in this meaningful concert! Thank you dearly Karleena and David!
Last year, a day after the very sad news, Shopfront Theatre had the idea of setting up an Ian Bowie Scholarship for young people. After that the idea was carried on and was developed through many conversations and meetings. In July this year, more friends were invited to come to a meeting to talk about the Ian Bowie Memorial Award which is now called Ian Bowie Memorial Fund.
FOUR WOMEN COMMITTEE (PLANNING AND THINKING TEAM): Lenore Bassan, Barbara Cleary, Kyle Powderly and My Le Thi , In this 12 months of grieving, Lenore, Kyle and Barbara, these 3 wonderful women have given so much of their love to support me. We came together as a “Four Women Committee” to work with Nerida and to plan for the Ian Bowie Memorial Fund idea from the early stage of the project! We emailed each other everyday and met every Sunday. We 4 women worked through all these months to discuss, to plan and work things out for the concert.
Apart from being team mates, they were wonderful friends that Ian had brought to me! They shared my sadness and laughed with me. They assisted my English on my letters and with many other paper works for the concert.
Thank you Barbara, Kyle and Lenore for your friendships and the time you have been giving me!
PRODUCTION CREW: Richard Montgomery, Chris Clough, Simon Wise, Nerida Woods, Karleena Marjoram, Victoria Spence, David Kirkpatrick, Benni Seidel, and other friends who I haven't gotten to know their names:
Richard Montgomery gave the event his great performance as a production manager. Richard you are so good, so professional and everything was done early and so well organised. Before we knew it, everything was ready for everyone to do their jobs. Thanks you so much!
Thanks so much Chris for the great sound!!
Thanks so much Simon for the great lighting!!
Benni Seidel created good set. Personally I liked it a lot! It looked nice, simple and beautiful!
Nerida our stage manager and our stage manager assistants Karleena, David, Victoria and other SMAs are experienced stage people who did a wonderful job for the concert. Performers would not be able to go on the stage other wise. When watching them working, I was very moved. I miss Ian even more.
I would like to give special thanks to Nerida Woods from Shopfront who gave her valuable time to help with the concert. She also came to the rehearsal and meetings before the concert day. During the time she was helping the concert her young children were sent to a baby sitter.
PERFORMERS: A.R.A led by Tanya Sparke, Dennis Aubrey, Ian Bowie, Drum Circle, ExPERIMENT, David Kirkpatrick, Jeanie Lewis, Gray Reed, Kid Kenobi, Kim Sanders, Tom Stack, Stretch MK1, Nick White, Mark Wilson
Music in the Foyer: I would like to give special thanks to the musicians in the foyer who gave important contributions to the event: Gray Reed, Tom Stack, Nick White and Mark Wilson all had special relationship with Ian Bowie. Thank you so very much for your performance. Your music, your songs were wonderful and touching. Thank you so much for singing them for Ian, for me and for friends of Ian Bowie.
Nick White drove from Brisbane with his beautiful partner Liz and their talented son Alex. I am so pleased to finally meet the 3 of you!!! Nick was an old friend from the 70’s and played music with Ian Bowie in the Blue Goose Band.
Mark Wilson comes from Blue Mountains, he had known Ian and played music with Ian in the 70’s and early 80’s days.
Tom Stack who is recovering from cancer also came to contribute. I am so glad you could make it Tom and thanks for your special song you wrote for Ian and me.
Gray Reed, a young father to be was out of the tech room to sing a special song he wrote for Ian. I also thanks to Gray’s mate for his music (not sure if I remember the name right so I better not to say it here).
And many thanks to other performers who also contributed. Thanks to all the production crew who set up and painted this special and intimate stage in the Foyer.
Performance in the theatre: A.R.A, your voices touched everyone’s deeper soul and had bought tears to me and to Lesley (Ian Bowie’s old friend and a member in the Drum Circle) who was in the same room with me. Many thanks to Tanya Sparke who brought such a voice scape into the space – it was so powerful, so amazing and so spiritual!
Stretch MK1, what a privilege to see you perform live! Magic, dream but real! Thanks Benni Seidel the artistic director of Stretch Mk1 for allowing this happened! Stretch MK1 has been to many big events in Australia and overseas. They are going to take part in the International Arts Festival in Shanghai next week. I was told that their performance in Sidetrack Theatre was one of the very rare times that they performed in small theatre in Australia.
ExPERIMENT, Jed Clarke (guitar and singer) and Tomi Gray ( the drummer) - your young energy and free experiment were wonderful! You are professional, funny and you are so talented! I love the way you involved the audience, open, friendly, cool and gutsy. Keep going and keep growing and we will love to hear you more!!!! Thank you for giving your busy time to the concert.
Please note that Tomi had know Ian since he was a baby. Ian was there to see that Tomi had become a good drummer and Ian was very proud of him. I will always remember Ian’s face and his voice when he was telling me about Tomi.
Jeanie Lewis, your singing made the rain fall and shine in the light, so warm when it landed on the ground….. Thank you!
Dennis Aubrey, great MC and great singing. I was moved by the lyrics. Thanks for giving your time to the concert and helping out with the reading…
Kim Sanders, you took the audience to other parts of the world. Thank you for sharing your time with the concert.
David Kirkpatrick – the composer of the piano piece “ Elegy for Ian Bowie – the light” which was the sound track in the first video work in part 1 of the concert. Thanks David for your music. I listened to it so many times while editing the video and that really help me through. What a great piece of piano work! No wonder you had a high distinction for it! I would like to share it with others again next year’s concert in a clearer view.
Kid Kenobi, thank you so much for taking part of the concert and making great music at the end of this great event. You do make people’s feet and bodies move. You made them feel high and happy! You made people come closer and feel good about themselves… Kid Kenobi was performing in Singapore on Saturday the night before our Concert day. He came to the concert almost straight from the airport. Thanks Kid Kenobi!
Also I would like to thank those drummer friends who played with Kid Kenobi. You were great!!
Drum Circle: Dave Gale, Harry Gale, Tomi Gray, Lesley Goldacre, Benni Seidel, John Simons and My Le Thi. What a wonderful experience to perform with you great rhythm makers!!! Thanks for making the dream come true. It is so awakening, recalling and healing for me. The 3 parts of sound and rhythm you heard in the Drum Circle were about all the above elements – from the darkness to the light; from the distance to somewhere so close to the heart and from the dream to the reality….
Thanks David for operating the CD of Ian’s drumming track.
Last but not least…. thank you Ian for everything… And thank you for your drumming and your rhythm.. They will live on in my heart and in many of your friends’ hearts!
DOCUMENTATION: Kemuri and Benni Thank you Kemuri and Benni for documenting the Concert. Your films are important to all people who care about the Ian Bowie Memorial Fund. We will use the film for the future use, in order to further the Fund.
Kemuri is one of the young camera men in one of the NZ film companies . He is also a DJ artist. Thanks very much for helping out Kemuri!!!
CATERING TEAM: Lenore Bassan and neighbour friend Sylvia, Louise McDonald, Steve Peterson, Kyle Powderly, Imogen Ross, My Le Thi and Boi Tran. Congratulations to the special lovely cooking/catering team! People got hungry before the dinner time because of the delicious smell. Thank you for your great energy and creativity and high spirit that your were “meditating over the vegies , infusing love and peace” into the food. Kyle, Louise, Imogen, Lenore and Steve were spending days to plan and to prepare the food. Your were ALL working so hard. And the food was real healthy because there was no grease to be washed off…. You should be proud of yourselves! Thanks Lenore for your desserts. They looked good and tasted great!! Best dessert I have had. Really! I had two in one go! And I think I got drunk after that!
BAR: Aylar Davis, Damien Leonard and Lawrence Sheerer. Aylar and Lawrence were working very hard too in the rain with those lovely smiles on their faces !! Thanks Aylar and Lawrence for your hard work. The bar was important and it would be hard without your help.
Aylar also helped out many other things. She was getting many urgent tasks done in those last minutes. She was a great runner.
Damien was not only helping out with the set up in the theatre and stage areas, but he also provided other help to the bar and kitchen area.
ADMINISTRATION AND PROMOTION TEAM: Lenore Bassan, Barbara Cleary, Kyle Powderly, Benni Seidel, and My Le Thi , Thanks for your time and contributions for all the administration and promotion jobs that you have done for the concert. They were such time and brain consuming jobs!! Thanks Benni for the Web page.
TICKET BOX : Leanne Anderson, Adele Kilian, Kerrie Lindberg, Sanhy Van Thanks you so much for helping out on the ticket selling. I am sorry that Sanhy and Adele didn’t even get to see the show while they paid for their tickets.
TICKET AT DOOR: En-En See and Victoria Spence Thanks En-En and Victoria for helping the audience to settle into the theatre.
Also thanks En-En for your caring, your thoughtfulness and all your hard work before the concert!!!
DONATIONS OF ART WORKS: Lenore Bassan, Louise Cox, Lesley Goldacre, Carlos Gomes, Kim Sanders and My Le Thi Thank you Lenore, Louise, Lesley, Carlos and Kim for donating your beautiful works for the Ian Bowie Memorial Fund. Your gifts are sincerely appreciated!!!
DISPLAYED ART WORK FOR AUCTION: Natalie McCarthy and Louise Cox; Thank you very much Natalie and Louise for helping to hang the artworks up for auction. You did a beautiful and smart job! The works definitely looked great.
AUCTION: Don Mamouney and Victoria Spence Thanks Don and Victoria for helping out with the auction. It was fun. Don you were very good. Pity we ran out of time.
SPONSORSHIPS Thanks to Bill Hyde for sponsoring with the drum kit. Richard Montgomery, Carriageworks Operations Small Systems Productions Aust Pty Ltd Simon Wise Theatre Lighting
DONATIONS FOR FOOD, DRINK AND PRINTING : Terry Cutcliffe, Reverse Garbage, Louise McDonald, Kyle Powderly, My Le Thi, Linh Vo.
DONATIONS OF MONEY (CHEQUES) ON CONCERT DAY: D R F Zionzee, J R & A F Wyatt, En Tilbbook, J Grounds, Dennis A Davis
This is only the beginning. We will have a lot to follow up with. But we have a very good start because of all of your contributions!!! Thank you very much again for your support and I hope we will be able to work with you again next year!!! Benni said the documentation of the Concert looks really good. We are hoping a DVD will be available by early next year. Best wishes, love and peace and respect, My Le Thi
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