Common Ground

After last years festival a group of us decided to get together to form a charity to continue our successful work. We have 6 members in total and we have approximately 20 volunteers that help us with our events.

Not only do we put on events for the local community we work closely with organisations that promote the well being of young people. Common Ground have played a role in the promoting the local youth cafe in New Milton which is now called ‘The Empire Skate Building’.

We organised the ‘Rumer’ concert to raise funds for the Memorial Centre so they can put it towards the maintenance for the roof as it was in need of repair.

The group put themselves forward for many challenges and are currently discussing with other partner charities on working together for the good of the community.

In the future we will be holding work shops for young people and other events that will provide entertainment for our community to participate in and help us raise money for local charities.

STACKRIDGE + Blackheart New Milton War Memorial Hall April 28th 2012.

Its been a very long time since I visited this historic and tucked away venue in the little cosmos of the New Forest and it is by nature just where you would expect to find the music of STACKRIDGE at any given time in their long history.With an open heart I arrived and with a with a full and wanting more heart I left.
The genius of STACKRIDGEs songwriting is having a knack for filling in all the subject lines that nobody else does in an essential pop melody with just enough thought and musicianship to cross into progressive territory also.(“Progressive” again you say..? Odd that-its been that sort of week!)
For a short while, the band were known as the KORGIS and slotted in very well as part of the post punk waves, hitting the airwaves via Radio 1 in the late 70`s and very early 80`s with absolutely classic hits-”If I Had You” and the timeless “Everybodys Gotta Learn Sometime”. The latter of which , on the night we were promised the elusive “second verse lyric” for the first time, and I have only just gotten that joke.
Augmented on this tour by the wonderful Clare Lindley on fiddle , vox and couple of other musical creations, she completes the contemporary frontline of the band with Andy Davies and James Warren.
Not that I can attempt to even give you half of a potted history of the band in my own words as I simply dont have one-to me, this is a new territory and very grateful my ears are to it too. Anybody mentioning “plimsoles” “gold fish” and “men in bowler hats” in their tunes is ok in my book. It`s simply so great to hear different words in songs and so refreshing to hear something new to the ears without a single vocal acrobatic, although it surely cant be too long before somebody commits “stackrilidge” and murders one of their world class songs on one of “those” shows.
I loved the experience of pure relaxed entertainers at this show right from when the support act , BLACKHEART appeared earlier. An apparently-”husband and wife”(?) duo from the Wigan era I think I would probably be forgiven for them reminding me of Gregson and Collister, with the addition of some wonderfully played guitar loops taking the place of any drum machines required and an Omnichord, subtly hidden on a music stand by “Mrs” Blackheart.
Anyways, in brief-change your heart-it will astound you… and yes it did. Loved this band and will have a fun time tracking down their back catalogue-catch them on this tour if you can.

Martin Kitcher, West Parley. Ex New Milton Bands Product 109, Program, Agagaga and many others !