Local musicians to do their part for United Way

Five Sault bands and a number of solo artists, consisting of local Ontario government office branch and Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) office employees, will be holding two concerts at the Marconi Event Centre to raise funds for the United Way of Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma District.

The five bands, including RPM, Retro, VIneS, Encore and UK-69, will perform at ‘January Jam’ Jan. 18, while several solo artists will perform at ‘United We Jam!’ Feb. 22.

“The January show is really a production that was something we developed locally here. We have a strong musician base in Sault Ste. Marie, with lots of interest from folks to do something like this,” said Paul Glassford, speaking to SooToday.

Glassford is a rhythm and lead guitarist with Encore, a local five-piece band which plays classic rock from the 1970s, 80s and 90s at venues such as The Water Tower Inn, the New American Pub, at weddings and other special occasions.

Three of Encore’s band members, including Glassford, are Sault-based Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) employees.

“In other locations in the province, primarily Toronto, Kingston, Guelph and Hamilton, they’ve been doing something called ‘Govfest’ for a number of years, where government employees who are also musicians get together and play in a ‘Battle of the Bands’ kind of atmosphere,” Glassford said.

“It’s been going on in Toronto for a number of years, and it’s highly supported by senior government bureaucrats and politicians, all to raise money for local United Way offices and the Ryan's Well Foundation, which is a foundation that supports the development of wells in Africa, in underprivileged areas.” 

Glassford said he and his band participated in (and won) such an event locally two years ago.

But the two upcoming Sault shows won’t be ‘battles,’ Glassford said.

“In Toronto and Kingston, you’re dealing with considerably more bands, so there are more to have a ‘Battle of the Bands’ with, whereas locally we just didn’t feel the ‘battle’ nature of the event was what we wanted to promote. We just want people to come out and have a good night out with some good music and dancing and local entertainment.” 

“There are a number of bands who have employees at Roberta Bondar Place, so originally we thought of it as ‘Bondar musicians for the United Way,’ but then we took it to a more common theme of a ‘January Jam’ with five bands, and the ‘United We Jam’ in February with more individual artists and duets.”

The five bands in the January show, Glassford said, “are probably going to play a 40-minute set...15 to 20 acts (in the February show) will play perhaps three or four songs per person.”

All proceeds from ticket sales from both shows will be donated to the United Way of Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma District, said Sam Cistaro, an Ontario Public Service employee and event organizer.

“The five bands which are going to be performing Jan. 18 are all going to be from various government ministries here in the Sault, the second show Feb. 22 will be a different setup, more acoustic and individual performances, employees of both the Ontario Public Service and OLG.”

“It’s something for people to enjoy, to get them out of their homes in the middle of winter while contributing to a great cause,” Cistaro said.

“We hope this can be a yearly event,” Cistaro added.

“As musicians, I think we are always interested in entertaining, and in this particular community I think most of us who are in these bands recognize the broader needs of our community, with respect to helping those who don’t have the same things we have in life, and we want to make change...the United Way says ‘change starts with you,’ so we’re taking that seriously and we’re trying to do things to support that change,” Glassford said.

“We’ve always supported the United Way, but now we’re trying to make it bigger so that our contributions aren’t a few hundred dollars, but in the neighbourhood of five to ten to fifteen thousand dollars. We’re trying to make a bigger bang,” Glassford said.

Doors open at the Marconi both nights at 6 p.m., music beginning at 7 p.m., with food and beverages available for purchase.

Tickets are $15 for each event, but tickets for both shows may be purchased for $25.

400 tickets are available for each event (800 in total). 

Tickets may be purchased for ‘January Jam’ from the United Way’s Shane Rock by email while tickets for ‘United We Jam!’ may be purchased from Rock at that same email address or from Tracey Hilderley by email.  

Tickets will also be available at the door at the Marconi Event Centre, Cistaro said.