Note from Barbara Gorin Vice President, Fundraising - 
Contra Costa County Chapter of Guitars Not Guns:*
Show Recap: May 4-5, 2007
The Independent - San Francisco, California
Last weekend's Bay Area Rock Fest was simply amazing! Friday night, especially, was incredible! The bands ruled and so did the crowd! I want to thank David Hatchell of Bay Area Rock Fest for naming Guitars Not Guns as the Official Charity of BARfest! And a VERY special thank you goes out to Ed Platt, the bass player for Enchant. If it weren't for Ed connecting Guitars Not Guns with David Hatchell, none of this would have been possible. Eric and Bear were an incredible support as well!
For those of you who haven't heard how GNG got connected with Bay Area Rock Fest, back in February David mentioned to Ed he would like to have a charity involved with his rock show. Without hesitation, Ed immediately told him about Guitars Not Guns. When Ed mentioned to me that David Hatchell wanted Guitars Not Guns as the official charity, I was ecstatic!! My first thought was how great it will be to bring awareness of our cause with the help of BARfest!
I met Ed last summer at Red House Studios' in Walnut Creek, where Ed is the bass instructor, and hosts several of the jam sessions. Ed's dedication and commitment to our cause has been a shining light for our Contra Costa County Chapter of GNG. I was very lucky to meet Ed! THANK YOU ED!! We look forward to doing more fundraisers in the near future!
I also want to thank Bruce Johnson for all of the help he gave us at BARfest! I could not have done this without his help! Bruce is a volunteer guitar instructor with our Contra Costa County Chapter of GNG. His energy, dedication and support was just incredible!
Friday night Enchant put on a powerful set of their awesome originals! It was pure perfection, and they are all truly amazing musicians!
Friday Night's line-up included: TIMELINE from the San Francisco Bay Area; MOB RULES from Germany, BALANCE OF POWER from the UK, ENCHANT *from San Francisco Bay Area and SPOCKS BEARD *from Los Angeles, California.
On SATURDAY MAY 5th the line up included: ODINS COURT from my home State Maryland; EYEFEAR from Melbourne, Victoria Australia, ZERO HOUR *from the San Francisco Bay Area; CRIMSON GLORY from SARASOTA, Florida and JON OLIVA'S PAIN *from Clearwater, Florida not to mention special guests who included DC Cooper, the current Silent Force lead singer and former Royal Hunt frontman and Metal Church frontman, Ronny Monroe.
DC Cooper helped calm my nerves on stage, and we also joked a bit! He is a very funny guy, and had the ability to make me feel comfortable on stage. Thank you DC!
The highlight was Saturday night, was when the autographed guitar that was donated by Gibson was raffled! Since that guitar was my responsibility, I made sure that every artist who performed at BARfest autographed that guitar! Some people joked with me that "no one will know the difference " and my comment was, "well, I will know!" I'm 99.9% positive I was able to get all the artists to autograph it. I even chased down Ronny Munroe after his guest appearance with JON OLIVA'S PAIN , and asked him to sign it.
The winner of the autographed Epiphone Les Paul was Wendy Simmons of Washington. What was amazing, is that Wendy is the President and CEO of a non-profit program called Rock School, which is operated out of Kirkland, Washington. Their purpose is to provide a positive environment for creativity and artistic musical expression to kids. Wendy and I chatted a bit on Friday night after she bought her (winning) raffle ticket, and she was telling me about her program. Their website is: rock-school.org. Kids and Music! The same message Guitars not Guns sends! CONGRATULATIONS WENDY!!
And for all the guys from the good ole South who teased me about Guns not Guitars, (haha!!) I want to reiterate that GNG is not anti guns, we are anti gun violence, especially in schools. Our hearts go out to out the students and family of the Virginia Tech tragedy. I personally have family who recently graduated from Virginia Tech, so this especially hit home to me! Let's continue to bring awareness to our cause, and put a guitar in a kids hand instead of a gun! Everyone knows how healing music can be!
PLEASE continue to support our cause by sending donations to our Contra Costa County Chapter of Guitars Not Guns. We also accept PayPal. Send your PayPal donations to: fndarling@aol.com. All check and money orders can also be sent by US mail to our California Chapter President Frank Darling, 4 Avis Court, Orinda, CA 94563.
And last, I want to thank all of our sponsors: Bay Area Rock Fest, The Independent, Gibson Guitar, Guitar Center, Dean Markley, Jim Dunlop, 107.7 The Bone, Comcast, Markstein Sales Company, TIMELINE, MOB RULES, BALANCE OF POWER, SPOCKS BEARD , ODINS COURT , EYEFEAR, ZERO HOUR, CRIMSON GLORY , JON OLIVA'S PAIN *DC Cooper, and, Ronny Monroe. I hope I didn't leave anyone out!
**We look forward to Bay Area Rock Fest 2008!!!**
check out some pics at myspace.com/guitarsnotgunsca
Contra Costa County Chapter of Guitars Not Guns:*
Show Recap: May 4-5, 2007
The Independent - San Francisco, California
Last weekend's Bay Area Rock Fest was simply amazing! Friday night, especially, was incredible! The bands ruled and so did the crowd! I want to thank David Hatchell of Bay Area Rock Fest for naming Guitars Not Guns as the Official Charity of BARfest! And a VERY special thank you goes out to Ed Platt, the bass player for Enchant. If it weren't for Ed connecting Guitars Not Guns with David Hatchell, none of this would have been possible. Eric and Bear were an incredible support as well!
For those of you who haven't heard how GNG got connected with Bay Area Rock Fest, back in February David mentioned to Ed he would like to have a charity involved with his rock show. Without hesitation, Ed immediately told him about Guitars Not Guns. When Ed mentioned to me that David Hatchell wanted Guitars Not Guns as the official charity, I was ecstatic!! My first thought was how great it will be to bring awareness of our cause with the help of BARfest!
I met Ed last summer at Red House Studios' in Walnut Creek, where Ed is the bass instructor, and hosts several of the jam sessions. Ed's dedication and commitment to our cause has been a shining light for our Contra Costa County Chapter of GNG. I was very lucky to meet Ed! THANK YOU ED!! We look forward to doing more fundraisers in the near future!
I also want to thank Bruce Johnson for all of the help he gave us at BARfest! I could not have done this without his help! Bruce is a volunteer guitar instructor with our Contra Costa County Chapter of GNG. His energy, dedication and support was just incredible!
Friday night Enchant put on a powerful set of their awesome originals! It was pure perfection, and they are all truly amazing musicians!
Friday Night's line-up included: TIMELINE from the San Francisco Bay Area; MOB RULES from Germany, BALANCE OF POWER from the UK, ENCHANT *from San Francisco Bay Area and SPOCKS BEARD *from Los Angeles, California.
On SATURDAY MAY 5th the line up included: ODINS COURT from my home State Maryland; EYEFEAR from Melbourne, Victoria Australia, ZERO HOUR *from the San Francisco Bay Area; CRIMSON GLORY from SARASOTA, Florida and JON OLIVA'S PAIN *from Clearwater, Florida not to mention special guests who included DC Cooper, the current Silent Force lead singer and former Royal Hunt frontman and Metal Church frontman, Ronny Monroe.
DC Cooper helped calm my nerves on stage, and we also joked a bit! He is a very funny guy, and had the ability to make me feel comfortable on stage. Thank you DC!
The highlight was Saturday night, was when the autographed guitar that was donated by Gibson was raffled! Since that guitar was my responsibility, I made sure that every artist who performed at BARfest autographed that guitar! Some people joked with me that "no one will know the difference " and my comment was, "well, I will know!" I'm 99.9% positive I was able to get all the artists to autograph it. I even chased down Ronny Munroe after his guest appearance with JON OLIVA'S PAIN , and asked him to sign it.
The winner of the autographed Epiphone Les Paul was Wendy Simmons of Washington. What was amazing, is that Wendy is the President and CEO of a non-profit program called Rock School, which is operated out of Kirkland, Washington. Their purpose is to provide a positive environment for creativity and artistic musical expression to kids. Wendy and I chatted a bit on Friday night after she bought her (winning) raffle ticket, and she was telling me about her program. Their website is: rock-school.org. Kids and Music! The same message Guitars not Guns sends! CONGRATULATIONS WENDY!!
And for all the guys from the good ole South who teased me about Guns not Guitars, (haha!!) I want to reiterate that GNG is not anti guns, we are anti gun violence, especially in schools. Our hearts go out to out the students and family of the Virginia Tech tragedy. I personally have family who recently graduated from Virginia Tech, so this especially hit home to me! Let's continue to bring awareness to our cause, and put a guitar in a kids hand instead of a gun! Everyone knows how healing music can be!
PLEASE continue to support our cause by sending donations to our Contra Costa County Chapter of Guitars Not Guns. We also accept PayPal. Send your PayPal donations to: fndarling@aol.com. All check and money orders can also be sent by US mail to our California Chapter President Frank Darling, 4 Avis Court, Orinda, CA 94563.
And last, I want to thank all of our sponsors: Bay Area Rock Fest, The Independent, Gibson Guitar, Guitar Center, Dean Markley, Jim Dunlop, 107.7 The Bone, Comcast, Markstein Sales Company, TIMELINE, MOB RULES, BALANCE OF POWER, SPOCKS BEARD , ODINS COURT , EYEFEAR, ZERO HOUR, CRIMSON GLORY , JON OLIVA'S PAIN *DC Cooper, and, Ronny Monroe. I hope I didn't leave anyone out!
**We look forward to Bay Area Rock Fest 2008!!!**
check out some pics at myspace.com/guitarsnotgunsca
