Surely the best quality of live music is it’s ability to bring people together in aid of a common cause. Proving this point, as well as proving that you don’t need to be Bono or Bob Geldof to make a difference (you just need good music) husband and wife team Brian and Claire Mear created charity fundraiser Mearfest almost 8 years ago.
Initially an event for unsigned bands, Brian repositioned the festival into a metal event last summer with a show at London’s Borderline on the anniversary of what would have been his daughter Molly’s 3rd birthday, Molly having passed away prematurely.
Selling out the Borderline in only a few days, Brian vowed to take Mearfest on the road to raise more money for local charities who were connected, in some way, with Molly.
For it’s first ever show outside of London, Mearfest headed to Trillians with a line up focused on the New wave of British heavy metal (1977 to 1983 era). Both the venue and the bands took no payment for the show, a fact that left Brian overcome with emotion when NE Volume caught up with him “its amazing what Trillians and all of the bands have done for us. When we played at the Borderline we were inundated with bands from the North-East offering to play for free, so when we knew we’d be touring, the North East was the first place we considered”.
Drawing a crowd from right across the region, as well as mainland Europe and Mexico (one gent flew all the way to Newcastle especially for the show) the day brought out excellent performances from all bands on the bill including Avenger, Millennium, Tysondog, Spartan warrior and Mandora.
Pledging to come back next year, Brian ended the night with a big thank you to the North East “we literally knew no one when we first arranged the show, but the North East has been so nice to us and we feel like we’ve made some lovely new friends”.
With a great show, and all of the door money going to a great cause in Down Syndrome North East, this was music at it’s best.