UPCOMING EVENTS HERE

about us

In short, we’re a group of musicians and artists and audience members from around the world helping people out.

We are living in bizarre, anxious times, where we often feel that there is little in our control – but the people here to play for you are refusing to allow our drive to help one another be taken away.

This is a group to coordinate and present a series of livestream shows from our Facebook Group Here during and beyond lockdown!

How does it work?

Each musician will either be playing to raise money for themselves or someone else (either another musician, artist, or person they know).

They’ll livestream and advertise pay details of whomever they’re playing for. WGL Music TV pulls their livestream feed all into one livestream, so you get to watch a continuous show. 

We will also create a GoFundMe for people to donate to if they don’t have PayPal or Venmo, but if you choose this option please comment in the group publicly that you’ve donated by GoFundMe and who you want it to go to as we do not hold money, we transfer it directly to the recipients.

Nominate a “friend” for us to play for

If you know someone who is being heavily impacted financially by the pandemic, please feel free to get in touch. Our primary focus to start will be musicians and artists, but as we grow we’ll likely have more in the future that will donate to causes and other select individuals. We cannot promise more than pocket change, as it depends on what the crowd donates, but all donations during donor acts go straight to nominees, or “friends” as we call them, and hope at the very least to give people a voice and bring people together.

*Please ask your nominee before passing us their details*

Please tell us: 

  • How you know them
  • How they’ve been effected by the pandemic financially
  • What they did before the pandemic began
  • Their name, email, facebook, or way we can contact them

You can email us below or at Help4OurFriends@gmail.com

What’s your role?

Audience Members
  • First and foremost, watch the shows that you can make it to!
  • If you can, we’re asking that you simply donate a dollar or a pound to each act you watch using the donation details they advertise (you’re welcome to donate more if you like of course).
  • If not, that’s totally fine too, but SHARE SHARE SHARE! Invite any music lovers you may know.
Musicians

Watch our group as we will be regularly posting available slots for shows there.

Visual Artists

You can also get involved! We accept timelapse or live painting sessions, however you’d like to present your work. 

Musicians and Artists can get involved as one of the following:

Self-earner: Perform for yourself if you are currently being impacted by the pandemic financially, but weren’t impacted enough to need other people to play for you.

Donor: Play for someone else being impacted by the pandemic if you’re fortunate enough to be able to (let us know if you know someone you want to donate to or if you want to be matched with someone)

Friend: Be a “friend” who shows are being donated to. Some friends cannot play as they don’t have the facility, are supporting roles (bassists, drummers, etc), are other kinds of artists, or are musicians and are being heavily impacted financially, so need the extra support*

*You can be a self-earner who is playing for yourself AND a friend as well, having someone donate their show to you, but this is if you are in dire need. If you’re a friend we actually recommend that you play if you’re able to so the audience can get to know you.

Slots

Slots are 40 minutes of play time (with a five minute introduction from us, so they’re a total of 45). Visual Artists are welcome to have a 20 minute slot if they feel 40 minutes is too long to fill.

What we need from you

After you’ve signed up for a slot and it’s been confirmed, we’ll send you a timeline of what we need from you when. The main things we’ll be needing before the show are:
  • Who you’re playing for
  • Your (or the person you’re playing for)’s PayPal and/or Venmo details (preferably PayPal as the UK does not have Venmo) – we also prefer the Paypal to be a PayPal.me link which you can easily make – see how here
  • Your music or art page
  • The music or art page of who you’re playing for (if applicable)

Mel Latimer
Nick Dawson
Ronnie Lee Blanton
Hosted by WGL Music TV

The Team

Mel Latimer – Host/Admin/Creator/Donor

Canterbury, UK

This project is Mel’s lovechild. She began it when she realized she was in a financial position to donate her gig tips, and wanted to allow others to do the same. She runs the shows, arranges the lineups, makes the group art, the website, and will probably be the one to respond to any of your questions! Sometimes she even performs, and you can hear her music here or on her Music Facebook Page. You can also check out her art here.

Ronnie Lee Blanton – Host/Comms/Creator of WGL Music TV

Raleigh, North Carolina

When you watch our shows, you’ll notice you can watch performer after performer on one livestream link. This magic is all Ronnie, the man behind the curtain. You’ll see Ronnie and Mel chatting between acts, but don’t let his short appearances fool you – he’s doing most of the coordinating. 

He has a dream to provide an online Music TV Channel that can host live performances, so when he and Mel met, it was serendipity at play. He was looking for people to stream on WGL, and here were all these musicians! Since then, Ronnie and Mel have been working towards making every show better and better for both the viewers and the performers. You can learn more about WGL Music TV here.

Nick Dawson – US Correspondent/Host/Donor

Boulder, Colorado
Since this project has become so international, we require people working in all different time zones to keep the show running. Nick Dawson, who was one of the first musicians to kindly donate one of his gigs, went above and beyond – he offered to help host from Colorado. Nick is an extremely lovely person and amazing musician – you can hear some of his band The Year Off here.

WE ARE THE WORLD -
RAISING MONEY FOR THE NHS

A beautiful project by Stave Audio Visual headed by the talented Dave Rogers and Stefan Kelk (seen in the beginning of the video). Dozens of people recorded We Are the World from their homes to raise money for the NHS. You can learn more by visiting Stave Audio Visual’s Page or you can donate to the NHS here at www.justgiving.com/fundraiser/stave

OTHER PROJECTS WE LIKE

A Facebook Open Mic Group where you can post your home recorded songs from your living room and share them with the Open Mic Community whenever you like
A group that promotes any livestream show that consists of 3 acts or more, hosted by the lovely Alex Mead of My Rap Name is Alex.
A platform called Lockdown Presents by Steffen and Simone, where people can book musicians to play livestream gigs as surprises or gifts or for zoom gatherings - 80% of the booking cost goes to the musicians, and 20% goes to three charities (which vary depending on the country the musician is from). Musicians can audition to be bookable on their website, and after launch, this will focus on getting musicians gigs during this new social distancing era.
A Facebook group that hosts a weekly Zoom Open Mic Night with Ant Henson every Saturday night at 8PM British Standard Time. It fits 100 people in their cozy little zoom pub which attracts people from all over the world. Ant Henson, the charismatic host, can also be booked on Lockdown Presents (the page to the left of this)

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