Christmas is a time of
giving. Whether it's your time, your talents, or your money,
Christmas is the season when we bless other people (although we
should, admittedly, try and do it every day!). Given To Live are a
project that embodies this spirit all year round by giving the gift
of live music to those who may not ordinarily be able to experience
it.
Recently I had the
chance to chat to Given To Live's founder, Tom Pugh. Here's what he
had to say. Hi Tom! Thanks for stopping by!
What was your background before you decided to
start GTL?
Prior to Given To Live I had been fundraising in
various capacities direct for the charity or through fundraising
organisations. I am also a qualified holistic massage therapist and
am re-starting practising as it's both grounding and something that I
enjoy on a soul level.
How long did it take to get from the initial
idea to where you are now? Was anyone else involved in the initial
set up? Do you have anyone working with you now or is it just you?
What’s the process behind setting up a charity?
It took five months from idea to start. I met
someone who has a charity, Eudaimonia, that's purpose is to support
projects to come into being. At the moment we are a project within a
charity and have started taking the steps to become a charity in our
own right. Currently I am alone with a few people who volunteer to
help where they can and where necessary as they simply love the idea
of what Given To Live is out to achieve.
How did Given To Live start and what inspired
the idea? What’s the ethos behind the idea? And who’s eligible to
take part?
The idea came to me after a Pearl Jam show last
November and initially I thought to help fellow PJ fans who couldn't
make shows through illness and crisis, knowing if someone has
invested to go to a show there can be significant financial loss.
Then I thought if I'm going to do this it needs to be bigger. All
live music and I use the term vulnerable and excluded as to who Given
To Live support to give us the opportunity to help as many as
possible. This can mean elderly with dementia, survivors of domestic
abuse, young carers, disability, mental health issues and so much
more. I think we, as a society, often overlook or forget about so
many sections of our society and I want Given To Live to be
inclusive.
Music is so powerful. So many people have their
own stories of why a particular song or band means something to them.
Often it's a band, an album, a song, that gets people through
turbulent times. I know music has saved lives.
Going to a live show is a gift that I realised I
took for granted when I could go. There have been times when I
couldn't go when I have been struggling and it would have been just
what I needed. I want Given To Live to make live music possible for
everyone and it isn't. Whether the obstacle is mental health,
physical disability or financial let's make this happen.
Given To Live have had some huge successes over
the previous months. How did they come about and what are your
thoughts on them?
We have. The first step is receiving an
application and then getting board approval. From there it comes down
to sourcing tickets. The meet and greet aspect is a cherry on the top
as our remit is to provide funding for tickets, transport and, if
necessary, accommodation. To have meet and greets with both the Foo
Fighters and Shane Filan was simply beyond my wildest expectations
and I can't thank those who helped make these happen from the ground
up enough. Fellow music fans with no investment other than wanting
dreams to come true via social media through to management and the
artists saying yes.
What inspires you to keep going?
Easy question. The looks on the faces, the
messages after saying how positive an impact has had. Scarlett's mum
telling me her dream was to win the lottery so she could pay for
Shane Filan to shake Scarlett's hand and knowing that evening we had
made a mum's dream for her daughter come true as well as Scarlett's.
The joy of those who helped make it happen. It's a very humbling and
beautiful experience.
Recently you were involved in a campaign to
help change the secondary ticketing market for live music. What are
your thoughts on this and what changes would you like to see made to
the live music industry? How can people on the street get involved?
I'm 47 and remember buying tickets off touts in my
younger days. I was brought up seeing my dad do this at football
matches if we had no tickets so it was normal for me. And if someone
wants to stand outside in the pouring rain, behaving shiftily with
people mostly despising you and sell tickets I'm ok with that. There
is always going to be someone who couldn't get a ticket for whatever
reason and be willing to pay. It's a very old profession and it
wouldn't surprise me if there were touts outside the Coliseum.
What really bothers me is now we have the internet
touts are getting hold of so many tickets, bought by automated bots,
that they can set the market and sell via the internet with no
regulation. It means genuine fans have much less of a chance of
getting tickets in a sale because up to 60% of tickets have been
known to end up in the hands of touts and immediately the resale
market becomes inflated. We know also some bands give tickets to
touts to re-sell and that, for me, is simply fleecing your own fans.
A great campaign
amongst Foo Fighters fans here in the UK happened on twitter
#NoMoreTouts. This resulted in the Foo Fighters having their own
#BeatTheBots where the initial onsale for their 2015 US tour was in
person at the box office before there was an internet sale. This is
something all bands could do. And this also bring in a sense of
community that is also part of the live experience. The campaign can
be found at
www.foofightersuk.com
The government can also choose to regulate the
secondary market. And it's as simple as that, a choice.
How can people get involved with Given To Live?
And where can we find you online?
There you can find out more, donate and make
applications.
We're tiny right now. Not really known about so
sharing us and liking us on facebook is great exposure, the same with
twitter- the links are on our website. Talk about us, fundraise for
us. Tell bands, managers, agents about us. If people want to be
involved please contact us. I am grateful for all help and
suggestions.
Finally, if you could change one thing to make
the world a better place, what would it be?
Due to my own personal experiences I truly believe
if everyone went into weekly therapy and weekly bodywork for two
years we would live in a much healthier and more conscious world. As
a collective consciousness grew we would have less war, less greed,
less environmental destruction. More compassion, more empathy, more
joy.
So, two years weekly bodywork and therapy for
everyone over the age of 14.
"One day you finally knew what you had to do, and
began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice
-- determined to do the only thing you could do --
determined to save the only life you could save."
Mary Oliver
Given To Live's next fundraisers are at Wembley on June 19th and 20th (the weekend of the Foo Fighters shows). Come along, say hi and enjoy some awesome live music before AND after you rock out with the Foos.
