| Press Release
Local Musicians Team Up To Remember A Friend and Raise Money / Awareness of Suicide Hotline Remembering the anniversary of a friend that died, local artist/musician Clark Steven had an idea. The friend was local musician Doug Block who died June 15, 2002. To promote his CD release party, Doug had emailed all his friends with the release party info. Clark still had this email and decided to send a note to all the contacts listed in the Cc: of the email. The note read something like this: It's hard to believe but it's been 3 years since Doug died. Doug used to jam with our Saturday Knights jam sessions. I am still a big Doug Block fan, listen to his CDs often, and still miss him. Back then Doug included me in his emailing to announce his CD release party. I was thinking it would be cool to email everyone on his list and see if there is anyone else out there that misses Doug and try to coordinate at least a small gathering of Doug Block fans to meet at Nietzsche's (where his release party was) for a drink and toast to Doug maybe around 6/15 (which is the date he died). Let me know if you are interested. Clark also posted a similar note on wnymusic.com a well known website among the local musician community. To Clark's surprise he received 17 reply emails from friends and fans of Doug who were interested in meeting. Many of the contacts were local musicians and several offered their bands to play at the event. When Clark contacted Nietzsche's, the owner, Joe Rubino, remembered Doug Block and offered to host and promote the event. The charity, Crisis Services (www.crisisservices.org), was chosen because of their 24/7 suicide and crisis hotline. Clark already had a working relationship with Crisis Services as he had donated his art and Internet services to them for many years, "Unfortunately the message hadn't got through to Doug to call for help. That's why we thought it would be good to create awareness of Crisis Services and their hotline and reach out to the young people who may be having trouble and need someone to talk to", Clark said. The show is set for Saturday, June 25th at Nietzsche's and will feature three bands, Lazlo Hollyfeld (www.lazlohollyfeld.com), Montage Ball (www.montageball.com) and The Vision Serpents (www.myspace.com/thevisionserpents) plus solo performances from Bryan Lohr "Brrrn" (www.brrrn.com) and more. There has also been talk about a jam at the end of the night with members from each of the bands and friends. Each band/performance has a member that had some connection to Doug. Doug's cousin Jeff McLeod is in Lazlo, Matt Ryan from The Vision Serpents used to play in Doug's band, as well as Bryan Lohr who played bass for Doug at the CD release party. And Paul Rehac from Montage Ball used to jam with Doug and Clark at their regular "Saturday Knights" jam sessions. There will only be a small cover charge of a few dollars at the door and all proceeds go to Crisis Services.
Also see: Press Release
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