Following the success of the Sonic Fan Music Festival last year, Sonic Radio in collaboration with Sonic Wrecks, RadioSEGA and SegaSonic Radio will be hosting another event this year featuring 12 hours of music from 8 DJs within the SEGA and Sonic community.
Taking place on the blue blur’s birthday itself, June 23rd, look out for the return of the top 20 countdown of which you can nominate and vote on the most popular remixes of this year.
So, the time has come (and gone) for the annual community gathering they call, Summer of Sonic.
Normally, these events are held in London of which I normally stay in a nearby Travelodge – but this year was different. This year’s event was held in Brighton, near the south coast. My very dear friend “Page” invited me to stay with them as they are only two hours drive away.
Having mentioned that Summer of Sonic was in Brighton this year, I offered to drive another dear friend, Beth down there to see her poorly sister.
Disaster almost struck as the event venue originally planned developed an electrical fault midday and so, it was all hands on deck to clear everything down and move everything to another venue down the road. With everyone helping out where they can, disaster was averted and the day went smoothly.
For those who have seen me at other Summer of Sonic events, they will know that I usually take a musical instrument with me. Normally, I take my acoustic guitar, but I decided to do something different this year. Adam, better known as T-Bird made a comment on the Sonic Stadium Message Board for me to bring a saxophone. Now, I don’t own one of these, nor can I played it, so I decided to take something that is a similar colour – my trombone. The number of requests for Casino Night Zone, as the track was featured in Sonic Generations, was greater than the number of fingers on both hands!!
Once again, I was allowed to help out on the day. This included setting up the RadioSEGA live feed, narrowing down the finalists for the cosplay competition and packing and distributing the goody bags to attendees as they entered the building.
I would like to wish a heart-felt congratulations to the core staff and the volunteers for another successful event.
What made the day though is not what was on offer to the attendees, like the goody bags, the live show by Crush 40 and the playing of Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed, but the meeting up with familiar faces and new faces. Having spoken to people online, it’s always great to actually meet them, face to face; and it’s always fantastic to see people that you haven’t seen for a year or more.
One of the personal highlights of the day would be getting lost around Brighton trying to taxi people back to their hotels. Which way is left again? 
You could say that I’m on tour, but then so is everyone else!!
I’m currently in the University of York, ringing handbells with a number of other ringing teams from around the UK.
As of posting, we’ve already performed our segment in the National Rally, consisting of The Bells of St Mary and All Through the Night, and will soon be joining other ringers in a “read and ring” session, ringing Nearer My God To Thee.
I’ve been posting some photos on twitter and will add some here when I get home.
If anyone is in York and fancy saying hi, or even coming to watch the concert this evening, then give me a shout and I’ll pass on more details!
Earlier this year, we were approached by conductor Charles Hazelwood and the team from Studio Lambert to take part in a documentary for the BBC about bell ringing.
The composer delves into the world of bell ringing, exploring the sounds and designs of many sizes and shapes of instruments including handbells, and the organ-like carillon. He also tries to unlock the musical potential of church bells. The composer tries his hand at bell ringing and creates an original piece specifically designed to be played on church bells.
Handbell ringers from the South East and East Anglia regions were involved in this production as Charles Hazelwood created his piece and it was performed in the Market Square in Cambridge.
(Information from HRGB)
You can see the documentary on BBC4 and on BBC HD on Wednesday 7th December at 9pm. There are also repeats of the show over the next few days.
To find out more about the show, visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01803s3