Having raised over £64,000 in just over two days for the 73 former employees of music publisher, Team Rock, British metallers Orange Goblin have announced an intimate fundraising gig at The Black Heart in Camden for Thursday January 5th with support coming from Steak.
Ward has said this regarding the show: “A few days ago when I heard the news that my good friends at Team Rock were being made redundant with no pay during Christmas week I just felt that I had to do something. That night my girlfriend and I set up the Just Giving page and within 2 days we had raised almost £60,000 and we were blown away by the response and generosity of people all over the world. To help raise even more, Orange Goblin will play a very special show at the Black Heart in Camden on January 5th.
This will be a minimum £10 donation to get in and admission will be on a first come, first served basis as the venue only holds 120 people! All proceeds for the night will go to the Just Giving page in hope that we can give something back to the journalists that have supported our band and our scene for many, many years.”
The fundraiser, set up by Ward and his partner Sandie Soriano on Monday evening, has raised over £64,000 since its launch and comes following the company’s liquidation and the announcement that 73 members of staff were laid off with no severance pay six days before Christmas. The campaign initially only aimed to raise £20,000, which was met around 5pm Tuesday afternoon.
The campaign has received donations from rock fans around the world, including high profile names like Avenged Sevenfold, Black Stone Cherry, Asking Alexandra, Tesseract, Earache Records and many more. British singer-songwriter Frank Turner has set up an auction in the hope of raising money for the 73 affected.
People can donate to the campaign here - https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ukrockcommunity?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Yimbyprojectpage&utm_content=ukrockcommunity&utm_campaign=projectpage-share-owner&utm_term=WQBJrAgqW
73 people were laid off following the company’s collapse. Administrators were called in after the firm got into financial difficulties, and 27 members of staff in Scotland and a further 46 in London have been made redundant. Seven staff members will be retained "in the short term" to assist the administrators. Team Rock ran a stable of rock music magazines, including Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Classic Rock Presents Prog, and featured regular content on its website, www.teamrock.com.
Administrators at FRP Advisory are now seeking buyers for the business's magazine titles and other assets. Joint administrator Tom MacLennan said Team Rock had traded at a loss "for a significant period of time". Adding: "The company explored every option to secure the long-term future of the business, however the constraints on the cash position of the business were such that administration was the only viable option. The administration presents an excellent opportunity to acquire high profile rock music titles, products and brands that have a substantial global following. "
Team Rock was founded in 2012, and bought the Classic Rock, Classic Rock Presents Prog and Metal Hammer magazines from Future Publishing in 2013. FRP have stated the company's website attracted more than three million hits per month, and the company owns an extensive archive of video, radio, images and magazines.