For a while now, Edinburgh Blues Club has been working behind the scenes on the ‘EBC Foundation’.
The EBC Foundation is an initiative for a community arm of the Edinburgh Blues Club to replace our changing charity partners and take control of the allocation of funds to ensure they are invested in a relevant, complimentary and recorded fashion. Its purpose is to involve, engage and empower Edinburgh Blues Club and its members in the decision making on the allocation of funds and sits comfortably within our social enterprise status.
It has been established with the belief that the success of Edinburgh Blues Club is measured not only by membership numbers and ticket sales, but also by the influence the club can have to positively impact the blues community and environment of Edinburgh for its artists, residents and visitors.
The current pandemic has hastened the launch of EBC Foundation and our immediate aims are to help support local artists, venues and indeed the infrastructure necessary for musicians and touring music to survive and thrive.
What have we done so far?
- ‘Pre-paid’ for future performances to several local musicians whose income and livelihoods have been decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic and lock down.
- For all venue hire fees already paid for postponed shows, we have not requested a refund. We hope this will allow the venues to continue to cover essential costs and contribute to their survival.
- Made a sizable contribution to Gerry Jablonski Band’s appeal to raise funds to record a single and accompanying video.
- Committed to re-arrange all shows which have been cancelled.
- Committed to a member’s event exclusively featuring local artists.
- Offered pre-payment to our locally based designer who creates our flyers, posters and adverts.
- Tentatively arranged a 2 day January ‘festival’ style show headlined by international artists but supported by the best of Scottish blues.
Our objectives going forward
- Inspire young musicians and provide them with the opportunity to develop their learning, i.e. funding placements at Edinburgh Jazz & Blues’ ‘Blues Academy’ and providing opportunities for 1-2-1 lessons with future Edinburgh Blues Club artists.
- Financially support young musicians and bands – i.e. rehearsal room expenses, leads/cables/strings/cymbals and other miscellaneous necessities.
- Assisting with tour costs for Edinburgh bands looking to tour.
The money to support the initiative comes from profits from individual shows, a percentage of raffle sales and we envisage fundraising shows and events in the future. It does not conflict with or detract from our ability to continue to attract the best artists possible to the club.
