ONE of Oxford’s biggest rock stars has been banging the drum for mental health charities – literally. Laurence ‘Loz’ Colbert, who drums with indie-rockers Ride and Supergrass star Gaz Coombes’ band, helped raise thousands of pounds with a 12 hour ‘drumathon’. The musician gave his kit a trashing from 10am-10pm on Friday as part of a national 10-day challenge to raise money for charities which by last night had raised more than £18,500. Fellow Oxford musician Nigel Powell, of the bands Dive Dive, Unbelievable Truth and Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, also completed a 12-hour stint of his own. They were among 40 drummers from around the world, including Errol Kennedy of 80s super group Imagination, Bev Sage of 80s duo Techno Twins, Will Champion of Coldplay, Nick Hodgson of Kaiser Chiefs, Cherisse Osei of Simple Minds and drummers from Girls Aloud, Kasabian, Idles, Fontaines DC , The Kooks and The Feeling.
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Hackney musicians Errol Kennedy and Bev Sage.
- Credit: DrumathonLIVE
Hackney musicians Errol Kennedy and Bev Sage are organising another Drumathon after raising £45,000 for the NHS last year.
This year s virtual event will see an even bigger team of drummers including Coldplay s Will Champion, Level 42 s Phil Gould and the Feeling s Paul Stewart playing non-stop for over 260 hours during one week in May.
This year the event aims to raise funds for five mental health charities; MIND, The Anna Freud Centre, UK Trauma Council, Child Bereavement UK and NHS Charities Together.
Errol said: “We all recognise that along with the pandemic and lockdowns mental health will be one of the biggest challenges we will face as a society in 2021 and beyond”.