NEW Wenvoe residents Steve and Bobbie Jones of Grange Close hosted a garden party, christened “Grangefest 2014” on July 26 which raised £1,000 for UHW Cardiff Transplant Unit.

The idea started out as a small house warming party for family and friends featuring a live band as entertainment. However, as is sometimes the way with things like this the idea mushroomed into an event with about 100 guests and five bands on the bill. Steven said, “As the party planning started to take on the feel of a festival we named it Grangefest and decided it would provide a great opportunity to raise money for a local charity as well as meeting neighbours and making new friends”.

The line-up was pretty impressive for a back garden party. The Shamones, a Ramones tribute band, featuring the legendary ex-Damned bass-player, Bryn Merrick, headlined. They were supported by John Sloman, vocalist; ex of 1970/80s Trapper, Uriah Heap and frontman of Lone Star. Other local artists and bands also played at various times throughout the day. The finale and piece-de-resistance was a jam session in which John Sloman, Bryn Merrick and Andy Johnson (Shamones frontman) were joined on stage by the drummer Clive Deamer. Clive has played with many famous artists during a long career including Jeff Beck, Robert Plant and Radiohead. He is currently supporting Portishead and also recording and touring with his own jazz/blues band, ‘Get the Blessing’.

Bobbie said “we were so lucky to get Clive.It was a total shock when he walked into the party with his wife my friend Annie as we thought he was playing at another concert. Fortunately for us that concert was cancelled last minute – their loss was our gain”

Nearly £500 in cash was collected during the evening from guests including neighbours from Grange Close. This was doubled by two of the guests who asked not to be name making a total donation to the charity of £1,000. Rachel Johnson (wife of Shamones’ singer, Andy) who has herself undergone treatment at the transplant unit accepted the donation on behalf of the unit.

She said: “This donation will go towards providing TV/music remote controls, headphone extension cables, fans and footstools, all of which will help to improve the comfort of patients undergoing dialysis.”

Who knows, this could well become an annual event which is great news for live music and especially local charities.