One of the many benefits of being in the wine industry is getting to work alongside a great swathe of multi-talented people. I started idly thinking that a wine-trade band might be a jolly sort of wheeze, which is why I now find myself announcing, somewhat disconcertingly, that the wine-trade supergroup Skin Côntact will be playing a one-off gig on Monday 9 March 2015, in aid of Wine Relief.
The band consists of:
- our very own Purple Pages columnist Alex Hunt MW on guitar
- Ben Smith, Head of Communications for Concha y Toro and formerly of '80s hitmakers Curiosity Killed The Cat on bass
- Matt James, founder of The Bordeaux Cellar and formerly of '90s indies starlets Gene on drums
- myself on keyboards
- Helen Chesshire, founder of The Chesshire Set on backing vocals
- Anne McHale MW, Wine Education Specialist at Berry Bros, also singing
The band will be fronted by a succession of wine-trade personalities. There are several already signed up, though I'm keeping them under wraps until January. I can confirm however that Jancis herself ... won't be singing. But she has kindly agreed to introduce us on the night, and say a few words about the charity.
Talking of which, Wine Relief is a fundraising initiative in aid of Comic Relief, one of the UK's best-known and most-loved charities. Every other year they hold a huge fundraising effort called Red Nose Day, which is scheduled for Friday 13 March 2015. It was Jancis and Nick who originally established the wine-related offshoot back in 1999, and for many years it enjoyed a reasonably high profile in British supermarket wine aisles. However, as the retail battleground has become bloodier, charitable causes seem to have been, let's say, de-prioritised. Anyway, it was the ideal fit for what I had in mind, and I'm delighted that 100% of the proceeds from the event will go straight to Comic Relief.
It has all been made possible by very generous sponsorship from Côtes du Rhône wines, who will also be holding an exclusive wine tasting before the gig kicks off.
There's much more information at skincontactlive.com – and for a sneak peak at the band in action, see the video below.