Over a year ago now, I
received a rather exciting text from Jack, asking if I was free for a chat
about an idea he’d had for a project he wanted to put together. We met for a brew, and by the end of
the evening were both so excited and eager to get to work on what would later
(after many possible but awful sounding names) become Common Goals.
Both
having full-time jobs meant that we had to work hard to get the project in
motion - our first step being to find the funds to print the first batch of
tees! We put together a hefty
proposal and pitched it to the local Arts Council; they declined it! We were
disappointed but still had so much passion and excitement for the project and deciding
that it was too late to back out, Jack picked up extra shifts to try to raise
funds, before his brother Tom offered to help the charity get off the ground!
(Thanks Tom!)
Our good friend and
awesome illustrator Jamie Morrison kindly agreed to help us out with the Common
Goals logo, and mentioned that his band The Arteries would love to be involved
in the project! We both have a lot
of admiration for what the Arteries are doing and felt that their values and
celebration of community were perfectly suited to the project!
Along with the
Arteries design, Jack got to work a T-Shirt for his band, local punk rock
stalwarts The Cut-Ups (the design will be release real soon), and we thought
that Great Cynics would complete an awesome trio to get us underway. The artistic task fell to Iona, who did
such a great job on what turned out to be her first ever illustration! Thanks!
Tom Cross, Exeter’s gig poster master, kindly helped us to lay out the content, and added a much needed touch of design to the zine, thanks Tom!
The Common Goals stall at Handmade Arcade looked incredible! Jack and Sorcha had tracked down a subbuteo pitch, and even went to the effort of hiring the goals from a friend to add an extra touch to the display.
As if forecast by Sorcha’s Subbuteo pitch idea, a hat-trick was inevitable, and sure enough Common Goals made our third appearance in three days back in Exeter at the Cavern’s bank holiday Punk Rock All-Dayer! We had such an awesome day, surrounded by friends from near and far, the smell of Ben’s freshly cooked burritos and Amy’s vegan cakes in the air, and of course the sounds of 10 fantastic Punk Rock bands to keep us going!
This weekend, Common Goals sold a grand total of 21 T-Shirts, and added to the sales of the CG zine packs and donations, we raised a amazing £328.50! Unbelievable! We’re so chuffed!
At the end of the month we’ll announce exactly how much we raised for each particular charity, and how close we are to having the funds to work with the next band (which we are incredibly excited about!)
On behalf of us both, we’d like to say a massive Thank You to every one who has supported and help the project to get where it is today! We fully realise that even with all of the work we’ve put in, Common Goals simply wouldn’t be here is if wasn’t for the people around us who were so willing to donate their time and energy to the project. We’re ever grateful to be part of such a caring and united Punk Rock community.
So after a crazy week
of getting everything together, spreading the word on our facebook page,
tweeting, designing and printing the zine. I spent Friday evening, before Handmade Arcade where we were due to make our first appearance, putting the zines together and reminding myself of the journey that the project
has taken so far. It was a great
feeling to see everything printed up and ready to go…
Tom Cross, Exeter’s gig poster master, kindly helped us to lay out the content, and added a much needed touch of design to the zine, thanks Tom!
While I was at home
getting excited by zine folding to the sounds of Hayley sat at her sewing
machine making bunting for Handmade Arcade, Jack and Sorcha were putting put
their imaginative minds together to create this awesome display….
The Common Goals stall at Handmade Arcade looked incredible! Jack and Sorcha had tracked down a subbuteo pitch, and even went to the effort of hiring the goals from a friend to add an extra touch to the display.
Excitement and
anticipation was in the air – we’d been looking forward to this day for a over
a year and although it’s a project that we believe in so strongly, we had no
idea how it would be received by others around us. While I manned the No Guts No Glory shop for the day, Jack
was at the helm of the Common Goals stall, and looked delighted to be there. The stall had so much interest and
incredibly our first day saw us sell a total of THIRTEEN T-Shirts! Amazing!
As soon as the Handmade
Arcade had finished, Jack packed up the Common Goals stall and headed straight
to Crash Doubt Festival up in Lincoln, where his band, The Cut Ups, played on
the Sunday! Again, the Common
Goals stall was so well received, people were really keen to find out more
about the project.
As if forecast by Sorcha’s Subbuteo pitch idea, a hat-trick was inevitable, and sure enough Common Goals made our third appearance in three days back in Exeter at the Cavern’s bank holiday Punk Rock All-Dayer! We had such an awesome day, surrounded by friends from near and far, the smell of Ben’s freshly cooked burritos and Amy’s vegan cakes in the air, and of course the sounds of 10 fantastic Punk Rock bands to keep us going!
So how did we do?
This weekend, Common Goals sold a grand total of 21 T-Shirts, and added to the sales of the CG zine packs and donations, we raised a amazing £328.50! Unbelievable! We’re so chuffed!
At the end of the month we’ll announce exactly how much we raised for each particular charity, and how close we are to having the funds to work with the next band (which we are incredibly excited about!)
On behalf of us both, we’d like to say a massive Thank You to every one who has supported and help the project to get where it is today! We fully realise that even with all of the work we’ve put in, Common Goals simply wouldn’t be here is if wasn’t for the people around us who were so willing to donate their time and energy to the project. We’re ever grateful to be part of such a caring and united Punk Rock community.
Tomorrow evening,
sunshine depending, we’re popping out to take some snaps of our wonderful tees,
zines and badges so that we can launch our web-store this weekend! Keep an eye out for Jack’s blog post
right here on Saturday!
Peace,
Nath