Punks Play for Autism - 18th June in Support of Polly Tommey's Autism Trust

April 22, 2010 - PRLog -- The 4 piece pop-punk-rock sensation from Wolverhampton have become an internet phenomenon, with the self funded album selling world-wide, in the US, Australia, Europe and even India, the group are to headline a concert in support of Polly Tommey’s Autism Trust at the Luminaire Club, the UK’s best Live Music venue, in Kilburn High Road, London.

“We are delighted to be associated with The Autism Trust” said front-man Leigh Bucknall, “We have fans that are autistic and these same fans helped spread the word when our album was released on the 15th March, which drove it up the download charts on Amazon”. When asked to explain further Leigh added “In addition to some of our fans, our Management team have nephews that are autistic and when we sat and talked after a gig one night it became a no-brainer, and from there it sort of took on a life of its own”.

“Our Management team contacted The Autism Trust and the National Autistic Society (NAS) who both expressed an interest in what we were trying to do, so once we had the charity support the team started looking for suitable venues and the support acts.”

“It’s an even bigger buzz knowing that The Write Offs have a member in the band who has Asperger Syndrome (part of the autistic spectrum) and that they’ll be sharing the stage with us, it’s sort of the cream on the top for us, and breaks down stereo-types and starts a conversation with a message that maybe we think we’re aware of autism but really we just know its name. Hopefully it will add to the interest and awareness surrounding autism and encourage young people to find out more.”

The concert aims to highlight autism issues.  With thousands of punks descending on London on the weekend of the 18th June to attend the Wembley Stadium show that punk legends Green Day are headlining, Nova-Caine Music and The Razorbax, wanted to take the opportunity to raise autism awareness by throwing a benefit concert for The Autism Trust, an excellent organisation we feel exhibits a punk attitude to getting autism into the spotlight and lobbying the Government to take action to help those within the autistic spectrum  and their families.  The founder of The Autism Trust, Polly Tommey, has challenged the Governments’ thinking with some radical, innovative and dare we say punkish campaigns. That is why we at Nova-Caine Music and The Razorbax are delighted to support The Trust and their work.

In addition to the benefit concert The Razorbax, will be releasing their debut single Better Place with all proceeds going to The Autism Trust.  Release date is to be confirmed but the band is currently working on ideas for a video to accompany the release. “We are delighted to be associated with The Autism Trust” said front-man Leigh Bucknall, “We have fans that are autistic and these same fans helped spread the word when our album was released on the 15th March, which drove it up the download charts on Amazon”. When asked to explain further Leigh added “In addition to some of our fans, our Management team have nephews that are autistic and when we sat and talked after a gig one night it became a no-brainer, and from there it sort of took on a life of its own”.

“Our Management team contacted The Autism Trust and the National Autistic Society (NAS) who both expressed an interest in what we were trying to do, so once we had the charity support the team started looking for suitable venues and the support acts.”

“It’s an even bigger buzz knowing that The Write Offs have a member in the band who has Asperger Syndrome (part of the autistic spectrum) and that they’ll be sharing the stage with us, it’s sort of the cream on the top for us, and breaks down stereo-types and starts a conversation with a message that maybe we think we’re aware of autism but really we just know its name. Hopefully it will add to the interest and awareness surrounding autism and encourage young people to find out more.”

At Nova-Caine Music the job is a simple one, when you have great music and a great cause; all we have to do is join the dots and spread the message, autism isn’t just about the ‘Rain Man’ image of a high functioning ‘oddball’ or about a non-communicative child. It affects many different people in many different ways.

What we wanted to do with the aid of The Autism Trust and NAS is raise awareness that Autism is a highly variable disorder, and the effects on the individual and the families are equally varied.

The question may be – so why “Punks Play for Autism”? Well frankly, it was things like the common misconception that autistic children prefer being alone, when the reality is often very different; whilst making and maintaining friendships maybe difficult, it’s the quality not quantity of friends that dictate how lonely they feel.  Not to trivialise autism in any way we could see similarities when a lack of information and awareness lead to  the situation of front-man Leigh Bucknall being told at the Job Centre, that ‘his’ sort (punks) don’t make friends or mix well with others, which of course couldn’t be further from reality.

We think this lack of understanding and awareness is something that will resonate with a lot of the fans of The Razorbax and of punk music. We have the feeling that if we can educate and inform the up and coming generation then maybe like we’ve seen with The Autism Trust, those young and aware voters will also force the issue of Autism support and care up the political agenda.

Other bands sharing the stage with The Razorbax are

Sam Moloney

The Write Offs

SH!ftY SaRaH

# # #

Nova-Caine Music is designed to help Unsigned bands promote and sell their music, we will do anything and everything to get any band we believe in to where they want to be….