Phoenix Rising
On World Mental Health Day - Tuesday 10th October 2023 - the Phoenix Project hosted their own event at the Smokehouse, Ipswich. Thirty to forty group members and friends turned out for the event. It was a really relaxed night with a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
The venue was decorated beautifully by table and courtyard lights made in Phoenix Project Friday afternoon craft sessions. We had a spread of lovely food in the bar made by John King.
Group members were really supportive of everyone who performed and appreciated the courage it took to get up on stage.
“I felt really proud of the choir. They didn’t have a lot of time to practice but they sounded absolutely amazing!”
The night kicked off at 7pm with a great DJ set by DJ Jah Cheech. We were then treated to a performance by Clearwater (aka Matt, Jeremy and Suzanne of ICR FM’s Clearwater Show with special guest Gary Jackaman). The band played a version of fun family favourite ‘Psycho Killler’ as well as a piece written and performed by Gary ‘Chunky Soup’ which had everybody singing along, doing the actions and laughing out loud.
Next up was Carl who belted out three songs with acoustic guitar ranging from Dolly Parton to Nirvana. The Phoenix Project choir performed a version of Phoenix Rising, rearranged and played on keyboards by Jon Fuller. Donna and Robert gave us a touching duet of the Drifters classic ‘Up on the Roof’ and Winston did a beautiful rendition of Big Joe Turner’s ‘Flip, Flop and Fly’. Winston gave us a bit of a scare when he got up on stage… he took a look at his watch and pretended he had a taxi waiting!
iSounds graduate DJ Jayasarule played a brilliant and varied DJ set of well loved tunes and Jon Fuller (aka the Wasp Factory) took us on a musical nature journey - an improvised keyboard soundscape enhanced with live landscape visuals. The night was topped off with a closing set from DJ Jah Cheech.
“I really enjoyed Jon’s keyboard music and all the visuals were really relaxing. It was really hypnotic, calming and mellow.”
“I really enjoyed it. I thought the whole night was just fantastic! The highlights for me - apart from singing in the choir - were Jake’s DJ set and the first band that played - Clearwater - they were really good!”
“Everyone was very good and everyone put a lot of work into it. You could see that by the result on the night. The only disappointing thing was when it all ended!”
“It was just a really nice inclusive night.”
Event photographer: Colin Hindle
