SEE OUR INTERVIEW WITH JAMIE CULLUM PREVIEWING THE MARGATE GIGUPDATE TO PREVIOUS POST: “Due to unforeseen circumstances the Vortex Fundraiser at The Winter Gardens in Margate has been postponed until 4th February 2011. Jamie Cullum is extremely sorry about this and promises to make the show extra special in the new year.
All original tickets for the show, now called ‘Jamie Cullum and friends’ will remain valid for the new date but if you wish to receive a refund on a ticket you have already purchased you must contact the box office by 10th December on 01843 296111.
Tickets £27.50, £25.00. Call: 01843 292795 or 296111.
(I’m wondering if they’ll do the song Kurt Weill wrote about Margate….)
Note: The Vortex , which Jamie is supporting through this gig, is a dedicated arts venue in Dalston staffed almost entirely by volunteers. It puts on adventurous programming every night of the week, has a maximum capacity of only 100. Despite its international renown, it has only ever got on to Arts Council England’s radar once: ACE paid for half the cost of the club’s piano.
Categories: miscellaneous
Not quite true on the Arts Council front, as The Vortex also received a small Awards for All grant (£5,000) for a Vortex Outdoors festival in 2008. But certainly, the Vortex does run its daily programme of 350 gigs a year with no direct or regular funding from official bodies. Which is why the gesture of Jamie and others is so generous.
Jamie's concert is also to support the Margate Jazz Festival, which David Mossman (the club's founder in 1985 in Stoke Newington Church Street) now runs in July as a sort of Vortex-on-Sea.
Margate is becoming a hub for jazz musicians. Christine Tobin, Phil Robson, Annie Whitehead, Dave Whitford and Jennifer Maidman have all moved down there in recent years. Paul Booth lives in Ramsgate, the blessed Norma Winstone in Deal, while Colin Towns is not far away in Chilham near Canterbury.
Travel down is easy – 90 minutes on the high speed train from St Pancras International. (Platform 9 to Paris, Platform 10 to Brussels, Platform 11 – MARGATE!). I highly recommend the Walpole Bay Hotel, which is a museum to travel in the 1930s, Smiths Court Hotel and David Mossman's own B&B (where JMW Turner is reputed to have lived).
Thanks for putting the facts straight Oliver.
All the best for a highly successful fundraiser.