Back in August I attended and photographed a unique charity concert at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham, put on by Uprawr Mental Health Foundation. The event was called 1000 Lights, and was a tribute to the late Chester Benington of Linkin Park, raising money for Uprawr to put on free counciling sessions for people in the rock and alt community. The name 1000 Lights is a nod to the Linkin Park song, ‘One More Light’, and it involved getting 1000 musicians to take part for the purpose of not only raising money for the charity, but for getting that many musicians to play two songs by Linkin park altogether with the musicians on stage, and those songs being two of the LP classics, Numb and In The End.
The main performers of the night were the UK and Europe’s leading Linkin Park tribute band, The Linkin Park Experience, who were also supported by members of some of your favourite British rock and alt bands of the last 15+ years. We saw the likes of Padge from Bullet For My Valentine, Mikey Chapman of Mallory Knox, Jessie Powell of Dream State, Sean Smith of The Blackout, Bethany Smile of As December Falls, and Zaid Elgahmi of From Inside, amongst others.
The floor was lined with drummers, guitarists, bassists and singers, along with a few keyboard players too. It was a sight to behold! Walking in and amongst them all was quite something. Some musicians were part of bands themselves, and some had never played live before. Some had been playing music for years, others were early on in their musical journeys, but all had the same love for what they were doing, and belief in the cause to be here. Each musician was asked to raise money as part of their involvement in the event, and all in all, 1000 Lights as a whole raised over £130,000 - an incredible achievement from everyone involved and all those who donated.
It really was a very special night that no doubt Chester would be looking down at proudly. Congratulations to the Uprawr team on a fantastic night, and I hope it’s not the last of this nature.