Summer concerts confirmed for Lewes' Con Club

These will take place every Sunday evening in July and August featuring a mix of established local performers alongside fresh talent discovered on the Ripple YouTube channel over the past year.

Tickets are available online at WeGotTickets priced at £7. The Ripple deducts hard costs and all profits go to the performer. Summer Lightning 1 on July 4 features the T J Walker Band fusing rock and country and guitar stylings. They will be supported by Starfish discovery Nick Easterbrook and their special guest will be Kate Turvey. Summer Lightning 2 on July 11 will feature Pam & De Femmes who will have their full line-up together for the first time in 18 months. Martin Gayford will support and special guests are Night House.

Helen Browning-Smith, tourism & arts manager, Lewes District Council & Eastbourne Borough Council, explained: “The Lewes Ripple is a registered not-for-profit community interest company run solely by volunteers.

“The Ripple began in late 2018 when Lewes residents John Marsh and Steve Parsons decided to create unique platforms for local musicians and performers. Lewes is blessed with a great number of musical people, most of whom are semi-professional, who ply their talent for little money in small venues, mostly as an adjunct to the hospitality industry. On the May Bank Holiday weekend of 2019 the Ripple mounted a three-day mini-festival which took place in a variety of venues. On ticketed shows performers were paid and excess profits were donated to local charities/causes. This was followed up later in the year by a series of pop-up shows including a poetry reading with specially composed music, a collaboration between a rock band and a female choir and a three-hour live broadcast from the Lamb Of Lewes in collaboration with RocketFM.

“The final preparations for a bigger town wide festival in 2020 were cruelly interrupted by the pandemic. At that point the Ripple had just received a donation to cover the cost of filming the 2020 event. This money was instead utilised to create material for and promote a unique digital platform, which was launched at the beginning of August 2020, the Lewes Ripple YouTube channel. This has been a great success, allowing local performers to express themselves during a difficult situation and giving their followers an opportunity to see and hear that response. So far the channel has uploaded 57 films and had over eleven thousand YouTube registered views.

“The pandemic will not end overnight and its after-shocks will continue to reverberate for many years to come. Like most places in the UK Lewes has taken a hit to its community spirit. Going forward, the Ripple intends to continue to foster connectivity between artists and audience with bespoke summer live shows as restrictions ease. The YouTube channel will remain in operation and continue to archive the Lewes music scene in all its forms. Longer term, the Lewes Ripple is looking to open a permanent community music centre.”