LONDON (VIP-NEWS) — A fundraising gig for the 73 staff made unemployed by the abrupt closure of music magazine publisher TeamRock is to take place in London on Jan. 5.
The gig has been organized by British rock group Orange Goblin, whose frontman, Ben Ward, set up a crowdfunding appeal with his partner Sandie Sorianoto to support employees of TeamRock after it went into administration — similar to chapter 11 bankruptcy — at the start of the week.
To date, £68,000 has been raised for 73 staff who were let go with no severance pay, spread between TeamRock`s head office in High Blantyre in Glasgow, Scotland, and London, where the majority of its editorial team worked.
Tom MacLennan, Iain Fraser and Jason Baker of FRP Advisory LLP have been appointed joint administrators of the company, which was established in 2012 and generated annual turnover of over £6 million ($7.4 million) . TeamRock magazine titles and brands include Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, the Golden Gods Awards and the Classic Rock Awards. It also ran its own digital radio station, TeamRock Radio (currently off line) and the website TeamRock.com, which attracted more than 3 million hits every month, according to the administrators.
Seven staff members will be retained in the short term, three in London and four in High Blantyre, to assist the administrators with magazine publishing and website maintenance, while a buyer for the business is sought. According to FRP Advisory LLP, TeamRock`s assets present "an excellent opportunity to acquire high profile rock music titles, products and brands that have a substantial global following."
"A few days ago when I heard the news that my good friends at Team Rock were being made redundant with no pay during Christmas week I just felt that I had to do something," said Ward announcing Orange Goblin`s intimate fundraising gig at 120-capacity The Black Heart in Camden, North London.
Admission to the gig, which will feature support from London band Steak, will cost a minimum donation of £10 ($12), with all proceeds from the evening going towards the fundraising campaign "in hope that we can give something back to the journalists that have supported our band and our scene for many, many years," says Ward.
Having launched with an initial target of £20,000 ($25,000) on Monday Dec. 19, Ward`s crowdfunding campaign has received donations from close to 3,000 people to date, including representatives of rock bands Avenged Sevenfold, Black Stone Cherry, Asking Alexandria, Tesseract and Earache Records.
British singer-songwriter Frank Turner has additionally auctioned a test pressing of a photo of him performing at London`s Highbury Garage for the cause, which sold for £760 ($933).
