Drive raise the roof – and six figure funds – for CRUK at Abbey Road

Five years on and Drive Productions once again had the pride and privilege of producing the Sound and Vision annual music heritage event, held at the world famous Abbey Road Studios to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Now a solid fixture on our quality event agenda this high-profile evening sees an incredible collection of iconic music, photography, art and memorabilia put up for auction, combined with intimate performances by leading musicians to an exclusive audience of four hundred.

Working together with event patron and host Whispering Bob Harris, we ensure that each year the evening is a roaring success. Year on year the funds raised by Sound & Vision have increased by a whopping 30% – considering the challenges faced by business during a national recession, this year’s staggering total of £260,000 can only be seen as exceptional.

So how do we do it? Sign up for our RSVP Deep Impact seminar – full details on the website – and we’ll let you in on a few of closely guarded trade secrets.

Sound & Vision is all about ‘celebrating music, the people that make it and the images it inspires’. So naturally it culminates in an evening of select musical entertainment from some of the UK’s most respected musicians. This year was no exception. 2010 peaked with appearances from Newton Faulkner, Beth Neilson Chapman, David Gray and the Led Zep legend that is Robert Plant, backed by the magnificent 72-strong London Oriana Choir.

Drive oversees the entire event production including stage and set design, lighting & sound, stage management. Particular sensitivity to the venue itself is required on our part, given that it was built as a Georgian townhouse in 1831 and has seen plenty of action since then. Our bespoke-built steel cable ‘flown truss’ system does the trick every time, enabling us to suspend more than eighty framed artworks without the need to even touch the walls. Lit with rock’n’roll stage lighting, they appear to be floating in mid-air. Accompanying images and the ‘silent bidding’ auction results are projected onto wide-screen for maximum visibility. A slick post-event ‘rockumentary’ film, originally devised and produced by ourselves as an added extra, is now a permanent feature of the production package we offer the organisation, adopted by them as an invaluable publicity asset.

Photography up for bidding has included images by Tom Murray (The Beatles), Chris Morphet (Pete Townshend), Simon Frederick (Lenny Kravitz), Richard Rosser (The Rolling Stones), Gered Mankowitz (Jimi Hendrix), David Bailey (Noel & Liam Gallagher) and Jude Edginton (Paul Weller) with some truly outstanding experiences up for grabs. This year saw the highest winning bid topping £26,000 for a once-in-a-lifetime ‘Beatles fan’s dream’, a package consisting of a special 2-person musical tour of the studios, 5-star lunch and a trip to Las Vegas, donated by legendary Beatles producer and CRUK patron Sir George Martin and his son, Grammy Award winner Giles Martin. An appropriate win from the world famous studio that was the musical home of the Fab Four themselves.

Every year Sound & Vision grows in scale and throws up a few new challenges (who would have guessed it would be a 72-man choir!), and every year Drive help us to overcome those challenges with flair and dexterity, while always putting in every effort to try to minimise the costs to the charity. You are all an absolute pleasure to work with and we couldn’t do it without you! THANK YOU!!

Jacqueline Ashton, Senior Manager, Special Events

Cancer Research UK & Bobby Moore Fund

Watch our online documentary here

No sweat. Just ‘Endless Moisture’.

By now most of you will have seen this slick commercial, have been out and purchased the product and be enjoying the benefits of Endless Moisture as we speak. But for those who haven’t – this is what it’s all about!

Working with M&Y Films, high profile London-based commercial production company, Drive-in were brought on board to handle the production design and art direction. As ever, long-standing working relationships with Director Ben Hume-Paton and DoP Denzil Armour Brown stood us in good stead to lend what E45 might call ‘the expert touch’.

The commercial was shot in part at the Emirates Stadium in North London – although you might not recognise the Arsenal Members Bar, transformed from home to the Gooners into a swanky hotel reception and a stylish flower shop. (Thanks go to TUFF, The Urban Flower Firm, for their beautiful bouquets).

Working as ever to a tight budget we pulled it off in one long day- a fast turnaround with two crews working a rolling build/break program. No sweat – just endless moisture.
“Thanks for doing a great job yet again”

Ben Hume-Paton, Director, M&Y Films

Throughout 2009 and ongoing…

Drive-in design diva Imogen Hammond was approached by prestigious advertising agency ‘The Bank’ to create the set for the (now trademark) ‘Italian style applied to Beer’ Peroni Nastro Azzuro re-brand shoot. Working in association with italian designer Antonio Berardi, this well-known bottled birra was cleverly re-cast midst a collection of classy fashion items, all conveying essential ‘Italian spirit’.

Shot on location in the Riviera (London’s that is), we transformed MC Motors into an authentic version of Beradi’s Italian design studio, creating perfect backdrop sets for the photography of his luxury accessory range: the Valigia weekend suitcase; a leather laptop case; jewel bottle opener and a kagoule. Spot the odd one out.

The end result was a stylish promotional book & print campaign featured across all the top-end style mags – Vogue, Harpers, Vanity Fair, Wallpaper, Elle – with supplements making it into The Times, Observer and The Independent. A set of beautiful photographic stills, compiled into a sumptuous coffee table book, set the precedent for Drive-in’s further involvement in the campaign.

The next installment, the ‘Peroni Lifestyle’ shoot, took place in Shoreditch, London – none other than the East-end warehouse location of Dragon’s Den – where Imogen faithfully re-created an authentic Italian lounge bar, where aspirational young italian professionals relaxed with aperitivo and peroni as featured in the November edition of Living etc.

We were then asked to work our design magic on the third leg of the Peroni Campaign: ‘Peroni Essentials’. This was shot in three exclusive Kensington bars, each styled with Italian bar accessories: Peroni Beer fonts; Peroni bottles, bottle openers and beer coolers and with an array of bespoke Peroni glasses. Attention to detail included Alessi fruit bowls and designer Italian bar stools. Not forgetting the stylish and beautiful party crowd cast to enjoy themselves on camera while enjoying…you got it, Peroni!