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

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