“Twestival encourages people to ‘tweet, meet and give,” explains organiser Sherrilynne Starkie. “It’s a fun event where people who chat together online can get together face to face, have a good time and raise money for a great local cause.”

Twestival (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good by connecting communities offline on a single day to highlight a great cause and have a fun event. Twestival is the largest global grassroots social media fundraising initative and this year more than 200 cities worldwide will take part.

Last year’s Isle of Man Twestival Global raised more than £2,300 for Concern Worldwide in one day. This year organisers hope to beat that target to help sick childen in the Isle of Man. Here’s where the money went:

“Twitter has gotten a lot more popular on the Island since last year’s campaign with hundreds, if not thousands, more residents now tweeting regularly,” says Sherrilynne. “We are holding this big Twitter celebration to bring this community together offline.”

Wish Upon a Dream is an independent charity that grants wishes for sick children in the Isle of Man, and it depends entirely on donations. A hundred per cent of the funds raised by Isle of Man Twestival will be donated to this worthy cause.

Here at ManxVoice we’re planning to support Twestival Isle of Man in any way we can. We’ll be giving you updates as the day approaches and plan to support  the initiative both online and offline. So, watch this space and look out for a special Twestival page we’ll be putting up to help raise as much money as possible for Wish Upon a Dream.

In the meantime, here are 5 ways you can help support Twestival. The main thing is to spread the word as widely as possible. Tell all  your friends, tell  your colleagues, tell everyone who follows you on Twitter all about it. March is Twestival month and it all comes to a head on the 24th March.

From the outset, you can tell that is a band that has made every effort possible to rehearse every note to the point of perfection and this is evident in the way that their songs are put across. With material of the quality of Someone Else’s Sun and Hospital Patio (both incidentally available to listen to on the Planes Over Paris MySpace page) you can hear the rare sound of 4 musicians playing as a single unit. Over the top of Ben & Martyn who are one of the tightest rhythm sections you’ll have the pleasure to hear are some wonderfully subtle synth sounds from new recruit Steff that for once in a band don’t overpower you and actually add to rather than detract from the overall melody. Topping this off is a rhythm/lead guitar combination from Paul that actually bucks the trend for most vocalists/guitarists, in that he doesn’t take control of the overall sound and treats the band as an extension of his instrumentation!

The gig itself was played to practically a full house in the Traf, in which Billy had had the foresight to move the tables out of the band room and into the green room, so for the first time in living memory, it actually felt like a gig in there and not someone playing at the top end of a furniture shop (now about moving that pool table out of there…). One thing that shows through is that, as intricate as these songs are, they are meant to be played live, but through a decent PA with a competent engineer as for the most part for the instrumental “post-rock” (a genre I know nothing about and had to be told what it meant!) passages, you need to be able to hear the individual instruments each playing their own lines, that’s not to say that what they play is indulgent noodling, but rather, an overall sound where all 4 (or 5 if you count the vocals) instruments contribute to the overall feel of the song.

Musically this is a band that has taken a variety of influences from the last 2 decades and managed to make disparate sounds somehow fit together. Last night I heard, amongst other things, old school goth, new wave, the late 80’s Manchester & Leeds sounds and (so I was told) the new post-rock style. It’s a very hard thing to explain in terms of what they sound like, but the closest I can get is an overall feel that The Bravery were a pastiche of, The Cult used to try to sound like around the time of Dreamtime & Love, The Sundays made commercialised and The Sisters Of Mercy had for a short while before they reinvented themselves as The Pet Shop Boys go to a funeral. Throw in some Mars Voltaesque time changes and that about sums things up (see what I mean!)

The only thing I can actually suggest is to go and see this band yourself as they defy description, but I can assure you that you will come away not unhappy and in these days of too many complaints about no gigs to go to and no venues to go see these non-existent gigs in, that can’t be a bad thing at all.

Here are some photos from the gig:
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Photos by Martin Critchley