Spreading peace and love using music is the goal of a new band and they will be starting their new movement in Maple Ridge.
Peacenik Collective is a group of like-minded artists – most who reside in Maple Ridge – who want to connect people together in a positive way.
Maple Ridge artist Bruce Coughlan, a member of the internationally renowned band Tiller’s Folly, was asked to assemble a cast of performers for a Songs of Peace live broadcast on the online platform Unite Us Live – a platform that connects live events like concerts, sporting events, or educational conferences, to the global community – he immediately reached out to his friends Marc Gladstone, Cherelle Jardine, and Scott Jackson of the band Stone Poets, who were just releasing their new album Human, with an upside down “A”, whose music particularly fit the bill with songs like Dear Hate, the title track HUMAN, Time, Beauty of it All, The Great Divide, Tell me it’s Alright, Way Down, and Gleam and Beam.
Human is the Stone Poets’ fifth studio release, and is a 17 track album with songs full of hope, love, and humanity.
Coughlan also reached out to long-time friend, songwriter, vocalist, and bassist Gord Maxwell and friend, percussionist Greg Stuart to join the band for the live broadcast in September.
After the peace concert, said Jardine, Peacenik Collective was formed, a “super group” who will be performing songs from their collective body of work.
“We know we can’t solve the world’s problems, but together we can start this movement. We really need it more than ever in these troubled times,” said Jardine.
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Their first concert, A Season for Peace and Love, will be in memory of John Lennon, and will take place on Friday, Dec. 8, at The Sanctuary in Golden Ears United Church, 22164 Dewdney Trunk Rd., Maple Ridge.
Doors will open at 7 p.m. and the concert will run from 8-10 p.m.
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Tickets are $25 each and can be purchased by e-transfer to laserbeammusic@gmail.com or by calling 604-306-0632.
For more information about the band go to peacenikcollective.ca.
“Together we can celebrate peace and love and ignite this movement,” said Jardine, whose band Stone Poets’ latest single Angels in the Sun, was released Friday, Nov. 17.
The full album will be released Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024.
For more info go to: stonepoets.ca.