Hear from some of our amazing supporters who have raised money in memory of DJ and music producer Andrew Weatherall:
The Sounds From The Flightpath Estate album began as a pub conversation, a ‘what if?’ that turned into something real. The pub in question was The Golden Lion in Todmorden, a pub with lots of Andrew Weatherall connections and its own record label.
The Flightpath Estate team (Martin, Dan, Adam, Baz and Mark) began contacting several artists who had close connections to Andrew Weatherall, artists such as David Holmes, Justin Robertson, Timothy J. Fairplay, Sean Johnston and Richard Sen.
Very quickly, all of them said they’d send us a track for a compilation album- the Golden Lion, Andrew’s memory and the Flightpath Estate group bringing people together.
Other artists quickly came on board- Sons Of Slough, 10:40, Rude Audio, and Andy Bell and Andrew’s management at Rotters Golf Club agreed to us using a previously unreleased track.
We were clear from the start that any proceeds from any sales would be for charity and specifically the charities Andrew favoured. Once the artists started sending us the music and Golden Lion Sounds said they wanted to put the album out, we were in business. Tracks were collated, sequenced, and mastered for vinyl. Sleeve artwork was commissioned from another friend of Andrew’s, Rusty (who works as Personality Crisis).
We had no idea what a realistic idea of sales was going to be. At first we thought 300 copies of a double vinyl album was likely to be attainable. Then we raised it to 500. Eventually we doubled that and have sold all of the copies, 1000 albums.
The album was promoted in The Flightpath Estate groups, a bit of a teaser campaign to build some excitement. It was launched on Wednesday 14th February, pre- orders available at Bandcamp and The Golden Lion’s website. The first run sold out within a day. We decided to do a second run, another 500 copies, which also sold out.
The album was picked up by Lauren Laverne at BBC Radio 6 during that week in February. Lauren made it her album of the week and played tracks from it, one a day during the week. Going from a conversation about making to album to having it played on Radio 6 was huge.
In May Piccadilly Records gave over their entire shop window to the album, Sounds From The Flightpath Estate Vol. 1. Piccadilly Records is a shop some members of the team have been buying their records from since the 1980s so this was another major moment.
Andrew’s charities are all causes that were close to his heart- Crisis, Amnesty International, the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Thrombosis Society – and raising £5928.23 to be split equally between them is a significant part of the whole thing. The music, the memory of Andrew, the Flightpath Estate group and the community are all key to it but raising money for good causes is important too and we’re delighted to have been able to raise £1,482 for each charity.
Thank you to everyone involved- all the artists, Waka, Gig and Matt at The Golden Lion, Rusty for the artwork, everyone who shared news about it online and bought into the (and bought a copy) of the album and mainly to Andrew Weatherall for being the inspiration.
Here's to Sounds From the Flightpath Estate Vol 2!
A huge thank you to everyone involved ❤️