Given To Live

IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
Given To Live -

Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.

Comments

  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    Over the next while I'll be saying more about Given To Live, why we do what we do and why I started GTL.

    For now, enjoy a few moments from a few of the shows we've taken people to.

    Tom
    GTL
    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • hedonisthedonist standing on the edge of forever Posts: 24,524
    Cheers and happy new year, Tom.

    Looking forward :)
  • RunIntoTheRainRunIntoTheRain Texas Posts: 1,009
    Great video. What GTL does is so amazing. Keep on Tom. Thank you.
  • PapPap Aspra Spitia, Greece Posts: 28,123
    Happy 2017 Tom! Keep up the good work!
    Athens 2006 / Milton Keynes 2014 / London 1&2 2022 / Seattle 1 2024 / Dublin 2024 / Manchester 2024 / London 2024
  • Met Tom for the first time today (random coffee shop encounter), what fantastic work this man is responsible for!
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    eloviate said:

    Met Tom for the first time today (random coffee shop encounter), what fantastic work this man is responsible for!

    Only just seen this. Thank you :)

    Was fun to meet you as well. Forgot the gig you said to check out?
    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    The Beginning Of Given To Live...why we do what we do.


    I was sat on a bus during the summer of 2013 when Pearl Jam's Alive came on. I'd heard Alive hundreds, if not thousands of times but this time was different and I started to cry. Deeply, openly on a bus in the Swedish countryside. I cried with wonder at being alive.

    It was almost seven years since I'd overdosed and if I'd been alone I wouldn't have made it. That was the back end of a three year relapse that led to homelessness, some time sleeping rough, overdoses and utter hopelessness. That October, 2006, I stopped using and drinking. Seven years later I was sat on a bus with tears streaming down my face in wonder and I knew I wanted to honour my journey, my life, me. But how?

    The answer came very quickly. My favourite band were touring in November in the US, one of the shows was on my 46th birthday. Go! Go, Tom, and do your favourite thing. Be with friends at Pearl Jam shows. So I booked flights, found tickets, hooked up with other fans who were doing a road trip and on 19th November, in Phoenix, I started a five show run that ended in Oakland on my birthday. 179 songs and 78 unique Pearl Jam songs later (we like our stats in the PJ community), an incident in Oakland where somebody needed help, feeling good about myself because I'd given myself a great gift and the idea for Given To Live started to form.

    I realised how incredibly lucky I was to be in a position to give myself such a gift. That I had a job that paid me enough to be free to make that decision. That physically and mentally I was mostly ok.

    It would have been easy to tell myself that I work hard so I can do what I like with the money but there was a realisation it is pure chance I am me. I could have been born in a war torn country, into poverty, into famine. I could have suffered brain damage from all the alcohol and drug abuse. I could be dead.

    So I thought I wanted to give what I gave to myself to others. To others that may need help, support, encouragement. That deserve their day in the sun, their show. And that what we want to create is something beautiful that honours and celebrates the person we take to a show, that it's their day, their moment.

    I went to my first gig when I was 15 with a friend from school. I jumped on the tube and went to the Hammersmith Odeon. I've walked to shows up the road, jumped on trains and planes. It's not that simple for everyone and that's one of the reasons for GTL, to make things simple. If you're in a wheelchair just getting on a train can be a huge deal, if you have mental health issues it can be enormous. So GTL supports, assists, enables things to be easier, to be possible.

    That's why we exist. To make gigs possible for those who need help getting there, to create something beautiful, to give someone their day in the sun.

    Tom
    GTL
    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • hedonisthedonist standing on the edge of forever Posts: 24,524
    :clap:

    Thank you for sharing of yourself, and your path, and the good you do for others because you can, because you want to.
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    hedonist said:

    :clap:

    Thank you for sharing of yourself, and your path, and the good you do for others because you can, because you want to.

    Thank you :)
    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    edited February 2017
    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    edited February 2017
    Adam, 14yo undergoing treatment for bone cancer is going to Iron Maiden -

    https://www.facebook.com/giventolive/posts/1650671474949404



    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    Kid In The Dark.

    Shetland doesn't have trees.

    It's out in the middle of the sea, way past Scotland with Norway over to the right. Coos are the same as cows but that's how it's said and Raans, cod's roe, is a traditional dish.

    Shetland is also home to Aimee. She's fifteen, loves her music, has pink dipped hair, wears plenty of black, will be seeing All Time Low in Edinburgh next month and is a very courageous young lady.

    Full story -

    https://www.facebook.com/giventolive/posts/1689981247685093

    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    Harry's Castle In Amsterdam.

    Full story here -

    https://www.facebook.com/giventolive/posts/1711152095568008


    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138

    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    Thank you :) 
    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    Awesome work, Tom!
    Thank you :) 
    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    edited June 2017
    Article in Metal Hammer on Given To Live and Adam at Maiden - 

    http://teamrock.com/feature/2017-06-02/how-given-to-live-is-spreading-the-gift-of-music 
    Post edited by IamTom on
    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    Given To Live are taking someone to Eddie, London 1. 


    Jamie's Pearl. 

    A loving parent suffers their child's aches and pains. A cough turns into a fever and a parent's heart aches with questions that can only be answered when the fever has broken. 

    Jamie and Rachel got in touch with Given To Live after their 10yo daughter Pearl had been diagnosed with metastatic Ewings Sarcoma, a serious form of bone cancer. Pearl is currently undergoing radiotherapy and further chemo.

    They got in touch to see if GTL could take Pearl to a show - we will, we're working out a plan and the best show for Pearl with mum and dad. 

    We have also offered mum and dad a show for them so they can have a night for themselves to have a break. They said yes, after all the treatment is over. 

    Then we discovered Jamie is a Pearl Jam fan and that the family would be staying in London while Pearl is having radiotherapy at the same time Eddie Vedder is playing Hammersmith and Jamie could get away for the evening. 

    So Jamie will be GTL's guest at Ed's show on the 6th. It won't make everything ok, it won't stop the agony and uncertainty, the powerlessness. 

    But for a few hours music, Jamie's music, will be his companion. A companion that can loosen and dry tears, soothe an aching heart, whisper and gently embrace, let free the terror and rage at a world that right now is asking unutterable questions. 

    Jamie, Rachel, Pearl and younger brother Milo.

    Jamie, Rachel, Pearl and younger brother Milo.

    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • hedonisthedonist standing on the edge of forever Posts: 24,524
    Even a few hours are precious - it's no crime to escape :)

  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    hedonist said:
    Even a few hours are precious - it's no crime to escape :)

    Absolutely. 
    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • Dellis3290Dellis3290 Charlotte, NC Posts: 64
    This is awesome. Tom, you are awesome. Keep going brother. Keep going. 

    Charlotte 2013
    Raleigh 2016
    Columbia 2016
    Chicago #1 2016
    Chicago #2 2016
    Seattle #1 2018
    Seattle #2 2018

  • smdevinesmdevine Posts: 126
    Tom, you are incredibly inspiring! I’ve partnered with Heide to raise for the O2 climb and hope I’ll have the opportunity to meet you 
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    smdevine said:
    Tom, you are incredibly inspiring! I’ve partnered with Heide to raise for the O2 climb and hope I’ll have the opportunity to meet you 
    That's very kind of you to say so. 

    So youre her her partner in climb! The donations have already started. Yes! Let's all meet and celebrate at the best show in town :) 
    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • ed243421ed243421 Posts: 7,624
    The whole world will be different soon... - EV
    RED ROCKS 6-19-95
    AUGUSTA 9-26-96
    MANSFIELD 9-15-98
    BOSTON 9-29-04
    BOSTON 5-25-06
    MANSFIELD 6-30-08
    EV SOLO BOSTON 8-01-08
    BOSTON 5-17-10
    EV SOLO BOSTON 6-16-11
    PJ20 9-3-11
    PJ20 9-4-11
    WRIGLEY 7-19-13
    WORCESTER 10-15-13
    WORCESTER 10-16-13
    HARTFORD 10-25-13









  • PapPap Aspra Spitia, Greece Posts: 28,123
    Pearl Jamm invited Tom Pugh on stage to talk about his fundraising efforts for ‘Given to Live’ that Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam had spoken about the previous evening at O2 Arena and had dedicated a song to mark their efforts in walking from Bristol to the O2 to raise money and help people who are not normally fortunate enough to get to gigs to be able to enjoy live music.
    Athens 2006 / Milton Keynes 2014 / London 1&2 2022 / Seattle 1 2024 / Dublin 2024 / Manchester 2024 / London 2024
  • Magic_JMagic_J Uk Posts: 28
    Wow I’d never heard of Given To Live until I saw a post by Pearl Jamm (U.K. tribute) mentioning you. What an amazing thing to do, helping people get to see the music that means so much to them. 
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    Thank you for your kind words
    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
  • IamTomIamTom Posts: 1,138
    Timing is everything :) 

    I just stumbled across this by Jeff Brown which is exactly why GTL does more than simply give a ticket to a show. This is the very heart of Given To Live.
    Given To Live -

    Latest story - Declan at Slipknot is up on the website now at www.giventolive.com along with Kayleigh at Foo Fighters, Tony at Stereophonics and more.

    Inspired by Pearl Jam, making live music dreams come true.
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