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WAP & Music Support Cancer Research

Innovative technology and top northern bands including New Order and Doves proved a winning formula at a recent Manchester benefit concert staged by legendary music photographer Mick Rock and ex-Smiths bass player Andy Rourke...

Innovative technology and top northern bands including New Order and Doves proved a winning formula at a recent Manchester benefit concert staged by legendary music photographer Mick Rock and ex-Smiths bass player Andy Rourke and his company Great Northern Productions.

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'Manchester Vs Cancer' drew an audience of 10,000 and raised £150,000 for the city's Christie Hospital, Europe's largest cancer treatment and research centre.

The money will help fund a Gene Therapy Research Centre backed by Professor Robert Hawkins, which aims to investigate alternatives to chemotherapy.

Headlining the event was New Order with support from the Doves, Elbow, Johnny Marr and the Healers, Nine Black Alps, Stephen Fretwell, 808 State and Mani from Primal Scream.

Images wifi-ed to live editing desk

Mick Rock captured performances using a cutting-edge Nikon D2X digital camera and transmitted the images via a wireless network to the vision mixing console in the MEN Arena. Images were then edited on the fly and sent as content feed to the lighting production crew who interpolated the stills in the video and lighting mix for the performances.

The audience took part in the action by texting the word ROCK to a short code which then generated a WAP push text message to handsets linking directly to an online gallery with pictures of each artist.

The images captured by Mick Rock at the event were made available to download as souvenir wallpaper images at £1.50 which contributed revenue to the charity. Event images are also available as print on demand stills from the Mick Rock website (www.mickrock.com) and co-signed prints of the stills will later be auctioned on eBay to continue the fund raising efforts.

Proceeds to cancer gene therapy research

Besides appearing live all the artists offered their concert stills royalty-free for the charity.

The co-signed prints of the stills were on show until February 24 at Vox Pop record and memorabilia shop in Thomas Street, Manchester.

Manchester Vs Cancer was the largest charity gig ever staged in Manchester and proved so successful that it is now hoped to make it an annual charity event on the Manchester music scene. Interest has also come from San Francisco and Sweden about staging similar events in these venues.

Mick Rock, who launched his career with an unknown David Bowie in 1972, said it had been a wonderful chance to work with the cream of northern talent and use the amazing new wireless imaging technology from Nikon so the audience could interact and feel a real part of the event.

Andy Rourke was inspired with the idea of Manchester Vs Cancer after news that members of his manager's family had been diagnosed with the disease. "I quickly found that most people's lives have been touched by cancer in some way and everyone wanted to help."

Image Gallery downloads:
Images from the event can be downloaded from www.mickrock.co.uk/manchestervcancer/