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TAG Cares
TAG Cares is the philanthropic arm of TAG. We’re trying to give back a bit, provide some assistance and contribute to the community. We prefer not to donate money directly, we like to be involved, engage our skills, form relationships, learn about others and meet amazing people.
Audio Gear Donated to Glebe Youth Service
The Glebe Youth Service has been a staple for 30 years in one of the most diverse communities of Sydney. We were able to provide audio equipment for their new music area. The recording setup includes two AT-LP120x-USB direct-drive turntables, a number of M-series monitoring headphones, AT2020 microphones, AT9934USB microphones as well as an Allen and Heath ZEDi 10 mixer and a QSC K10 speaker. Michael Coleman, Program Manager at Glebe Youth Services, contacted Technical Audio Group with the idea of organising some recording gear for the new break-out room at the centre. The space will be transformed into a hang-out area with computers, a lounge, and a recording setup for music and podcasts. When asked about the reason for starting a music program, Michael said, ‘We want to give young people a positive form of self-expression’.
He is going to arrange classes for lyric writing and music production. However, the main purpose to have the space is so the kids can create their own music. Thanks to Michael’s connection to the Sydney Hip Hop scene, he is able to engage experienced musicians and audio professionals who can run workshops. The tracks created by the course participants would then be premiered during the quarterly hip hop nights at the youth centre.
At the moment, the community centre is only open for individual support and small group programs, to keep staff and visitors safe. In the meantime artists, Aunty Kathryn, Georgia Riley Frew and many others have created a large mural spanning over all four walls of the new room. Many members of the community helped out by painting and immortalising the people who rose to fame or made a difference in their neighbourhood. Among the portraits are many famous people such as Olympian Cathy Freeman, AFL Player Adam Goodes, and other influential Indigenous Australians. For privacy reasons, we were not able to take pictures of the mural.
Aunty Kath spoke to us about how kids from difficult backgrounds come to Glebe Youth Service, where they find a positive environment and are encouraged to get involved in activities. She pointed out that there are many symbols in the mural standing for freedom, which means that it is ok to leave your past behind and be free.
We admire what the people at Glebe Youth Service have done for their community and are happy to be able to contribute to their music program.
AMATA & RECORDING THE MUSGRAVE BAND
TAG Cares met up with in The Musgrave Band on our previous Amata trip.
They impressed us so much that we offered to come back and record them. They were super keen!
Below are the links to the music tracks we recorded and Nicole and Chris videoed during our visit in early March 2020.
The musical talent in small communities like Amata is off the charts and it’s been an incredible experience helping the band reach a wider audience.
Check out the link and circulate – be great to help put the Musgrave Band and their music on the map!
TAG CARES & STREETHEART TRAVEL TO BOURKE
During the last weekend of July 2020 the Western NSW town of Bourke became a meeting of missions for TAG Cares and Sydney homeless support charity, Streetheart.
Streetheart’s founder, TAG team member and pied-piper Rick Johnson AO, led a team of nine people in five laden vehicles from Sydney, completing the 1500+ kilometers in three long road-trip days.
With Bourke’s overnight temperatures often below freezing, Rick was inspired to take an Ampervan-load of winter relief goods to the town, but as donations flowed it was clear that a convoy would be needed. Thus began Streetheart’s “Bourke or Bust mercy mission” bringing winter clothes, blankets, food and Covid care packs to the Indigenous communities in and around the town.
TAG Cares’ connections with Bourke go back a few years: in 2011, following a chance meeting, a QSC audio system was installed for Paster George Mann’s Full Gospel Family Fellowship and Indigenous community centre.
Never one to ask for help, it was nonetheless apparent when TAG recently checked in that George dearly needed a portable audio system, both to encourage the local musical talent and also to amplify his message at outdoor events and gatherings in the outlying communities, where large, socially distanced crowds call for quality PA.
Seizing the timing, Max from TAG Cares took his own trip to Bourke with a portable audio system including a set of QSC speakers, microphones and mixer, meeting up with the Streetheart convoy and George’s team for an afternoon of unloading goods and exchanging thoughts and ideas over a Bourke bakery lunch.
“It’s a privilege to meet inspirational leaders like George and Rick”. Said Max. “To share some moments with two of them in the same place at the same time is a truly humbling experience.”
BARKLY REGIONAL ARTS
TAG Cares partnered with Barkly Regional Arts and provided a microphone-mixer-speaker suite of audio equipment for use in the incredible programmes and assistance BRA provides to the Barkly Community.
SLICK RICK OAM
Slick Rik works in TAG’s warehouse and he’s just been awarded an Order of Australia Medal!
We take no credit for this but we definitely want him in this list because we’re so proud of him.
Rik and his registered charity for the homeless STREET HEART sets the bar. TAG Cares is a mere shadow in comparison and if ever Rik ask us for anything, we’re 100% all in.
Loan of a van – YES!
Bit of warehouse space – YES!
Headphones for charity works – YES!
BARCLAY REGIONAL ARTS$250,000 WORK-FROM-HOME GIVE AWAY
GENEROZITY USES TAG OFFICE FOR $64,000 FUND RAISER
TAG handed over the office keys to the gamer nerds from Generozity for a monumental Bush Fires Fundraiser weekend.
BOGGABILLA
A SOUND LIFE DOME
TAG Cares assisted A Sound Life with speakers (white ones!) and other audio for their Wellness, Creativity and Community Dome.
AMATA 2019
APY LANDS 2014
Music plays a very important part in the lives of many Indigenous Australians and the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) mob are no exception. Seeing an opportunity to contribute some quality audio to the APY homelands TAG put together two packages and took a long drive. Music plays a very important part in the lives of many Indigenous Australians and the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) mob are no exception. Seeing an opportunity to contribute some quality audio to the APY homelands TAG put together two packages and took a long drive.
BOURKE FULL GOSPEL FAMILY CHURCH:2011
Seven years ago, when George Mann began to build a new church and community centre in Bourke, he knew only one thing for sure. He had to start work and keep working -- and the rest would follow.
George is no stranger to hard work. He and his wife Shelly have been leaders of the Bourke Full Gospel Family Church, an Apostolic Church, since 1989, but they are originally from the Darumbal people in the area around Rockhampton in central Queensland, where George was a mining gang leader. In 1981 they moved to Griffith NSW, to work for the Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship, before continuing on to Bourke.
Situated on the Darling River 800km northwest of Sydney, Bourke has a reputation of being an easy-going outback frontier town but, over the years, George and Shelly identified some glaring gaps in the facilities available for the local population, about a third of whom are Indigenous Australians.
They began to envision a centre where people could be trained and equipped to lead local groups in the many small towns and communities in the surrounding area. The apostolic Church also has a strong emphasis on providing safe services for children and caring for vulnerable groups in the general community, and there was a need for a venue that was specifically conceived to fulfill these roles.
True to his calling to “just work”, George did not publicise his activities, seek funding or ask for any help. He saw the project as an opportunity to empower his church and the wider Bourke community to make the building their own: a facility arising out of community need and desire, with community ownership.
It was the right call. Beginning with the laying of the massive concrete slab on which the building has been built, materials, money, labor, fit-outs and furnishings have just kept rolling in. George calls it a series of “Divine connections”.
A heads-up from a local school, for instance, revealed some unwanted construction steel that was exactly the right size for the main frame; a charitable company that provides housing for less developed communities heard about the project and provided more materials; an electrician donated months of his time and all the materials to elegantly wire the entire building; a Baptist college provided furnishings and set up a state-of-the-art learning centre.
Local people have embraced the project with hands-on work and with financial support as well, including a policeman who expedited the air conditioning, a doctor who has never attended the church but decided to tithe to the project and even a publican, who approached George in the street with a wad of cash!
On a family visit to Bourke earlier this year, Technical Audio Group marketing manager Maxwell Twartz became one of George’s divine connections. A chance meeting through a friend led to a tour of the building, which by then was nearing completion. “It became immediately apparent that George was no ordinary man” Max said. “His vision was backed by solid engineering, a huge amount of hard work and remarkable attention to detail.”
The facility building looks like a huge corrugated iron shed from the outside and architecturally fits in perfectly with Bourke’s “Aussie outback” style. Inside there’s a substantial foyer, a semi commercial kitchen/catering area, flexible meeting/dining space, a high tech classroom and a remarkably large auditorium.
“We’ve been around a lot of community projects over the years in various guises but most recently with TAG Cares (through which Technical Audio Group makes irregular charitable donations often in the currency of audio equipment).” explained Max. “Finding worthy causes is easy. Finding people of the quality of George and Shelly who can implement is much, much harder. So it was a no brainer for TAG Cares to support this project in whatever way we could.”
Over the next few months TAG shipped up to Bourke a set of Audio-Technica wired and wireless microphones, 32-way multicore cable, wall boxes, connectors and a pair of QSC KW153 3-way, 1000w powered speakers.
“The quality of George’s vision left us no choice but to professionally install the multicore with split front and rear of stage wall boxes and cable tray it back to the mix position.” Said Max. “For this I was lucky enough to roll back time and get on board my brother Peter Twartz (Jands Logistics Manager). He co-opted his son, and freelance audio engineer, Christopher Twartz and along with George and his work gang we ran cable, soldered, drilled holes, tested and got the install done in one long Saturday.”
By late afternoon on that Saturday word was out that the centre was getting some serious audio and members started drifting in - many of them musicians. So it wasn’t long before playing and singing started as the testing and labeling was being finished.
After spending some time explaining how best to use what had been installed along with some mixing, microphone positioning and general audio advice it was nearing sunset when the tech team left. Shona, George and Shelly’s very musically talented daughter, was singing and accompanying herself on the keyboard and the new system was delivering it with volume, punch and clarity. It was a very moving moment for all. A simple song of worship or the sound of community empowerment? Maybe both.
