The sell-out event headlined by TV funny man Russell Howard was supported by Steve Williams, Becky Brunning, Steven Hall and Geoff Whiting all of which gave up their time for free.

Adam Fouracre CEO of Stand Against Violence said “What an absolutely amazing night, we are all very grateful to Russell and friends for making time in their busy schedules to come down to Taunton and putting this show for us.”

The evening was opened by compere Geoff Whiting from Mirth Control Comedy who did a brilliant job of warming up the crowd and keeping the laughter going all night. Geoff has performed in Taunton many times and played a key part in getting Russell to Taunton. Steve Williams, the hilarious Welshman, was first to take the stage with some anecdotes about Taunton and sheep!  Steve Hall entertained with personal stories. Newcomer Becky Brunning charmed the audiences with her two B’s rap / rhyme. The star of the show was rightfully Bristol-born Russell Howard who raised the roof time and time again.

The collaboration was also off stage. The show was organised and promoted by the fabulous Trish Caller from Genius PR & Events. Trish worked for many months to make sure the event was the sell-out success it was. Trish has support from one of our Trustees Kevin Smith, it was in fact Kevin who text Trish while watching Good News about trying to get Russell to Taunton.

Kevin Smith said “We were truly fortunate to have such a brilliant act like Russell come down, it’s tough putting on fund raising events at the best of times but this was a win:win a comedian that so many people wanted to see and a fund raiser. This event is our biggest single fund raiser to date and we thank all those that were involved in making it happen. We are very lucky to have so many friends in the local community.”

Wellsprings Leisure Centre went above and beyond to help coordinate the day and host the show, the staff were absolutely tremendous on the night.

Dawn and Keith from Food 4 you who ran the bars and sponsored the Friends of SAV buffet were an absolutely pleasure to work with, thank you.

We had a great team who helped us market and promote the event Kev Bird from Designed by Bird, Elliott Collett from Genius PR & Events, Giles Adams from What’s on Somerset, The Somerset County Gazette, BBC Somerset and ToneFM. On the night photos from Clayton Jane and Rob Jones. The Castle Hotel Taunton for donating two rooms. Joe Rockett from Bright Productions. And the Santander staff who sold the raffle tickets on the evening, the raffle raised £1386 which will be match funded by Santander (the raffle is included in the total amount raised). The raffle prize was two tickets to see Russell Howard in London next year, coach travel donated by Berrys Coaches, accommodation and pre-theatre meal donated by The Baileys Hotel in Kensington, London. And many who helped out, you know who you are thank you.

And finally to the audience – thank you for coming along, we hope you had a great time. Without you we couldn’t do what we do. Physical, verbal or emotional violence affects so many people without your support we couldn’t educate our young people on consequences. In today’s age our work is more important than ever, as much as we love and support technology we know that the digital generation will be known as the impatient generation, we want everything now. It is therefore really important that we can continue to educate children in our workshops about consequences – what they do today will have long last effects on their and the people around them tomorrows. If you think tomorrow never comes think again!

This past 12 months has been tremendous for Stand Against Violence and the support we have received from Taunton. A couple of highlights on 25^th September last year we commemorated the 10^th anniversary of Lloyds murder, we were overwhelmed by the support received and thank all those that contributed. This year, as you know, was Russell Howard raising £22,587, our single biggest fund raising event to date. And we educated over 9,000 children on the consequences of violence.