THE WONDERFUL, INSPIRATIONAL JAMM

By Steve Cooke

The wonderful, inspirational JAMM is named after Julie Alfrey’s son who died unexpectedly aged 22 from sudden heart failure.

Johnny was a music obsessed kid from a young age and was writing his own songs from very young. He played many instruments....guitar was his first love, but he also played piano, harmonica, banjo, mandolin, drums, and anything he could get his hands on. He formed the band Starboard Jubilee with his friends whilst at Hollingworth Academy.

His dream was to have a space to rehearse and even a studio to record. Over covid he recorded many songs, and his band play them once a year at the main memorial event...JAMMfest!

His friend Jordan does the vocals now in place of Johnny and his little brother Archie plays drums. His dad is also in there playing guitar.

JAMMfest started as a memorial day with lots of young bands being showcased and has turned into a successful yearly festival. This is their 3rd year, and sees the return of The Guest List who were unsigned when they played at the first event and are now hugely popular and have an agent and manager.

All the proceeds from JAMMfest go to the projects they do as a community organisation. They have a rehearsal studio and office in Littleborough and  have 9 young bands currently practising free of charge. They also run workshops and band mentoring throughout the summer.

JAMM young people get involved right from the start in anything that takes their interest....videoing, stage design, compering, sound tech...you name it, and the festival is planned by and run by young members!

Also, this year they ran a project to design and build their own mobile  stage that collapses down so they can take it to different outdoor gigs.

Pennine Township Trust gave some funds to build the stage and then they got some local young people to decorate it with funding from Culture Coop....part of the  project 'random acts of art'.

Now JAMM has beautiful purpose built stage ready to be used for the first time on 31st May at JAMMfest25. They will re-theme it every year so that there is always an ongoing creative art project

Tickets can be bought online at thejamm.co.uk.

JAMM Fest 2025

Fri 30 May 2025 6:30 PM - Sat 31 May 2025 11:00 PM

JAMM FESTIVAL, Littleborough Sports Club, OL15 0AP