Sausage on a stick

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An editor has expressed a concern that the subject of the article does not satisfy the notability guideline or one of the following guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia: Biographies, Books, Companies, Fiction, Music, Neologisms, Numbers, Web content, or several proposals for new guidelines.

If you are familiar with the subject matter, please expand the article to establish its notability. The best way to address this concern is to reference published, third-party sources about the subject. If notability cannot be established, the article is more likely to be considered for deletion, per Wikipedia:Guide to deletion. (See also Wikipedia:Notability)
This article has been tagged since March 2007.

Sausage On A Stick is an annual music event based in Milton Keynes, UK for former employees (and their friends and family) of the now defunct Chappell of Bond Street Milton Keynes music shop. Starting in 2003 as a means for past employees of the shop (which ceased trading in September 2005) to reunite at Christmas time, the extraordinary bond between all the shop's staff has ensured the event has continued to run.

Invented originally by employees Peter Wilkinson and Alex Meissner, the 'Sausage on a Stick' commitee now comprises of Alex Meissner, Laura Brown and John Wilkinson who organise various local bands (almost exclusively featuring former employees of Chappell of Bond Street Milton Keynes), a spoof award ceremony, catering and various other musical and visual features and gags for the evening's entertainment.

The event has its own website, [1] and UK bank account. Whilst not a charity, the Sausage on a Stick event runs as a not-for-profit organisation with all proceeds from ticket sales going towards the evening in question.

The original Sausage on a Stick was held at The Countryman, Bradwell Common in December 2003. With over 100 attendees, it remains the most successful event in terms of ticket sales (helped no doubt by the fact that Chappell of Bond Street Milton Keynes was still open with a steady turnover of musician staff). The event, organised in a matter of weeks, featured several bands/artists (derived from the shop's staff), party-like games and a spoof awards ceremony. This format prevailed for the next 3 events.

The following year, Sausage on a Stick II: The Sausage Strikes Back was again held at The Countryman, but with far more planning time available, was far more ambitious, featuring a spoof gameshow video (largely created by now ex-commitee member Pete Wilkinson) in addition to the awards and bands. At Alex Meissner's request (and with his organisation), the evening was given a Star Wars theme, with all graphic artwork for the evening following this theme. Whilst ticket sales were significantly lower than the previous year, most agree that in execution, it matched the original Sausage on a Stick in terms of impact.

Sausage on a Stick III again followed a science-fiction theme, taking cues (and twisting them in the process) from Universal Pictures' Jurassic Park III. Now held at the Herald Sports Club in Wolverton, UK, the evening followed the format of Sausage on a Stick II, but with the spoof gameshow video replaced by a poignant retelling-by-video of the last few weeks of Chappell of Bond Street Milton Keynes' closing down sale (the shop had been closed several months before the evening took place). A lighter mood was ensured by the presence by local big band legend James Goff and his organ-based set, whilst regular fixture The Brothers Grim used video syncing to great effect for their own highly acclaimed set.

Sausage on a Stick IV took place on December 30th 2006, again at the Herald Sports Club. The theme this time was "Back To The Future" and featured two new artists to the Sausage live experience - "Sleepness Night" & "Temples Burning". Ticket sales remained around the 70 mark, and included a handful of people who had not attended the previous three years' events.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/a/u/Sausage_on_a_stick.html"