George is a long time bass player from England who has been forced to give up his instrument as his condition has deteriorated. Until February of 2002, he continued to
create music by computer using one finger to type in commands.

As of February 2002, even this ability was taken away, but George's drive to create was not.

At present, George's only means of data entry (and thus communication with the internet) is through speech-to-text software.

The internet musical community has been rallying around George, and several CD compilation projects were  intitiated, for the purpose of assisting George1948 in his struggle to continue creating music in spite of the debilitating effects of motor neuron disease (ALS, Lou Gehrig's).

The first of these compilation projects was set up at a German site called Besonic.com by an artist called Soundblast, and became active on the Besonic site on February 17/02.

A large number of Besonic artists wanted to be part of this and donated tracks to the project. The Besonic site was set up to create "virtual CDs" and they would press CDs on demand - thus allowing us to avoid incurring production costs.

We ended up with more donated tracks than we could use for one CD.  There would be three CD's, instead of one.  The second and third Besonic compilation were also put together through the efforts of Soundblast.  We were quite pleased with the response we got and were able to sell a few of these compilations and get some money for George.  In the meantime, the Besonic site imploded and our compilation project was lost forever, since they went down without warning.

Artists at other MP3 sites had offered their tracks when we began this project, wanting to create CDs for this cause.

 The second compilation project was organized by AcidPlanet artist Helium Gonsalez, and was called Reach. The Reach CD was finally compiled, we obtained releases from all the artists and we got all the artwork done.  We were ready to go.

However, we were then thwarted by the site where we had hoped to have the CD sold.  The site we had chosen was offering to produce CD's on demand, so if someone ordered a CD, they would press it, and the purchaser would pay the cost. That site then went through a number of changes and the plan fell through.
 Unfortunately we were never able to get the Reach CD in "hard copy",  mainly because of the enormous challenges of cost.

This is a real pity because the Reach compilation ended up being a really terrific collection of talent from assorted sites around the world.

If anyone is interested, we could get individual copies made on demand. The cost would be the cost to make the CD,  $5.00 US plus  $2.00 for George,  and the postage. We think the total would come to about $10.00.

Through donations and the proceeds of the Besonic compilation CDs, and the Reach compilation CD we had hoped to provide  financial assistance for George's daily needs, and perhaps more importantly, for the purchase of specialized computer equipment that would allow George to continue reaching out to others with his music.

We set up a donation link using Paypal, but had so many issues with Paypal that we decided to drop that plan. Paypal was difficult to use, and we felt it unsecure.

Part of our plan was that by helping George to overcome his challenges, we could support the developement of computer equipment that would allow other disabled musicians and artists to communicate their ideas.

Getting involved in this project was a real learning experience. We found that the "big" official ALS agencies were neither supportive nor helpful.  Each time we contacted someone they would claim George was outside their jurisdiction, and when we finally go hold of the ALS agency that WAS responsible for George, they were extremely hostile because we were not located in Britain.  We WERE successful in getting his local ALS people to get him a Head Mouse, a device which would allow him to manipulate the mouse via a head band device.

We hope that our other efforts in this regard have not been in vain!

In Spring 2006, we finally got enough money to put George's own music on CDBaby. We gathered all of George's tracks together from the various sites were he had them posted, and created a CD called George1948.  I had a few copies made and sent them to CDBaby, where I hoped that some copies would sell, and that some folk would buy downloaded tracks. Any monies obtained will be sent to George and his family.

March 2007 brings a new project.  With the collaboration of Candi McNeil of IndieTalent.ca, an internet broadcaster, we are putting George's CD and his story on the internet "air waves".  Candi is going to run a special program on George in the next few weeks.  If you'd like to listen up, go to IndieTalent.ca and check the schedule for George 1948.

-  Ian McGehee  ... Feb 2002 -
- Louise Peacock ... March 2,2007-

Note March 2007 from Louise Peacock
We last heard from George March  2007.  George heart continues to be a problem, so he's not able to spend much time on the computer.  He would still welcome hearing from you.

Email George

Compilation CDs for George
. This was a compilation CD that ended up being three volumes. We created it at the now defunct Besonic site, and were able to sell a few copies through them, eventually they sent the money to George. Unfortunately, because this compilation was done through Besonic, we don't have any way of re-creating it.   

Reach

Feb 16/02  | Feb 23/02 | March 2/02 | March 17/02 | March 24/02 | April 7 /02/| April /02 | July 16/02 |
 

for information: onyxcan@wezel.com