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Giving Back: A Visit to Remember at The Stables MK
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What a day at The Stables MK!
It was a trip to remember as we toured the iconic music venue on 14th November 2023 and met the volunteers: even gifting them a few gardening tools!
In case you didn’t know, The Stables – established in 1970, with its new theatre opening in 2000 – is just a 10-minute drive away from our Milton Keynes offices and is a favourite among many of the world’s finest musicians.
With the founders’ goal of showcasing music in all its forms, today they boast:
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We felt very privileged to have gotten a personalised tour of the volunteer-run venue and hope our donation offers a helping hand with maintaining the grounds. Check out more about our visit and see our photo gallery below!
Our visit
Sir John Dankworth, jazz legend & co-founder of The Stables, shows us the entrance
As a business, we feel fortunate to be able to give back to the community. Especially a great community like ours.
So, you can imagine our excitement when we arrived at The Stables in Wavendon – donations in tow – greeted to a warm welcome from Cat Moore (Executive Director), Chris Hayes (Duty Theatre Manager) and other awesome Stablemate volunteers.
We’d been counting down the days to give them this equipment, consisting of useful items from TOUGH MASTER and Makita, and were overjoyed by the reaction we received when we proudly handed over their new tools. Immediately, we were presented with gleeful thank yous and pleasant smiles – even posing for a photo together with our donation (see our banner!)
The volunteers then kindly jumped in to help us with the heavy lifting (which we were more than grateful for), bringing the products into the building and up onto the Jim Marshall stage for some photographs.
As you can see, it took a lot of teamwork to move everything!
After some awesome snapshots were taken by our Design team (to be released in the next issue of The Stables’ brochure: watch this space!), it was over to Chris who took the lead on our epic site tour.
We were extremely lucky to get backstage access to their renowned theatres, as Chris showed us everything from the lighting/sound booth to the technical gallery high up at the top (which was not for the faint-hearted!), all the way to the dressing rooms and green room where performers spend time before, during and after a show.
Feeling like VIPs, we immersed ourselves in our surroundings, picturing performers quietly chatting amongst themselves in nondescript clothing before showtime: a far cry from the high energy and loud outfits shown on stage later (or so we imagine). We also think about the amount of chutzpah it must take to put yourself out there as an artist. The pressure must be immense!
Outside our mind’s eye, we’re entranced by the history of the prominent venue. Recently celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2020, The Stables has come a long way since its inception. The brainchild of acclaimed jazz musicians and husband and wife, Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine, The Stables began as an idea for their charity, Wavendon Allmusic Plan (WAP), founded in 1970.
The Stables, today
WAP aimed to engage a wide audience through music in all its diversity: from jazz to rock to classical and everything in between. Despite their jazz backgrounds, Sir John and Dame Cleo shared a common belief that there was only one kind of music, and that was great music. All music. No matter the genre. And so, with their objectives set, The Stables was born: with the first performance taking place on 6th February 1970 in an old stable block at the couple’s home.
Today, the venue stays true to its founders’ vision, hosting world-class music and entertainment for all. From concerts from the likes of recent acts Courtney Pine, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Darius Brubeck and The Shires, to conferences, workshops to school visits – to intimate performances at its Stage 2 cafe-bar, which opened in 2007 – it’s never lost its purpose. The only thing that has strayed from the initial plan is the venue itself, which was rebuilt in 2000. But the spirit remains.
Outside of the music world, The Stables has also been host to several large-scale events: notably the IF (Milton Keynes International Festival), which welcomed around 500,000 people in 2023, as well as ‘Clash of Drums’ for the Rugby World Cup 2015, and ‘Feast of Fire’ for the 50th-anniversary celebrations of Milton Keynes. They’re also big participants in helping the community – we met them breaking the record at MK Can!
We hope our donation of gardening tools and equipment will play a crucial role in keeping the magic of The Stables alive by keeping the premises maintained. This support, coupled with the dedication of the Stablemate volunteers, ensures the continued success of their mission.
Find out more about The Stables: https://stables.org/