Great Leighs: Singer is to be remembered at gigs (From Braintree and Witham Times)

Great Leighs: Singer is to be remembered at gigs

10:32am Wednesday 8th July 2009

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A singer who died in a car crash will be remembered at two charity gigs organised by the band she was part of.

Joanna Jones of Catherines Close, Great Leighs, died on March 31 in Crawley while on her way to Gatwick Airport with her boyfriend.

The 27-year-old was part of a band called CHASING ORA, which developed from a group called ORA, involving Joanna and her sister Natalie.

As Joanna “absolutely loved” animals, the memorial gigs later this month are to raise money for Danaher Animal Home in Wethersfield.

They will also be a celebration of her 28th birthday on July 28.

Natalie, 26, from Chelmsford, said: “We are trying to show everybody in terms of the music and the band what she was part of and what she did, and the way of doing that was to link the gigs with some kind of charity for animals.”

Money raised for the RSPCA centre will go towards a cat isolation unit costing £25, 000, and if enough funds are gathered from the gigs there will be a plaque at the centre to remember Joanna.

Natalie said her sister’s passions were music, animals and her family, and described her as having a huge personality, being very opinionated and a very hard worker.

The pair had worked on music together for the past ten years. “We loved to write and do it together,” she said.

Natalie said she probably would never get over losing her sister, but carrying on with the band was a way of coping, of keeping the pair close.

“It’s incredibly difficult and for a while at the beginning I thought ‘I cannot do it without Jo’ but she would’ve killed me if I had not carried it on.”

She added: “It would be nice if people knew her for her music and if people knew who she really was. That’s why I want to push the band. To give it up now would be such a shame.”

Darren Clark, 27, bass player in CHASING ORA, said the gigs on July 24 at Chinnerys in Southend and July 25 at Barfly in Camden, London, were the first main ones the band would have played since Joanna’s death.

CHASING ORA, a “commerical indie rock” band with five members, would be playing a mixture of material, Mr Clark said.

Visit the band’s myspace page at www.myspace.com/chasingora for gig details, including how to buy tickets.

If you cannot make the gigs but would like to donate visit www.justgiving.com/chasingora.

CHASING ORA is also playing at George Yard Shopping Centre in Braintree on July 18 from 12pm to 3pm.

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