21 September 2009: SHINE is delighted to announce the line-up for our 10th Anniversary Benefit Dinner this November. Hosting the event will be the highly respected journalist Jon Snow, the face of Channel 4 News. What’s more, Live Aid legends Status Quo have generously waived their performance fee to provide a spectacular finale to our anniversary event.

2008 – Lulu in concert

Following last year’s enormous success, SHINE is returning to the Roundhouse in North London for our 10th Anniversary Benefit Dinner on Thursday 12th November. As before, the evening will begin with champagne, cocktails and canapés before guests take their seats for a delicious four course dinner. They will then be invited to pledge their support for four SHINE-funded projects providing high impact educational assistance to underachieving children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Status Quo

Before its acclaimed refurbishment, the Roundhouse hosted concerts by legends including Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. It is therefore extremely fitting that another remarkable band will be taking the stage and raising the roof for SHINE this year. Status Quo have sold well over 118 million records and have had more hit singles than any other band in British chart history, including ‘Caroline’, ‘Whatever You Want’ and ‘The Wanderer’.

In 1985 Status Quo opened Live Aid with their massive hit, ‘Rockin’ all over the World’. They’ve also played with the Beach Boys in Berlin, on the flight deck of HMS Ark Royal and, just this summer, at Glastonbury. Now Status Quo have generously waived their performance fee to help us launch SHINE’s second decade. We’re extremely grateful – and supremely confident that they’ll provide an amazing finale to our Anniversary event.

Jon Snow

Steering SHINE and our guests through the evening will be multiple award-winning journalist, Jon Snow. Jon began his career as a VSO volunteer in Uganda; as a journalist, he served as ITN’s Washington correspondent and diplomatic editor before becoming the main presenter of Channel 4 News in 1989. Since then, he has anchored the programme from the scenes of the biggest news stories, including New Orleans, the West Bank, Iran and Iraq.

This work has brought Jon many awards, including the Richard Dimbleby BAFTA for Best Factual Contribution to Television in 2005; the following year, he was named ‘Journalist of the Year’ at the Royal Television Society Awards. We figure that this expertise makes Jon the perfect choice to host our event this November and will soon start negotiations to ensure that his tie does not clash with our set design.

For more information about SHINE’s 10th Anniversary Benefit Dinner, click here. To book a table please contact SHINE on 020 8393 1880. Tables are selling fast, so don’t hang around!