Introducing our third judge, Joey DeVilla – Microsoft Developer Evangelist, aka “The Accordion Guy”!

When this “computers and the internet” fad finally blows over, Joey DeVilla has a fallback career as a rock and roll accordionist. In the meantime, he’s a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft where he combines his love for noodling with technology and schmoozing people with accordion versions of popular tunes by AC/DC, Britney Spears and Nine Inch Nails. He can often be seen at gatherings where technology and community intersect, such as Toronto’s DemoCamp, Coffee and Code and HackLabTO gatherings. He has the dubious honour of being the accordion player with the second most live appearances on MuchMusic (Weird Al remains the first).

See all of our judges on our Judges page.

Introducing our second judge, Toronto actress Tara Hall!

Tara Hall is a Toronto based host, actor and broadcaster who has been involved and volunteered at more than 150 charitable
events across Canada. Over the past 3 years Tara has broadened her career into broadcast production and is currently employed with Bensimon Byrne, one of Canada’s leading advertising agencies. For more see www.tarahallonline.com

See all of our judges on our Judges page.

We’re proud to announce that the host for our April 7th extravaganza will be CMT star and all around music industry celebrity Paul McGuire!

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Paul McGuire was raised in Thornhill and attended York University.

After leaving school, Paul, a self-confessed “pop-culture junkie”, decided to put all those hours spent in movie theatres and in front of the television set to good use, and pursue a career in the entertainment industry.

A few commercials and small TV roles paved the way for a hosting gig on YTV’s game show, Clips, which started a six-year relationship with Canada’s number one children’s broadcaster where Paul hosted and produced numerous shows including The Breakfast Zone and The Zone and travelled across the country hosting YTV’s live events.

Paul has also worked as host and producer of the successful national entertainment magazine show, eNow. When eNow evolved into etalk, Paul helped adapt the new show and ran the show’s day-to-day operation for the first year and was the show’s main film reporter, travelling weekly to Los Angeles and New York to interview Hollywood’s biggest and brightest.

Paul eventually made the move over to his current home at CMT, where he has hosted Central, CMT30, Karaoke Star, and CMT’s Greatest. As the host of CMT’s One-On-On, Paul has interviewed the biggest names in country music, including Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Trace Adkins and Reba McEntire.

Paul currently hosts CMT Weekend, CMT Minute & Karaoke Star Jr, and is the morning man on the radio station The New Country 95.3.

Come out April 7th to rock with Paul for this great cause!

One of the first questions we had when we announced the event was “I want to play, but I don’t think I can put together a whole band. Can I get matched up with some other players?”

I’ve added that very question to the FAQ, but to address the situation, we’ve created a bulletin board. On the board you can leave us comments, AND you can post want ads looking for a band or band members. You can find it here or by clicking Community in the nav bar.

During the winter holidays, John and I were having an IM chat about Rock Band. I’d just gotten it as a gift, John was a long time Rock Band player and I was starting to appreciate its awesome potential. I don’t remember which one of us said it, but it was suggested that playing the game in front of a crowd would be the ultimate Rock Band experience.  Then it hit us that this could be a freaking amazing opportunity to rock-out on stage and raise some money for SickKids.

If you need any evidence of how amazing SickKids is, talk to a parent of a child who was helped here, talk to a patient whose life was saved or even talk to a researcher or 200 who are working tirelessly to make discoveries that mean less pain, higher survival rates, shorter hospital stays and ultimately cures for sick children.

There’s this amazing space at SickKids called Marnie’s Lounge where older kids can get together and play games. One of the most popular games in Marnie’s is Rock Band. Knowing this, it seemed like a perfect fit. Getting Rock Band players out of their living rooms and basements and onto the stage at Revival in Toronto for one night to raise money for the hospital.

We think it’s going to be amazing. It’s not about playing everything on expert. There’s a performance component as well. Registered bands will compete in one round, the top three bands will be judged by our celebrity panel of judges (I’ll let you in on them as they’re confirmed) and the best band will win prizes (those details are coming too) and bragging rights.

So if you’re interested in putting together a band for the event on April 7, check out www.rock4thekids.ca and register. If you’re rather come out and watch, admission is $5 and gets you a ticket for one of the prize draws. If you can’t make it to the live event you can still donate here and if that’s not an option, please pass details of the event on to friends and family.

We’re looking forward to rocking out with all of you.

Hi everyone!

The date for Rock4TheKids has been finalized, April 7!

An update for all those who are saving the date — We are looking at April 7th or 14th now!

Look for an announcement very soon.