The story
It started with nights for people too young to get in anywhere else.
Marmalade JAMS came out of years of under-18s events. This page is the archive, and the careers that came out of it. Kye ‘Foamo’ Gibbon — one half of Gorgon City — started DJing at fourteen at the Dance2k nights in Beaconsfield. Rhymestar sent in a demo tape at fifteen and became a resident MC.
2003 – 2009
Strictly under 18s. No alcohol. Packed rooms.
Curzon Centre in Beaconsfield. Royales in Uxbridge. Hamdens Bar in Aylesbury. Dance2k, Buff-a-licious, Bubble-licious, the MTV Hits nights. Hundreds of teenagers a night, in venues that were theirs for the evening.
21 April 2003
The MTV Hits party, Po Na Na Hammersmith.
Busted, Girls Aloud, Triple 8 and Harry Brooks, on a bill headed “London Rocks”. Tickets eight pounds in advance from HMV, ten on the door. Filmed for MTV Hits and broadcast that May. And, printed on the face of it in a blue starburst: under 18’s only, minimum age 12.
That is the whole proposition in one object. A proper night, a proper bill, a proper venue — for an audience nowhere else would take. The flyer came back signed by Cheryl, then Cheryl Tweedy, and Kimberley, with two more signatures from the bill.
2010
The pilot ran with six Marmalade JAMS members who staged a talent showcase and after-party at Green St Community Centre.
Cressex Community College, High Wycombe. 24 July 2010.
They booked the judges. They sold tickets through four local retailers — Chevi Clothing, Jay Dees, N&N and Best One. They designed the street board, got the permissions for it, and put the removal date on it themselves.
The pathway, demonstrated
Anthony Moubarak was fifteen when he first stood on one of our stages.
He took the stage name MC Rhymes. He was good enough that our founder introduced him to promoters working the over-18s circuit, and he built a professional career from it — an international MC featured on BBC Radio 1Xtra, performing that year in Toronto, Germany, Ayia Napa and Malta.
Alongside the music he taught, as Head of Year at Burnham Grammar and then at Cressex Community College. In 2010 he brought Marmalade JAMS into his own school, and judged the students' showcase himself — which made the judge the cohort booked a man whose own career had started on the same stages, fifteen years earlier.
He has since left education, although still performs as Rhymestar.
“Marmalade JAMS has transformed the way our students see their own potential. It's real, it's fun, and it gives them genuine responsibility.”
Anthony MoubarakThen Head of Year, Cressex Community College, 2010
Why it matters
Michael Garner is the demographic, not the outlier.
Micky was a ‘hustler’, although disengaged from school when he joined. He was the young person the programme is built for — not a lucky exception to it. He wrote this in 2012, and is now a property developer:
“It was at a time where I could have easily been mixed up in the wrong crowd and gone off the rails… working with Aaron and the boys I had a purpose, and had something to do to keep me off the streets. I learnt life skills, money management, and how to be successful. It is a shame that my brother hasn't had the opportunity to focus his energy and given the same chance as I was.”
That last sentence is the argument for the relaunch, and it was written long before we needed one.
2026
Starting again…
Sixteen workshops written week by week. A real evaluation framework, with a safeguarding position.