Today we're featuring some incredible supporters who have been fundraising for Crisis in memory of Andrew Weatherall, DJ and music producer, since he passed away in February 2020.
On 6th April this year we began marking what would have been Andrew Weatherall's 60th birthday by staging a series of events in his honour, bringing together as many folk he admired as possible to play at events all around the country. We wanted to give his friends and fans an opportunity to celebrate this milestone by doing what he loved, playing and dancing to great music. These events were at Fabric in London, the Banana Block in Belfast, The Berkeley Suite in Glasgow, and The Golden Lion In Todmorden. All places where he historically and more recently loved to play, with artists and acts that he loved to play alongside. These included David Holmes, Sean Johnston, Adrian Sherwood, Keith Tenniswood, Heidi Lawden, Miss Kittin, Daniel Avery, and many many more.
Since Andrews sudden passing in February 2020, and the outpouring of love and creativity that it spawned, there has been constant fundraising going on in his name to try to bring some positivity out of desperate tragedy.
Firstly over lockdown with the wonderful Claire Dollery @clairedoll65 and her knitted Andrews aided by her partner Simon, she knitted various incarnations of Andrew and raffled them off. They were all lovingly made and have so much personality.
We also were approached by Johnno Burgess from Jockey Slut magazine as he wanted to do a tribute edition for Andrew. This sold incredibly well and I believe it raised in the region of £50k which was split equally between Andrews nominated charities.
We nominated 4 charities at the time, MS society as that was what his mum succumbed to at an early age, amnesty international as he had been contributing for years, thrombosis society as he has a pulmonary embolism, and Crisis UK as he was incredibly supportive of our local homeless contingency wherever we lived. Now more than ever I feel that the need to support the homeless is immediate, and this was brought home to me even clearer when I finally got my own roof over my head with the inheritance I received from Andrew and sadly also his dear father Bob, to then find 2 people sleeping in the bin store as this seemed to them a safer option. No one should be sleeping amongst the bins in this country. Thus galvanised, we decided to set up a text campaign during Andrews birthday month.
So far it has raised £963 and has been shared by friends, family and the artists and venues involved.
To thank everyone would take a post in itself, but our undying thanks go to Caroline Hayes @spunoutagency, @Johnnoburgess, Jorge Nieto, Judy Griffiths from @fabriclondonofficial Alan gray and Feargus from @the_berkeley_suite David Holmes and Marion @banana_block_belfast and Waka and Gig from the @goldenlion_todmorden all who went above and beyond to help us stage these tributes.
We will continue to raise a glass to our Dear Boy, and some money for charity in his honour.
Fail we may, raise we must
Love Lizzie and Ian Weatherall.
@aw60__23