Super Furry Animals frontman GRUFF RHYS, Teenage Fanclub, BADLY DRAWN BOY and BIS are among the bands who have volunteered their services for BELLE AND SEBASTIAN‘s “auction of talents”.
As previously reported on nme.com, B&S frontman Stuart Murdoch decided to run the event to raise money for charity after seeing a similar event at his local church. The B&S version, which will raise cash for Calton Athletic drugs recovery support group, Maryhill Key Housing Association and Glasgow homeless charity Lodging House Mission, has already received a host of offers from fans on both sides of the Atlantic as well as various band members.
Gruff has offered to handbake a loaf of bread, Vikki Morton from Suckle has offered a haircut, while Badly Drawn Boy Damon Gough and Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub are still deciding what to do. B&S members have also come up with inspired offers of services – Stevie Jackson will serenade the object of someone’s affections, Stuart Murdoch will chauffeur the highest bidder around in his 1972 Ford Granada for the day, Richard Colbourn, who was a semi-pro snooker player, has offered snooker lessons and Mick Cooke is to take someone out for a curry and a few beers on the town in Glasgow.
B&S manager Neil Robertson said he was chuffed at the reaction from other bands: “The first person I asked was Sci-Fi Steven from Bis and and he said: ‘We’ll give up our studio for the day and produce a song for you.’ And everyone we’ve asked has been great. Even the ones who have said no have had pretty good reasons, like world tours and things. The fans’ suggestions have been great – an American author has offered to write someone into his next novel as a supplementary character, one girl is to act as a birthday reminder service, telling people in advance when an important birthday is coming up for a year, and another will send a nice surprise package to someone every month for a year, which is a very Belle And Sebastian-fan idea I suppose.”
Neil added that they will be taking offers for a few more weeks, and details are now being finalised for a date for the auction to begin. It’s thought the talents will start being taken up around October.
Anyone who would like to volunteer a talent or keep updated on how to bid when the auction begins, should check out [url=]www.belleandsebastian.co.uk/home/