MORE than £1,000 has been raised for charity at a gig organised by an up-and-coming Clydebank band who aimed to bring the community together.
The Fences performed a sold-out show at John Brown’s Bar in November and donated £2 of each ticket sold to Macmillan Cancer Support.
The band, that consists of Aidan Butler, Aidan Rowan, Brendan Bean, Gabriel Kielty and Jack McCue, asked their concert-goers to bring along donations for the local foodbank – which resulted in around 30 bags worth.
Band member Gabriel, told the Post: “We are facing increasingly cold winters in Scotland and a Conservative government willing to let families go hungry in the face of failing Universal Credit so it was hugely reassuring to see young people socially aware enough to see the importance of a foodbank collection and take it so seriously.”
Aidan Rowan added: “From the start of the process we knew we wanted to donate as much of the ticket sales as we could, and all agreed on Macmillan being the best option. We hoped we would raise a good amount, but we were blown away to raise more than £540.”
Aidan’s employer, Arnold Clark Vauxhall on Hamilton Road, matched the amount raised on the night bringing the final total to £1,082.
Gabriel’s Dad, Gerard Kielty, who has just been cleared of bowel cancer and was one of the inspirations for the charity event, read out the raffle winners and urged anyone of the appropriate age to take the tests to save their lives.
Jack said: “The crowd were brilliant. People were singing to almost every tune, only two of which were out at that point, so it was class to see that the tunes are sticking with the people who come see us. You could feel the place jumping from the stage.”
Aidan Butler added: “We feel a lot of appreciation towards everyone who came to see us, especially brining along tins for the foodbank. It’s obviously asking people to go a bit over and above what they would normally do.”
The boys who have been performing together since January are all in agreement that the gig was their favourite so far.
Brendan said: “About two minutes into the first tune the crowd managed to knock over one of the monitors we use to hear ourselves, purely from jumping about and how packed everyone was to the front. Then towards the end of the set the crowd were basically on stage with us. This sums up why we love live music in smaller venues like John Brown’s.”
The Fences are looking forward to the new year, when they will be headlining King Tut's on January 5 and have plans to release their music on Spotify and iTunes.
They added: “We are all really proud of what we do and where we’re from and we feel like we’re representing Clydebank when we are gigging across the country.”
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