Donations
Mother Gives £2000 Gift
A special Thank You goes out to Trustee Sam Owen and her family for the many fundraising events which they organize on behalf of YAH. Recently, they have held a social evening, sponsored bag-packing and a car boot sale, and raised a total of £1920.58
Donation Drongos!
The gig was the brainchild of John Hoey, from This Side Up. John has a cousin, Thomas, who has a congenital heart defect that so nearly claimed his life early on and will still need surgery at some later stage of his life. Thomas is now 11 years old and virtually unstoppable, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!!
John, heavily influenced by the music of Greenday and Blink 182, formed a band with some friends in Feb 2001, called THIS SIDE UP. Within 6 months the band was playing on Friday nights at the Flapper and Firkin in Birmingham and by the following year had completed an 11 track album of their own material called ‘PLEASE STAND BY….' More recently, they completed their latest demo, entitled 'The Frustration EP'.
Having started to attract a reasonable following, John and his band decided to put their talent to good use and do a charity gig. In a ‘cheeky’ move, he contacted Tom Farrell, the lead singer of a well-established Punk band called the Drongos for Europe, who he knew to be an old friend of Thomas’s family, and asked if they would like to top the bill.
The Drongos for Europe are a hardcore punk band that started life in 1979 in Great Barr. They released their first single as long ago as 1981. They have over the years had a few ‘inactive periods’, but are now once again back with a vengeance, having played tours in America, Europe, and the UK this year.
The Drongos gladly agreed and the date was set. The rest as they say, is now history, and what a fantastic night was had by all that attended. In total £915 was raised. I would like to thank John, Wayne, Dan and Doyle from this side up for supporting a worthwhile cause and all of the people that supported the night.
Special thanks also to the Drongos - Tom, Dek, Anton, and Kimbo - for giving up their time to give us a great evenings entertainment and also to their fans for being so generous. They have an extremely busy schedule at the moment and to provide their services for nothing was a superb gesture.