Sligo’s music stars to shine for tsunami fund

Sligo’s music stars are set to shine for the tsunami disaster fund in one of the biggest fund-raising concerts ever held locally.

More than a dozen of the county’s top entertainers are coming together for a SLIGO FOR ASIA concert to be staged at the Southern Hotel on Thursday, February 3rd, with the entire proceeds being donated to the Red Cross and GOAL.

Sponsored by The Sligo Champion and Sligo Chamber Of Commerce, who have both made substantial donations to kick-start the fund, the concert will be compered by award-winning actress and author, Pauline McLynn, a native of Sligo.

The top class-line up, which has yet to be finalised, already includes such music legends as Dervish, James Nelson, Sandy Kelly, The Hennigans Blues Band, Those Nervous Animals and Steve Wickham.

The Westlife stars, who will be unable to be present because of touring commitments, have donated a unique one-off disc for raffle on the night.

And the Southern Hotel is making its facilities available free of charge.

Other acts confirmed to date include Patrick Feeney, The Conway Sisters, Jargon, The Jazz Ladds, Shelly River Band, and Rock n Roll Circus.

The four hour long extravaganza will be a fully professionally produced show, with one of the country’s top sound engineers, Paul Ashe-Browne, who has worked on Dervish tours and with Riverdance, helping out with the production.

A small committee comprising Shane Mitchell of Dervish, Felipe Carbonell of Carbonell Productions, local musician, Francie Lenihan and Sligo Champion journalist, Jim Gray, has been working deligently over the past week putting the show together, and all is now set for what should be one of the most memorable concerts ever staged in the region.

‘Like everybody else, we just felt so helpless as we watched the tragedy unfold over Christmas, so we put our heads together and decided to give this a go. The response from all involved has been overwhelmingly generous, and there is a great buzz of anticipation building up", says co-ordinator, Jim Gray.

Shane Mitchell, whose band Dervish were among the first to offer their services, has been impressed by the depth of goodwill in the local entertainment industry.

"A lot of people have gone to extraordinary lengths to be part of this. There was no hesitation from anybody about getting involved. Musicians right across the board were only too willing to help such a worthy cause", he said.

Marc McSharry, CEO, Sligo Chamber of Commerce, expressed his organisation’s support for the project.

"The business community in Sligo has already been supportive in a variety of ways for the tsunami fund, and we are delighted to be involved in sponsorship of what is a uniquely Sligo event – talented Sligo people pooling their resources and generosity for such a worthy cause", he said.

Tickets priced at 25 will be available soon and outlet details will be confirmed next week.

In addition to the sale of concert tickets, the organisers are also inviting donations for the fund. These can be made to the Sligo Champion offices or the Chamber of Commerce headquarters.

This is from the Sligo Champion:http://www.unison.ie/sligo_champion/...issue_id=11957

Just lettin ye know this is how Sligo is helping ;) . Maybe the mod could make it sticky