Justin Currie – frontman of Scots chart botherers Del Amitri – has unlocked his personal vault of memorabilia to raise money for a friend’s charity.
Handwritten lyrics, a tour jacket and laminates, notebooks and a signed Fender guitar are just a few of the items that Del Amitri fans can get their hands on through this eBay auction and raffle in aid of Joey’s Song (joeyssong.org).
Joey’s Song aims to raise money and awareness for epilepsy research and program services for children with special needs. Michael Gomoll formed the Joseph Gomoll Foundation after his son Joey died in 2010 – just shy of his 5th birthday – after battling a particularly heinous form of epilepsy his entire short life. Joey’s love of music has inspired their fundraising activities and their strapline is “fighting epilepsy with music”. The charity has previously released CDs featuring tracks by artists including R.E.M. (under the guise of The Baseball Project), The Jayhawks, Rosanne Cash, Crash Test Dummies, Neko Case, Cowboy Junkies and Thea Gilmore. They also hold a benefit concert every year with the help of record producer (and drummer in Garbage) Butch Vig.
Mr Gomoll, from the US city of Madison in Wisconsin, met Justin Currie at a Del Amitri show in Chicago in the mid-90s – when the band’s popularity was in the ascendancy in America. They’ve kept in touch since and last autumn he came to Glasgow to visit Currie and pillage his collection of Del Amitri items in order to auction them off in aid of Joey’s Song.
Watch Justin Currie explain more in this video:
Talking about the response so far, Mr Gomoll said: “The results have been unbelievable. I remember Justin and I sitting in the pub the night we cleaned out his garage and our hope was we would cover my plane ticket and have a few dollars left over. Well, after a week, we are above $5,500 in raffle tickets and auction bids combined…and since I flew coach with my ticket, suffice to say we are already clear almost $5,000. I know there will be a surge in the auction bids at the 11th hour as well.”
At the time of publishing this article, there are many bids on the auction items, with the handwritten alternate lyrics to ‘Be My Downfall’ currently at $265 and the signed guitar already up to $560. However, don’t fret if you miss out on that longed-for auction item as there is also a raffle featuring handwritten lyrics, posters, signed items and more.
Time is running out, but there is still time left to bag a piece of Del Amitri history – the auction ends on Friday 10th May. Links to the auction on eBay and raffle on gofundme can be found on the Joey’s Song website: joeyssong.org/delamitricharityauction
