Picture – Nathan Dunlop Photography
£437 has been raised for Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen during a charity gig at Independent Sunderland last weekend.
The show took place Saturday October 19 with three local Sunderland artists playing cover sets of famous bands to around 100 guests. Plastic Glass played as Arctic Monkeys, Ryan Robinson played as Oasis and Lost Fiction played as Catfish and the Bottlemen.
Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen are a group of volunteers who serve free 3 freshly cooked home style meals 7 evenings a week for hungry people in Sunderland. Speaking to Andrea from the soup kitchen, she said “we serve around 70-114 people each evening, 2100 of portions a week. We will spend the money on cartons and food items.”
The aim before the show was to raise £300 with a £5 each minimum donation fee on the door with the audience going above and beyond by raising a total of £437.
Ryan Robinson, who was covering Oasis for the night said “I enjoyed the show. I love playing songs people sing along to – there were two guys that sang along to every song! It felt great to raise money for such a mass cause, I love those types of gigs.”
Aram Stuart, the event’s promoter, said “it was stressful as one of the bands dropped out in the morning as the singer had lost her voice. Luckily, the lead singer of Plastic Glass stepped up and did some originals and covers on electric guitar. I really enjoyed it once everything was sorted. There were mosh pits in the crowd which is always a good sign.”
A member of the audience Vasiliki Koutsogianni said “I really enjoyed the show, it was pretty full and the crowd was really engaging with the artists – singing, dancing and having fun.”
The event went so well, they have planned for another to take place on Friday 20th December 2019. Any bands wanting to take part in the event are encouraged to get in touch with the promoter at aram@independent-live.co.uk as soon as possible.