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Landlord
Peter Kearns opened the doors to his
new FREE BRONSON BAR at his pub Bolands Bar at Union
Street in Wakefield for the first
time this evening and the place was rammed with Bronson
supporters. Charlie's family were all there including mum Eira, brother Mark, cousins
Loraine Salvage and Stuart Godfrey, long term friends Lindsey and Leighton Frayne plus all the usual suspects and a whole lot more.
I arrived at 7.30, having dried out and warmed up from my
240 mile bike ride up from Somerset. By that time there were
already a lot of faces I knew in the bar including Al
Rayment, who had bought a special cake to celebrate
Charlie's 59th birthday last Tuesday.
Over the next hour more and more old friends turned up and a
lot of new ones too. I chatted with Dean Shepherd, who
commissioned the fantastic portrait of Charlie which you can
see among the photos below. The details are still to be finalised, but we will be selling this rather special piece
as a limited edition print here on the website in a couple
of weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for the announcement. All
profits will be going to the
Charlie Bronson Appeal Fund
I managed to catch up with Eira Peterson as well as Loraine
and Andy Salvage, who all said they thoroughly enjoyed their
evening. In fact, I don't believe I have ever seen anyone
walk away from a Bronson event without a huge smile across
their kisser.
Charlie's brother Mark conducted a fantastic auction of
pieces of Charlie's art, t-shirts and other memorabilia
which raised £750 pounds for the
Charlie Bronson Appeal Fund. This swelled to a thousand
pounds when landlord Peter donated a percentage of the
night's takings to the fund. Well done that man!
Entertainment came in the shape of the blrilliant band 71 Chain, who
support Charlie to the extent of making a video of their
number "The Ballad of Charlie Bronson". Their CD is now
available on their
website, with a percentage of the profits again going to
the
Charlie Bronson Appeal Fund.
For those of you who haven't seen or heard it ... here it is:
Lindsey Frayne also got up on stage to entertain the
gathering with his guitar.
Most of the photos in the gallery below were taken by me,
although one or two have been stolen from Terry Barratt, Sam
Brown, Lorraine A. and Mark Peterson. I'm sure they won't press charges:
Landlord
Peter Kearns opened the doors to his
new FREE BRONSON BAR at his pub Bolands Bar at Union
Street in Wakefield for the first
time this evening and the place was rammed with Bronson
supporters. Charlie's family were all there including mum Eira, brother Mark, cousins
Loraine Salvage and Stuart Godfrey, long term friends Lindsey and Leighton Frayne plus all the usual suspects and a whole lot more.
