benniesposito.com

[graham]

The tribute night was a huge success and all went according to plan. The evening was started with an acoustic set by a local musician followed by some short films by myself and one by Stacey Matthew. Two comedians came through from Edinburgh, Stephen Dick and Teddy(sorry, don't know his second name!). They both did their set without the aid of a microphone due to feedback problems but both put in a top perfermonce. Stephen went on first and did his fantastic comedy magic and then Teddy did his very funny set as a build up to showing the video of Benni's stand up. The only serious hitch of the whole evening was a technical problem trying to show the video which seemed to mysteriously stop working just at the crucial point. However we managed to get it working. Showing the video was something I had felt concern over and it proved to be very emotional for some, however as soon as Benni launched into his hilarious material we all remembered how funny he trully was. Once again he managed to make everyone in the room cry with laughter. For some it was the first time they had seen his stand-up routine and they greatly appreciated the opportunity to see it. The rest of the evening was live music from Stoor, Alamos and Laeto. Unfortuntely we ran late and each band could only do a short set however they all played an absoloute blinder. I'd like to thank all who contributed their time freely and made it a trully special evening. Also a special thank you to Delia Gallagher for compering and helping make the night run smothly, she did a great job. We managed to raise around £950 for the Benni art prize fund, thanks to all for giving so generously.

[GrahamP]

That sounds fantastic Frewy - I had no idea it was a night of such epic proportions, bands, comedy, short films - must've taken a ton of organising!

Teddy is just Teddy btw. And brilliant to show people what a genius Benni was and raise so much money.

[miquette]

it's great there was £950 raised in the end when i left it was £500 so thats a fair amount in the last few hours! it was so brilliant to see Benni doing stand up as i only got to see him for 5 minutes before in abertay union thats when i never knew him well and also i was too drunk to remember much since i had been drinking all day, it's impressive stuff and hilarious too thank goodness the video worked in the end. i went away to get food after i watched that and i only had £2 so i decided to just go home so i missed the bands but i will keep an ear out for them , i have seen Laeto before and really liked them. Well done Delia!!! if you read this xxx

[GrahamP]

Another tribute to Benni is that the next post on this site will make it 100 posts - and we've barely scratched the surface, there is still so much to say about him!

Roll on poster 100.

[Elizabeth]

I would like to take this oportunity to thank everyone who helped make Benni's tribute night such a great success. to the organisers, iain, graham, delia to name a few, to the bands, the comedians, the generator committee, the artists for donating paintings, and the general public who packed out the venue. With all your contributions we have raised £1004 !!!!! If I have missed any one out please accept my apologies, I know a lot of work was carried out behind the scenes. We will be setting up the trust fund within the next month or so and will keep you informed of its progress.

Once again, thank you all so much.

[Scott Myles]

Hi
Unfortunately I couldn't make it to Benni's tribute night, and wondered along with a couple of others who couldn't make it- if I could contribute to The Memorial Fund at this stage? Send to Carnoustie?
Perhaps you could post a message, to me and any others out there who would like to do so? I think the Art School fund is a brilliant idea, and will memorialise Benni in a generous and beautiful way.
I'm glad Saturday night was a success. Best wishes to everyone.
Scott (Myles) x

[Elizabeth]

in reply to your question scott, i spoke to a financial bloke this evening, regarding the trust fund and he advised me that i should contact a solicitor as there are some legalities to be dealt with initially. i have a solicitor in mind and hope to contact him this week to find out exactly what has to be done. i have no idea how long this process will take, hopefully it can be done pretty quickly. once the account is set up i will give the account details out to anyone who wants to make a donation.

[Wee Sandy]

Hi Everyone,

I too was unable to get to Fundee last Saturday. My girlfriend and I were in London so we missed an event that we were really looking forward to. I spoke with Stephen DIck and he said it was good to see the footage of Benni. ( I can hear Benni in my head now saying " At last, I headlined a gig.)

Does antone think we could reproduce the event in glasgow some night during the summer? I know there are enough people who would come out to commemorate. We could do it on a smaller scale with bands, comics and artists. Perhaps somewhere like Nice,n,Sleazy or something (where I believe Broccolli performed, in fact, Benni and I went there to see the post-benni Broccolli supporting Wat Tyler.)

Let me know if anyone thinks it's a good idea.

Sandy

[iain sturrock]

Hello,
I'd like to express a few thoughts and thankyou's to do with the Generator gallery tribute in Dundee. Four of us organised the shindig; myself, Selina Mowat, Delia Baillie and Frewie. Firstly, we thank Elizabeth for her strength in lending us four of Benni's paintings and a video of one of his Edinburgh standup gigs. These formed the emotional and creative highlights of a very strong line-up of music, film and comedy. The night could'nt have gone any better, and this is inspite of the beer constantly running out, West-end neds setting fire to a neighbours bin, an irate local who wanted to take a swing at me, and a couple of visits from the (genuinely understanding) Tayside Constabulary. All in all, the kind of night that the bon vivant in Benni would have loved. As I was the smiling maitre'd / contributions-hustler on the door, I only saw 10 minutes of the four hours of events. However, this meant that I was in the really heartening position of seeing how feelings for Benni were directly translated into financial help for the prize fund. We raised over twice the amount that I'd been expecting. On this note, if anyone has ideas as to other fund-raising gigs (Sandy?), just go for it: the fund is and should be an evolving series of events. I'll close with some thankyou's: thanks to Delia Gallagher for her panache and guts for compering the evening; thanks to the 20 visual artists who contributed individual work's for our prize raffle; to our line-up of Unkle Fritz, Frewie, Stacy, Teddy, Stephen, Alamos, Stoor and Laeto; to the Generator staff for their suss and tequila cocktails; and on a personal note, thanks to the many 1st year Duncan of Jordanstone students who by coming to the evening wore their hearts on their sleeves and dug deep into their limited dosh.
Take care everybody,
Iain.