benniesposito.com

[Wee Sandy]

Hi Guys,

Last weekend I was privilaged to be the compere of a lukemia research fundraiser at Oran Mor, Glasgow in memory of Gail Wylie, another young artist and poet who was taken away from us last September at the age of 35.

http://www.thespaceyourenotin.com/

The bill was unbeleivably prestigious with readings from Alisdair Gray, Janice Galloway, James Kelman, Aidan Moffat, Zoe Strachan, Liz Lochead, Tom Leonard and John Byrne. Music came from Eddie Reader, Eugene Kelly, Arab Strap and Bell & Sebastian. There was an auction of art, hosted by the unfathomably charismatic Anita Mannig, the first female auctioneer in Scotland. Artworks based on Gails poetry were donated by Peter Howson, Jim Lambie, Graham Sharp, Valentin Petrov, Lesley Banks and too many more including, again, the ridiculously talented John Byrne.

With the Wylie families permission I took the opportunity to pay tribute to Benni in front of such an art loving crowd, by talking about his life and reciting some of his stand up. I choose to do the bits from "Road To Dundee" regarding the city slogan. ("Dundee-The Paisley of the East".) It seems Benni is still capable of getting the big laughs. The show went on and about 20 mins later I introduced John Byrne onto stage. A Paisley man himself, Byrne opened with the line " I was recently in the Dundee of the West..."

WOW! A John Byrne call back to a Benni gag. As you can imagine the first thing I wanted to do was phone Benni and say "John Byrne's referencing your material!"

At the end of the show a Duncan Of Jordanson student came up and thanked me for the tribute saying it was good just to hear his name being mentioned again. Another girl approached, and sadly, this was the first time she had heard mention of Benni's passing. He had painted two portraits for her family and they were hoping to commision a third. She was, of course, quite shocked by the news. I gave her this website address, so hopefully she will make contact, and perhaps also help you catalogue Benni's work.

BTW, I wore my Benni t-shirt all the way throught the gig ( I printed off a picture of Benni and got it printed onto a black t-shirt. It's rather classy.)

My thanks to Gails family for allowing me to make the tribute, but as Gails sister Linda said, it is important to keep all of these spirits alive.

Sandy.x.