Go Fund Me: John Gallagher from RAVEN

Go Fund Me: John Gallagher from RAVEN

Greetings fellow Raven Lunatics!

My name is Roy Coston. As many of you know, Mr. John Gallagher was admitted to hospital with a massive headache on August 12th. Following a CAT scan, it was determined that he was suffering from a bleed on the brain, Subdural Hematoma. Surgery was planned for the next day, then a further, more invasive surgery was performed on August 19th.

This of course forced the cancellation of the bands September European tour causing a myriad of financial issues due to flights, hotels and transportation that were already paid for and in most cases are non refundable.

John is healing very slowly but steady. This has been very hard emotionally and financially for the Gallagher family. With the medical expenses incurred, being a touring musician, everything is out of pocket.

Why me you ask?My relationship with the band has been very deep and well documented over the years, from a fan into a Family member. Technically, I was born into this RAVEN Family!

I was named after my father’s best man/friend ROY RAVEN. (TRUE STORY!)

I was in a cover band called Ardent. We played Cortland NY at a bar called The Whiffle Tree Inn around 1985/86…. At the same time as the RAVEN song On & On was on rotation at MTV (which was included in our set). In walked John & Mark. As soon as we saw them we knew we had to get them up on stage…. We jammed On & On and Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin which was amazing for us!

Ardent had written a bunch of original material which we wanted to record and since we knew the band lived in Cortland NY at the time, we wanted John to produce our material. In January 1987, WASP, SAXON & RAVEN played a show in Syracuse NY and our goal was to catch up with John. After the show we saw the band outside signing autographs, we ran up to John and he remembered jamming with us, however, couldn’t remember our names. We asked him to produce us on the spot and he agreed “after the tour”.

ARDENT entered UCA RECORDING STUDIOS, Utica NY and started recording the 4-song demo with many trips back and forth from Cortland to pick up and take John home during the process.

1988 “NOTHING EXCEEDS LIKE EXCESS”, was also recorded at UCA RECORDING STUDIOS, Utica, NY since John was familiar with the studio. The band finished the record and immediately loaded up the gear and headed out the door for a 2-week East Coast tour with ARDENT as drivers, roadies and whatever else came along.

Many events happened between RAVEN and me over the years. I flew out to California to witness side stage their crazy show at the FOUNDATIONS FORUM in ‘94. I worked with John again engineering my next band FOUR LARGE MEN recording 1997/98 at Todd Hobin Studios. Since then, I booked RAVEN in Utica, Syracuse, Oneida, roadied, traveled, fed and had them stay at our house.

It is my call to duty to set up a GO FUND ME campaign to help John’s health issues with the ongoing medical expenses and to help maybe ease the financial burden that the band incurred by being forced to cancel the tour… maybe we can help to right the ship and help to keep Raven going… and able to reschedule those tour dates.

Raven Lunatics – “Rock until you drop."

Thank you so much for all the love and support.

Roy Coston