Help Ben in Memory of Yas

I'm struggling...

What with Yas's passing, the previous 6 months of her illness and then the lack of gigs due to covid before that, I'm emotionally devastated, totally exhausted and in a bad state financially. From June of last year through to December I rarely got more than a couple of hours sleep a night (sometimes none) as I watched my worst nightmare become a reality and my best friend fade away.

The last 2 years have been really tough work wise too (we've lost over 140 shows) and then just as gigs started to return and we could see some light, Yas's illness emerged. Last year, just as everyone was getting back on their feet and returning to work, we were slipping downhill rapidly.

I've had hundreds of offers of help from lots of really kind and genuine friends over the past weeks/months, but being the proud and stubborn fool that I am, and the fact that I hate accepting free handouts, I have politely refused and carried the burden of it all for too long...

So I'm asking for your help. I've been booking up gigs and have work coming in this year, but until then I need to raise £3500 to pay my bills, eat and generally survive. But I don't want to accept your help for free, I just couldn't do it, so I have decided that I am going to release a one off, solo single in order to raise the money. It's something that people have been nudging me to do for years, but to be honest I've never had the courage to do it on my own before.

It will be a special, one off run of a 4 track CD single, available only through my gofundme page. My aim is to raise my target amount, have the CD's printed and then send out the CD's to all of the people that have donated £10 or more. I have already recorded the tracks and have been working on them in the past month, so they are sounding great and are nearly ready to go.

The title track to the single 'My One and Only' is my most favourite song that I have ever written and like all of the tracks it's written about Yas. One of the songs 'Coffee and Breadcrumbs' is a song I wrote last year but we never released with the band and has Yas singing a verse and harmonies on it (which was one of Yas's favourite songs that I've written).

I am also recording a music video for the title track which I will be releasing via Facebook after, and if I raise my target amount!

Please remember that you won't be able to to buy these songs on any normal platforms like iTunes or Spotify. This is a special one off release. I have put weeks of work into this project and have buried myself into the writing, recording and production process and am quite nervous about the release!

I have set my target for 3 weeks time, so if I make the amount I'll be sending the CD's out 3 weeks after that date so I can get them professionally printed and the tracks mastered. Expected delivery date will be on or before 20th March. You can donate more if you want, or less if you just want to donate. For those who donate £10 or more, please leave your name and I will be contacting you to get your delivery details for the CD single.

This way, you'll be helping me out immensely and in return you can hear and own something that is not only very dear to my heart, but something Yas would be also very proud of I'm sure...

Thank you for reading my story.

Big hugs