Thread: R.I.P Frank Sidebottom :o(

I would just like to take a moment to offer my condolances to the family of my friend Chris Sievey, aka Frank Sidebottom.

Personally speaking, I've been a huge fan of his since the age of fourteen - that's over twenty years, and so when he asked me to partner with him to put his entire 25 year back catalogue on the web at Radio Timperley - Franks Fantastic Podcast I took it as a great honour.

Chris/Frank and I became very friendly over the last nine months and he would often come round to our house to work on the site whilst regaling Kittie and I with his crazy showbiz stories.

It's perhaps a measure of how much he was loved that he's currently the most talked about subject on Twitter - #FrankSidebottom with hundreds of people every minute paying their condolences.

As I type this, I've literally just received a text message from his business partner and we're going to meet shortly to discuss ways of moving forward with his Radio Timperley website. I personally think it will be a fitting tribute to the man if we can archive his work (much of which is currently on dusty DAT tapes) for posterity.

The good news is that Jon Ronson, the man who wrote the book/film 'Men Who Stare At Goats' completed a screenplay about his time as a member of Frank Sidebottom's band in the eighties. The film, entitled simply 'Frank' is scheduled for release in 2012 and should be a fitting tribute to the man.

In the meantime, I'm going to spend a couple of hours with my iPod and my memories.

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RIP Frank

:-(

Sleep well you crazy man.

This morning I read a rather tragic article in the Manachester Evening News about how Frank Sidebottom had died penniless and how his family would have to pay for a paupers funeral for him.

Frank Sidebottom comic faces pauper's funeral - Manchester Evening News

I then got in touch with Jon Ronson - the fella who wrote 'Men Who Stare At Goats' and ex-member of Frank's band and we setup a donation drive on the Radio Timperley website which I run.

I'm absolutely delighted to say that we've raised over £4000 in less than 90 minutes and the donations are still coming in thick and fast!

Any money that is left over after funeral costs will be donated to Cancer research charities. Please help to give Frank the send-off that he deserves and help the fight against cancer too.

Just go to http://www.radiotimperley.com and click the 'Donate' button.

Thanks in advance.

£7000 raised so far in 554 donations!

Wow! Just... WOW!

We've now hit the £10,000 mark and it only took six hours!

The fundraising has taken on a life of it's own and the BBC have now been in touch, asking to interview me on radio at 8:20am.

Kittie wants to pluck my eyebrows for the occasion!?

Well done you!
what radio station!??

Not sure, I forgot to ask. My guess is that it'll be the BBC Manchester one or something.

We're now at over £14,000 from well over 1000 separate donations. It's really restored my faith in human nature!

James, seriously well done to you.

I am sure wherever Chris is he is smiling at you.

Wow - what a wonderful tribute to a wonderful man - he was such a joy to so many people so it's no surprise that people have been so generous.
I've never heard in all my years, a bad word spoken about him and it made me happy to see him performing again.
He may be gone but it's guaranteed he will never be forgotten.