15311A THOUSAND people enjoyed an entertainment fest in the name of charity at The Olympiad in Chippenham on Saturday, raising £38,000 and bringing the weekend total for the tsunami appeal to £50,000.

Tickets sold out for the event, supported by the Gazette and Herald. Organiser Richard Ellis said: "It was great to have the backing of the Gazette. Without the paper's support we would not have had the publicity that drew the crowd."

Chapter 13, The Wurzels, The Specials and Iron The Cat entertained the crowd with musical mastery.

Even Nick Mason, formerly of Pink Floyd, and Andy Scott, of The Sweet, joined in the festivities playing alongside each other for the first time.

Mr Mason said: "I was approached by Chris McCormack and I didn't know if I could make it. It's a great idea.

"If I knew I was going to be playing I would have practised."

Mr Scott said: "The band are about to go on a UK tour and this is my first weekend off in about nine months but I couldn't sit at home when there's something like this going on."

Bristol-based band Chapter 13 provided a rock introduction to the evening superbly warming up the crowd for a different style of music in the shape of The Wurzels.

This was followed by the auction before a high-energy performance by ska-rock act The Specials.

Iron The Cat then finished the evening with covers that the whole crowd helped them sing.

Co-organiser and lead singer of Iron The Cat, Richard Ellis, said he was humbled by the turnout.

Originally hoping to raise £25,000 between a fund-raising concert and golf day at Bowood golf club, the organisers exceeded their target on the first day.

Mr Ellis said: "Two words describe how I felt. Proud, when you look at it and think wow. And the other word is humbled by it. We are all just a bunch of amateurs and it started with a phone call saying we should do this.

"We were amazed at how long everyone stayed. The reaction from the audience and the mixture of the bands really worked.

"The reaction was shown by the auction. We hoped for £10,000 for both the concert and golf day auctions and on the night of the concert we raised £11,500."

Mr Ellis said they had worries which proved to be unfounded.

"Two weeks away I think we said to each other let's work on selling 600 tickets if we can do that and budget to that.

"Everyone was telling us that the tickets would sell in the final week but we weren't sure. We then had to collect the tickets back because we had sold too many. Everything went like clockwork. It was a phenomenal turnout and the detail in the planning is immense. From beer staff to people serving food and everybody turned up and worked hard.

"There were people there from 7am setting everything up and they didn't go home until 6am after packing everything away.

"And the T-shirts, which were donated, went down well. We had 250 and we sold 150 so that's all profit."

Mr Ellis said pulling in Nick Mason was a great coup for the event. He replied to a hand delivered letter saying he would like to attend but was not sure if he could.

He said: "We didn't know until the night if he would turn up. I had a message on the walkie talkie saying, 'Confirmed, Nick Mason is in the building.' I just said, 'repeat, repeat.' We couldn't believe it."

The auction proved a great success with Michael Schumacher's signed Ferrari hat going for £350 and tickets to Southampton versus Chelsea selling for £3,000.

Before the auction a powerful video was shown to show the destruction of the tsunami followed by a minute's silence.

Ben Slater, front man for Bad Lizard and guitarist for Iron The Cat, then performed his tribute song, which was released on Monday.

He hopes to get the beautifully written tearjerker played on the radio and hopes to raise even more money for the fund.

Red Cross Trustee, Maryanne Burton, said she was thrilled by the event: "It was absolutely brilliant. The atmosphere was good, everyone stayed all night and they were very generous.

"We are absolutely bowled over by it all. It's now over a month since the disaster so the initial quantity of giving has slowed down to get that sort of money was staggering.

"The tsunami just seems to have captured everyone's imagination."

Dancing to the music, John Boatman, from Derry Hill, said he was chuffed for his friends, who had organised the event.

He said: "I cannot believe how well organised it is. It's great and I would not believe I was in Chippenham."

The Specials fan, Steve White, from Cepen Park in Chippenham, said he loved the live music: "It's £20 per head and the money goes to a good cause and you get great entertainment."

Drummer Emile Johnson, from Chapter 13, said: "People came here for the right reasons. They wanted to raise money for a good cause and have a good time and enjoy themselves ."

More photographs appear in this week's Gazette & Herald