Neill’s charity guitar auction at Legion raises £4,500

The much-anticipated instrument auction for charity by Keith Neill took place at the Lerwick Legion on Saturday night.

Thirty instruments which were generously donated to him throughout the past year were up for sale, all re-designed and reworked by himself.

In total, just over £4,500 was raised with most of the guitars sold for well over £100. However, the “moment” of the night came when one reveller bought a guitar for £800.

“Dude, I would have been happy with 30 bucks,” an emotional Neill said when asked about how he felt about the amount raised. “It’s super emotional. Tonight is not about anyone’s effort … it’s about everyone’s effort.”

Starting off the musical proceedings of the night was the first ever gig by new band Sidewinder. Consisting of Arron Peart, Liam Davie and Scott Priest, the trio of young musicians showed that the future of Shetland rock is in good hands.

Their set list consisted of cover songs such as Holiday, Basket Case and American Idiot by Green Day. They also played renditions of Foo Fighters songs including the classic Monkey Wrench.

Those in the audience were suitably impressed. With a few more gigs under their belts and the addition of some of original stuff over time, it should be quite exciting to hear how they sound later on in the year.

Lyall vs Murray provided the great combination of DJ versus drummer that Shetland gig goers have come to love since their debut at The Buffet 2013. The pair share a great chemistry which makes watching them all the more enjoyable.

Delorian are relative new kids on the block, fronted by the man so charismatic there isn’t a word for it … Dave Kok.

To say the band play cover songs would be a bit of an injustice – the songs are re-worked versions of the originals that combine wackiness with heavy metal.

Their set list featured renditions as Land Down Under, The Safety Dance and the hit song from that movie about Lego … Everything Is Awesome.

The Dirty Lemons ended the night with a great set consisting of a mix of cover songs and originals from their recently released album. The band at this point are guaranteed crowd pleasers and their stock has risen quite high over the past year or so.

Neill did a phenomenal job with all his work on the instruments and for bringing out the best in people’s generosity on what definitely was an emotion night for the man.

Word is that this won’t be the last time he does something like this, but he has yet to divulge what that next project will be.

Jamie Hatch