Charity fundraising talent night hosted by Rochdale's John Priestley

Rochdale artist John Priestley is hosting a special charity fundraising talent night on Saturday 19 December.

The online concert by Talent Night will be live streamed, made up of several DJ mixes, and videos submitted by the public, including some from as far away as Gambia and Jamaica.

Talent Night was founded by Garth Williams to raise money for charities. John became involved with Talent Night earlier this year, helping to promote an event which raised funds for Scope in Manchester. Similar events had been planned to take place this year to help those with disabilities and homeless charities, but were cancelled due to the pandemic.

Formerly homeless himself, John has also contributed to the talent night, reciting a song as a poignant poem, filmed at the National Football Museum in Manchester city centre.

He told Rochdale Online: “I wanted to do something poignant as it’s 100 years since cenotaphs came about when people had no places to grieve for the soldiers whose bodies were not brought back.

“I dug through my Christmas CDs, and found We Wish You A Merry Christmas by the Houghton Weavers. I contacted their management for permission to use the words.”

“We wanted to do something online to help people and give them a confidence boost. Singing makes you feel happy as endorphins are released and we wanted to use this to cheer people up for Christmas. There will be a link for people to donate if they wish, but it will be entirely voluntary.”

John became homeless in 2015 after he suffered a nervous breakdown after being evicted. At the time, he was being funded by the European Community to set up a business. However, his benefits and the grant by the European Community clashed, cancelling one another out, and John ended up with nothing.

He spent the next four-and-a-half months sofa surfing before he ended up on the streets of Rochdale where he was ultimately rescued by a kind stranger.

John now lives at The Limes supported accommodation in Castleton, which he cites as a key point in his life.
 

Read more: John Priestley opens pop-up art gallery in Wheatsheaf Shopping CentrePublished: 26 July 2019

He added: “I was recently interviewed on a private radio show recently which went out across the world. 10 days after it went out, I received a thank you message from a person in Barbados who had been homeless and had issues with gambling. They told me that because their family heard my story on the radio, they were given a second chance and not thrown out on the streets.

“It was really uplifting because I just want to help people.”

John used to volunteer five times a week in Manchester and has also been previously named volunteer of the year at the Manchester Be Proud Awards 2018.

Talent Night has previously raised money for Breakthrough UK, Fathers Against Violence, Scope Homeless Project Manchester, Street Treats, Manchester Homeless Group.

Watch the teaser for the talent night here:

 

You can watch Talent Night’s Christmas event on their website on 19 December at 7.30pm:

• talent-night.co.uk/talent-night-christmas-event-19th-of-december/