Successful Leeds ABC Benefit

Thanks to everyone who helped to make the Bonnie & Clyde night on Friday 9th November a successful benefit for Leeds Anarchist Black Cross, and a great night in its own right!

The Common Place was packed out, with a large number of people dressed up for the evening. With so many great costumes, competition for the fancy dress prizes was very stiff, but eventually the judges decided on Mick for the first prize. Mick won a bottle of cava and a large framed portrait of Bonnie & Clyde, as well as a special tombola prize he’d been trying to win all night! Ben and Ellie took joint second prize, and Laura and Philippe scooped up the third.

The tombola proved a popular attraction, even if some people, who had perhaps had too many of our Molotov cocktails, forgot to take their prizes with them at the end of the night. You may get a certain sense of ‘déjà vu’ next time!

It was undoubtedly the music which made the night extra special though. The Monkeywrenchers played an eclectic set of international rebel songs before David Broad took the stage for a superb solo set of dustbowl ballads. The finale of the night came in the form of Johnny Cashless and The Tipton Trio, who delivered a storming set which whipped the crowd into a two-step frenzy! The men in black were also joined by two special guests, including Johnny’s ‘wife’ June! If you missed them, we hope they’ll play for us again sometime, and we’ll try to post a sample taster for you unlucky souls who didn’t make it to the Common Place.

Leeds ABC made over £300 from the night, which will be used for the direct support of class struggle and Anarchist prisoners, and it was also a very good night for The Common Place.

Thanks again to all of you who came along and we hope that you really enjoyed yourselves. Special thanks to all the musicians who made this a really great night.