#Franksfund Shows The Good In Twitter

Monday of this week saw the sad news of the death of Manchester comedian Frank Sidebottom (the papier-mache headed character created by Chris Sievey).  It’s only a couple of weeks since he performed at the Pyramid Arts Centre in Warrington, a show that I really wanted to go to, but somehow completely forgot about (I’m an idiot).  I was gutted to have missed him, and now I’ll never get chance to see him.

On Wednesday morning, further news broke that Sievey’s family didn’t have enough money to pay for a decent funeral.   This sad news reverberated around Twitter and people wondered how they could donate money to help the family out.  Within a few minutes, a fund-raising campaign spontaneously erupted, with journalist and Sievey’s friend, Jon Ronson, posting the e-mail address of a Paypal account where well-wishers could contribute (it’s jonelle1929@gmail.com if you’re feeling generous).  #Franksfund didn’t look back from there.  At one o’clock, comedian Jason Manford asked Ronson how much more money was needed as he would generously make up the difference.  He didn’t need to make up anything, as over £6000 had been collected.  The latest update that I’ve read is that the total now stands above £19,000.  It’s quite staggering.  And, yes, I did contribute.  It wasn’t very much, but that wasn’t really the point.

The whole episode really went to show the power of Twitter.  Trying to explain the point of tweeting to someone who’s never done is pretty impossible.  Twitter is something that you have to experience before you can understand it.  However, something like #Franksfund clearly demonstrates the power of a group of like minded people being in instant contact with each other.  It’s only a shame that Chris and Frank weren’t able to see how much their passing had moved so many people.  There is talk that the excess funds collected could be used to commission a commemorative statue.  I think this would not only be a fitting tribute to the man, but to the collective good spirit shown by those that enabled it to be paid for.