NORTH Somerset’s ukulele band, UKeBox, is planning a concert of music and poetry in Clevedon on Saturday, September 7, to raise funds for the millions in Ukraine still suffering from the effects of the Russian invasion.

A previous concert in April, 2022, at St Mary’s Church, Castle Road, Walton St Mary raised £2,600 for the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal and the band has chosen the same venue and the same recipient for September’s event.

The concert will begin with the Ukrainian national anthem sung by children from the newly-opened Bristol Ukrainian school in Westbury-on-Trym, founded by Antonina Grebeniuk, which is supported by the Ukraine Aid and Welfare charity - www.uaw.org.uk

Once again there will be a selection of songs, interspersed with poems, written and read by local poet Peter Gibbs.

UKeBox, formed in November, 2014, with 26 members playing ukuleles, bass, drums and percussion, does not accept money for playing, but asks for donations which all go to (usually local) charities.

All the money raised during the evening from sales of tickets plus books, sunflower seedlings, pennants, flags, decorations and ribbons will go to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, which funds work by 15 leading DEC charities and their local partners inside Ukraine and neighbouring countries.

A special edition of Volume Three of Peter’s anthology, Let The Good Rhymes Roll, featuring 17 poems prompted by the conflict, plus many others, will be on sale and also available on Amazon, priced £10, with all profits going to the DEC appeal - https://amzn.to/4bHmT3y

The concert will start at 7.30pm and tickets, costing £10, are available from Paul Middleton: 01275-341908 or on the door.

UKebox leader Ellis Johns said: “We hope to play our part again in raising funds for those suffering in Ukraine and their friends and families everywhere.”