Fact #122770
When:
Short story:
Internationally successful Welsh band The Alarm plays a benefit concert for the Clwyd Coast Flood Disaster Fund, at Pontins Holiday Centre, Prestatyn, Wales, UK.Full article:
Mike Peters (The Alarm) : I can't remember the exact sum that we raised on the night. It went to help families. The Towyn floods happened in early 1990, just down the road there. Basically the sea defences gave way to a massive storm and flooded all the flat lands in the area of Towyn. A lot of people just weren't prepared for what happened. I remember we were on tour in Norway.
I remember sitting in a bar or a café and they had a TV on. It was all in Norwegian of course and I was sat there with Steve, the piano player who was on the tour with us and I was thinking, "That's really familiar that is." All this water coming down these streets. And there was a bus half-submerged in this street, and I could make out it said, "Crossville Buses." And I thought, "That's from our area, that is." And I started watching it and realised the flood was happening. I'd lived in Kimmel Bay at one point early on, and the floods all came through where I would have lived.
So I remember phoning home to find out what was going on. It was so severe that a lot of people's houses had been flooded. Because in Towyn there was a lot of bungalows and there was nowhere to go, so all their possessions had been blitzed in this flood. I spoke to a friend of mine, Bob Hewitt, who was a local writer, journalist and photographer and asked what we could do. He suggested we should do a gig to support flood victims.
So we arranged to do a gig at Pontins in Prestatyn and I flew home and did a press conference and we set up this gig. We raised a lot of money, but what it went to do was to feed people and find shelter for them while they were in the interim. A lot of people didn't have insurance and things like that so the money went to that to help people get back on their feet again once they'd recovered from the floods.
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I remember sitting in a bar or a café and they had a TV on. It was all in Norwegian of course and I was sat there with Steve, the piano player who was on the tour with us and I was thinking, "That's really familiar that is." All this water coming down these streets. And there was a bus half-submerged in this street, and I could make out it said, "Crossville Buses." And I thought, "That's from our area, that is." And I started watching it and realised the flood was happening. I'd lived in Kimmel Bay at one point early on, and the floods all came through where I would have lived.
So I remember phoning home to find out what was going on. It was so severe that a lot of people's houses had been flooded. Because in Towyn there was a lot of bungalows and there was nowhere to go, so all their possessions had been blitzed in this flood. I spoke to a friend of mine, Bob Hewitt, who was a local writer, journalist and photographer and asked what we could do. He suggested we should do a gig to support flood victims.
So we arranged to do a gig at Pontins in Prestatyn and I flew home and did a press conference and we set up this gig. We raised a lot of money, but what it went to do was to feed people and find shelter for them while they were in the interim. A lot of people didn't have insurance and things like that so the money went to that to help people get back on their feet again once they'd recovered from the floods.