THANK YOU TO SOUTH SHIELDS & THE WORLD

Thank you everyone for enabling us to remember our daughter Molly Mear
Once again at Mearfest North 13th October 2018

We are both extremely grateful for everyone's help and support 

We started raising money for the Down Syndrome North East Charity 2017, when we first held our first Mearfest North. They are an excellent charity that not only informs us of every penny they spend, they participate in our Northern events. This year they kindly invited us to their 'look at me' conference on Sunday 14th of October. 
 
We live 300 miles away, I posted out for help when Duncan Binnie from Mandora stepped up to the plate despite being a busy man himself with family and work commitments
He secured the Queen Vic in South Shields. He went on to produced two great promo videos for us and worked tirelessly before during and after the gig. So a massive thank you to him.

Thank you for all ten bands for donating your time, talent, equipment love and support all free of charge. Culloden, Jack Mylchreest band, Snatch back, Stuckfish, Satan's Empire, Troyen, Millennium, Mandora, Abaddon and of course Tysondog.

Thank you to Tony Bray for allowing us to host his debut band Abaddon, for all the selfies and album signings during hours of meet and greet he did with all his devoted fans. No one was left dissapointed as he fulfilled many dreams, we hope his new exciting band fulfil their new dreams too.  And thank you to his wife Rachel Bray who kindly spoke to his fans, and to first time Mearfester Anja Bray who made everyone go all gooey as she is so gorgeous. 

Thanks to Warren Richard Ridley and all the excellent staff at the Queen Vic Warren obtained fantastic gifts from Bernie Torme and Brian Downey (Thin Lizzy) and provided the bands with water cooked hot food and ran both bars upstairs and down for each of the two stages 

Thanks to Ian Coult for meeting us when we first arrived and ensuring me, Claire and Amelie were warm and fed and comfortable, then worked tirelessly on the door during the day, providing photography, support and strength for our entire stay.  It's gone beyond friendship we are family Ian thank you

Andrew Ormston, thank you for your great friendship, your brilliant raffle/ prizes and the wonderful and colourful Molly balloons, which was such a surprise to see on the day, he provided a ton of sweets, evenings for 2 dinner gift at the races, I mean the list goes on! You set the scene for a complete party vibe for Molly. You are a star and a legend.

Thank you to our sound engineers Graham Laddie and Nigel downstairs provided brilliant sound and organisation on the two stages

Satan's Empire for providing equipment stage management and drum kit and set up
Derek Lyon, Paul Lewis, Sandy McRitchie, Wayne Hudson, Garry Bowler and Alison Metcalfe. Thanks to Rose and Brandon for your fantastic energy and support

Jase Fox, Paul and Keith Dixon from the Rebel Legion for the excellent Star Wars presence throughout the day providing laughter and great photo opportunities 

Photography by the incredible Jim Donnelly, who went that extra mile for us by setting up a small studio space to take incredible portraits of our bands, and us! Which turned out fantastic.
To John Lambton who religiously kept snapping his camera, capturing every moment, and to all the individual mearfesters who took great shots of the day. 
 
Thank you for our merchandise staff Glennis Irish and Paul Cooper, who took this responsibility on with great pride, honesty, and endurance, it was a long day, which left Claire able to concentrate on the other 999,999 things going on that day. 

Thanks once again for our world famous Molly shirts created by Martin Walkyier-Maia, who without hesitation created the forest green and orange shirts with just a days notice, as the black and reds were selling out online.

THANK YOU to all who bought our Molly shirts, wearing them all over the world and sending in your photos.

Thank you to NWOBHM legend Patrick from Belgium for the boxes of chocolates, which we gave out to all our volunteers, and Beers (!) 

Thanks to Paul Finlay and Alan from Stuckfish for the additional lighting
Paul Finlay again for filming 'Molly the movie'
Thanks, to actual movie maker Warren Speed from Media Excentrique for filming

​Thanks to Down Syndrome North East for attending with your families, great to rock with you again Stephen Hall, who is now a Mearfest legend himself.
 
Thanks to all the donations from the bands present and Quartz, Paul Battle of Britton, Spartan Warrior, Blackmayne and many others, Dave Bonney you made many rock fans very happy with their prize wins.

Thank you ladies to Paula Evans & Vikki Rutherford who worked really hard drinking many local beers and selling a zillion raffle tickets

THANK YOU to our Patrons Dibs Hawkwinder and Sam Kirwan for being there for us once again, supplying us with warmth, generosity and laughter

Huge thanks to the creator of our beautiful cake Beverley Johnstone, it was an absolute masterpiece, which was cut up into a hundred slices, laid upon the finest unicorn napkins then devoured in an hour by everyone still standing! 

A massive thank you to Angela Holland for coming all that way from down south to look after our life, our beautiful angel of dreams Amélie Mear who was getting very tired and restless by mid afternoon, sorry if you missed her on the day.

A HUMONGOUS THANK YOU to Verina Charlesworth for inviting us into your home to meet her amazing family, working the door, and generally running around doing odd jobs for us, and for becoming our life long friend, adding love and light to our time in South Shields.

THANK YOU TO:

Andrew Tout for his very generous online donation
Andrew Halliday for pre gig drinks
Nick Grimley for Grimley brewery products Abaddon Ale, taking funny photos, smiles and laughter
Lyndsey Hopkinson for her beautiful and fantastic artwork
Sister Rose for additional amps
Kevin Wynn for endless tireless help assistance and for the trousers of course
Thank you to the Revd Carl Flynn Edwards for our spiritual support and your beautiful blessings on our event 

Most importantly I thank my talented wife Claire Mear, who is the anchor in my life, the reason my life's worth living and who means the world to me. She works unbelievably hard with everything mearfest, keeping the website up to date, as I haven't got a clue about anything techno, organising the t-shirt production and sales, and for being the over all creative director and quality controller in any thing we do, all while looking after Amélie full time, she is very much appreciated. 

Thank you to everyone who attended or contributed by sending messages of love from around the world

Unless you were with us on the day, there is no way to can explain the heightened atmosphere

You all came and gave of yourselves and once again gave us the opportunity to raise money for DOWN SYNDROME NORTH EAST who we received huge hugs from parents and kids at the convention the next day, and saw for ourselves where that money goes and what good it is doing. They are all very appreciative of every penny raised and on their behalf we THANK YOU. 

Most importantly thank you for allowing us all to remember our Beautiful Molly Mear with the respect she deserves.

 
And Molly Smiled on........

Art work by Angela Yousif Holland
​Words By Steve Ellis