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What's The Story?

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The idea for the Great Local Band Raffle came to me last May @ Oasis 160.
96.7 sponsored a concert there and plastered their banners all over
the walls. And I thought, what a cool thing to have autographed by the bands
playing there that night: Lucky Boys Confusion, The Plain White T's, Logan's
Loss & Fertility. So I snagged six of them. Five were for the Fertility guys. That
was their first Oasis gig...and on the big stage...and with three of the biggest
Chicago area bands. I wanted to give them something cool to remember that
night by. The last banner was going to be for me. I collect autographs. So I
spent the next several weeks tracking down all those bands and getting them to
sign all six banners. (I'm still missing one. LBC Joe....let's get this done, my
friend.) Then somewhere along the way, I just decided that it would be a lot
cooler to give my banner away, for some charity. Sell it, auction it, whatever.
But wait...what if I got autographed stuff from ALL the bigger Chicago bands to
raffle off? Like 25-50 bands. CD's, shirts, stickers, autographed equipment and
CD's...Boo-yah! So I started collecting all that from bands whose shows I went to.
But what charity? How would I give this away? Answer: At some big show, just
before Xmas. Still had no clue as to what charity tho. Something to do with kids
and/or music, Kaustubh suggested. Right on.
I considered a school in Villa Park whose music program was in danger of
being shut down. Then there was the children's burn camp I read about. That
was the plan. One or both of those charities. Then I went to this benefit concert
@ The Harold Viking Lodge in Tinley Park on Sept. 1st. Everything changed that
day.
Eamiel Beck was the drummer for south suburban Midlothian band, Last In
Line. On July 28th, he was killed in a drunk driving accident. A band benefit
was organized and some 700 people attended a 12-hour concert featuring 18
south suburban bands. They raised $3900 for the Eamiel Beck Music Scholarship
Fund. It was then I decided to change my plans and also raise money for this
scholarship thru the raffling of local band merch. The Villa Park school idea
was scrapped because no one outside of Villa Park cares about Villa Park's
music program. The burn camp idea was scratched because I discovered they
had so many rules you had to follow in order to give a donation, that it wasn't
worth the effort. (They need to change that. I wonder how many other people
decided not to give to them because they make it more difficult than it has to
be.) The Eamiel Beck Fund just seemed like the way to go. I decided to bring
more bands into it. Not just the bigger Chicago area bands but any band that
wanted to help. When I set up at shows to sell tickets, bands would come up to
me and ASK how they could help. I didn't even have to ask them. I gave it a
name after deciding to include all the bands...The Great Local Band Raffle. And
the goal was to collect 100 bands merch and autographed memorabilia, not just
50 and give the stuff away to two winners at a show in December. Someone
suggested I host a show specifically for the raffle and so we're looking for a
venue and date to do that as I write this. And to entice people to buy more
tickets, I decided to get national bands' involved in this. Disturbed, Sugarcult,
Alkaline Trio have all given both merch and autographed items...drumsticks,
drumheads, banners, records. I'm hitting up Boxcar Racer this weekend and
hope to get a few more national bands who visit Chicago before this thing is
over.
That's basically it. 100 local and national bands coming together to help keep
Eamiel's memory alive thru a music scholarship fund to help other promising
young musicians. If you are in a band and would like to donate, please contact
me at mcheesedog@hotmail.com. Thanx.

"Eamiel was the kind of kid, who could make a gloomy day, the best day of your life.
Everyone knew him for his smile. His smile warmed so many teenager's lives. He was
one of the best drummers on the south side and whoever knew him knew his music. He
was a rocker. Even tho he played punk, he had metal in his blood. For everyone who
knew him, the day he died was a day no one would forget. For that day, everyone grew
up... even if they didnt want to, everyone did. Everyone knew that life was precious."

Dan Boldin, Eamiel's friend