Fans raise £6,000 in two hours

Comedy fans have raised more than £6,000 in just two hours to give Frank Sidebottom’s creator a proper send-off.

Members of the public flooded to contribute following reports that Chris Sievey was facing a pauper's funeral. In the space of a morning, enough was raised for a full service.

Chris Sievey’s family say was virtually penniless when he died on Monday at the age of 54. Son Stirling, 31, said: ‘He spent money as it came in and was always a man for the moment. He never planned ahead.’

He told the Manchester Evening News today that the fees quoted by a funeral director were ‘too high... we would not know how to get that sort of money’.

However, author Jon Ronson, who was in Frank's band for several years, set up a PayPal account for donations - which quickly hit the target after the Facebook and Twitter campaigns set up to get Sidebottom’s football anthem Three Shirts On My Line to No 1 got behind the idea.

Meanwhile, Northern-based comedians are planning a fundraising tribute gig in Sievey’s memory.

Sievey, who had been battling cancer before collapsing at home in Hale, Cheshire, in the early hours of Monday, leaves another son Harry, 18, and daughter Asher, 30. The results of a post mortem are due tomorrow.

Published: 23 Jun 2010