FANS OF Scottish rock band Del Amiti can help try and Change Everything for a charity.

Joey’s Song is an organisation based in Wisconsin, America to raise money and awareness for epilepsy research and program services for children with special needs.

And a long-standing friendship has led to some frantically rare, extra special and very unique pieces of memorabilia being made available ,which fans of the Dels should not be The Last To Know about.

Among the raffle prizes are available are handwritten lyrics sheets, unique tour posters and laminated passes.

The auction includes tour jackets from 1990, a signed guitar, signed songbooks, and rare promo releases.

Michael Gomoll setup the charity in memory of his son Joey, who died in 2010 just shy of his fifth birthday after battling epilepsy his entire life.

He recalled: “I met Justin after a Dels gig in the mid 90’s in the States. I always loved the music and found myself backstage.

“We struck up a conversation about The Beatles and both had way too much interest and knowledge of The Annual Beatles Christmas Fan Club releases! We talked for a long time with various trainspotting Beatles topics and hit it off.

“At that time I was working for IBM and found myself in the UK very often, so whenever I was over there, we would get together and in the intervening 25 years have wasted many an hour together. Justin and the band have become friends. ’’

As a result of that friendship, Michael knew how much memorabilia Justin had stored away at home.

He recalled: “I got the idea last year when I saw some Del Amitri fans from around the world ask UK-based fans to buy them poster and t shirts from their 2018 tour.

“Having been at Justin’s house, I knew his garage was packed with boxes. I assumed they were full of old shirts, posters and various tour merchandise that I might be able to raise some money with.

“I flew over last fall and spent a couple of days in Glasgow.

“Those boxes were full of old notebooks and folders full of his handwritten lyric sheets and general scribbling.

“We spent a few hours pulling the good stuff! As we walked back into the house, he had all his tour laminates hanging on a door. I asked him for them, he handed them to me…I probably should have asked for the keys to his car!’’

As a Dels fanatic of some standing, Michael would love to keep the items for his own use… but knows the greater cause is more important.

Del Amitri fans all over the world can access the auction and raffle via ebay and just giving. The more people who know and bid the better.

Michael added: “For the obsessive fan, there are some great treasures.

“I would say the two Holy Grail pieces of the auction are a first draft of Be My Downfall, completely different verses and chorus and and his semi-final draft of Roll To Me.

“We have well over 20 Dels songs that we either have working drafts or studio drafts of lyrics.

“Besides the auction, we are doing a raffle as well, knowing not everyone can play the auction prices, and in the raffle, one of the 13 items is a studio draft of Drowned On Dry Land. An unreleased track from the Twisted sessions that became a concert fav.

“Besides the lyric sheets, we have those tour laminates as well as a rare, only a dozen made, tour jacket from the 1990 Aussie tour. These denim jackets were not available to the public and were given to band and crew by the promoter.’’

Joey suffered from a particularly heinous form of epilepsy called Dravets Syndrome. Joey’s Song was started after his death to raise money to fund epilepsy research and support services for families fighting epilepsy and those with children with special needs.

Michael added: “We are 100 per cent volunteer, no paid staff. Every penny we raise goes to making lives better for the families that our named charities support.’’

The auction will be run via eBay and the raffle via GoFundMe.

The connection to both can be accessed at http://joeyssong.org/delamitricharityauction/