There was a memorial for our good friend Rob Skipper in December 2015. It was an emotional evening and a very fitting tribute to a wonderful young man and talented musician who did a great deal for the Joe Strummer Foundation over the years.

An amazing £960 was raised on the night. The family and friends of Rob wished for this money to go towards something specific so we thought what better than to put it towards buying a new laptop for the studio in Sierra Leone where WAYout Arts are producing some exciting new music with the disadvantaged and street youth in Freetown.

“WAYout works with street and disadvantaged young people. We have had over 2000 in the free music studio, supported by the The Joe Strummer Foundation, and having access to create music has changed their lives. Some go on to become musicians and others simply find that having that recording enables them to return to their communities head held high.

The laptop in the main studio is over four years old and has been used every day, sometimes 16 hours a day, for that time and now it is crashing and stumbling. Just before Christmas it corrupted a whole drive of material which we could not recover. We were in desperate need of a new one.

Now we have one and can carry on our work, reliably and without fear of crashing, and continue to produce music for some of the most disadvantaged young people in the world. There is 60% youth unemployment in Sierra Leone and through our work we bring skills and hope where there was none. Thank you very much for your support.”

Thank you Rob, you’re a star x