Musician raises cash in memory of Rory
Gig held in honour of ‘ loveable’ maverick
Musician Davie Anderson raised almost £ 300 at a gig earlier this year.
He played at the Black Bull Hotel in Straiton and raised money in memory for a well- known face around town.
He decided to take up a collection in memory of Rory Stevens who sadly passed away last year aged 52.
Davie said: “We raised £ 257.95 which I sent to the Scotland Branch of The Salvation Army.
“Rory was a great musician, actor and a talented, knowledgeable individual who was not so lucky in life.”
There was a slight delay with the Salvation Army but Davie now has the receipt acknowledging the donation .
Major Raelton Gibbs wrote: “It is wonderful that the life of Rory is being honoured in such a positive way. Please accept our heartfelt thanks, not only on behalf of the Salvation Army, but on behalf of the vulnerable people your gift will help.”
Rory’s father, Jim, said:
“It was very thoughtful of David Anderson to raise cash for the Salvation Army in memory of Rory.”
Everybody knew Rory Stevens. Rory was a very complex character. He could be polite, charming and respectful. He could be great fun, amusing and entertaining. He could be caring, warm and affectionate. He was a character, to be sure. Rory was highly intelligent, with an IQ of MENSA proportions. He had a way with words. He had read just about every book on the planet. “He read The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit anthologies from cover to cover when he was six. He had a full adult vocabulary by the time he was four. His father can remember him at this age accosting a lady in the street and saying, in his usual very polite way, “Excuse me, Madam, you are very fat but your ankles are nice and slim.”
Rory was inclined to wander from an early age. As a teenager he would do what the native Australians do and “Go Walkabout”. In his early twenties he went walkabout for over two years without warning and without contact.
During this time he was squatting on the south coast of England.
Soon after he returned home he was on his travels again, this time on a friend’s boat to Ireland. This he did without thinking and again without contact.
He spent the best part of a year camping and roughing it between Dundalk and Newry, and this at the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland. He was saved from injury on several occasions by the British Army but was still mugged and beaten.
Rory passed away a few months ago and most people will remember him as the entertainer, actor, and performer. He was a talented musician and a great mimic.
He did a wonderful Ian Paisley, Billy Connolly, and Sean Connery.
He could have made it as a standup comedian. He could have been an even better children’s entertainer.
He was born for the stage. He appeared in many school productions. He was a long- serving member of the Straiton Players, which became the Carrick Players.
He starred in innumerable plays and in the Gilbert & Sullivan operas held in the Civic Theatre in Ayr until the Carrick Players stood down in 1999 when Rory’s mother, Jackie, died.
Many other people will remember Rory for his busking in Ayr, at his stance on the Auld Brig.
Ayr’s current crop of buskers owe him a lasting debt as his father recounts after a phone call from the police in Ayr to say that they had arrested Rory for busking without a licence.
Jim told us: “When I got there, I found that they had impounded his guitar and the offending hat in which he had collected money.
“But more than this, every coin that had been put into the hat had been individually sellotaped to a very large sheet of paper.
“This sheet of paper probably measured one metre square. This was to be the evidence to support the charge. I challenged them about the absurdity of all of this but they really were going to ask the procurator fiscal to take up the case against him.
“Charges were dropped and the byelaw requiring buskers to have a licence was abolished shortly thereafter.”
Rory never worked for a living. When he was young he had a few odd jobs but they always came to nothing when his unreliability and wanderlust intervened.
But there was the other side of Rory – he was kind, caring, warm- hearted, generous to a fault, talented, funny, entertaining, more sinned against than sinning.
Ian Gall, pastor at Riverside Church, where, for a time, Rory participated in Care and Share, said:, “He was a special person – highly intelligent, creative, warm, thoughtful and kind.
“Rory was one of our Care & Share originals – one of the first to start coming along and participating on a regular basis. He was always considerate of others and grateful for any help offered or given.
“At times he seemed to make some real progress but sadly his mental health made him vulnerable to behaviours which in turn had a further negative effect on his health – it was a vicious circle.
“His kindness and thoughtfulness towards others was sometimes taken advantage of by associates who pretended to be friends.
“Still, Rory’s problems did not define him. I always smile when I think of Rory.
“He was a one- off. Loveable, gregarious, insightful and shrewd.”