£1,100 in Lee’s memory

A CHARITY football match in memory of a young dad from Dundee has raised almost £1,000.

Lee Welsh, 27, was found dead at his Peddie Street home in the city’s West End in August 2017.

Last year, Lee’s childhood friend Steve Martin organised a memorial football match, which raised more than £1,000 for the Dundee Association for Mental Health (DAMH).

A follow-up match was held at North End Park on Saturday.

L e e ’s m u m L e s l e y Nicoll said it raised just over £900.

She added: “Combined with a bake sale held by a family member at their work, in total we have recently raised just over £1,100.

“The money is going to Art Angel on behalf of the Not in Vain for Lee charity. We are very grateful for everyone’s generosity.”

Lesley is now planning to undertake a charity abseil at Dundee University Tower on August 18 to raise more money in her son’s name. A MUSICAL theatre student from Monifieth said he has been “blown away” by the response to his performance in a Dundee pub – after a video of him singing a song from a hit musical went viral.

Finlay McKillop was at the Clep Bar in Clepington Road on Friday evening for a friend’s stag do when he stepped up to the mic to perform.

The 20-year-old performed two songs to friends and punters in the pub – Nessun Dorma, from Puccini’s opera Turandot, and Bring Him Home, from the musical Les Miserables.

Finlay said: “The response I had in the bar on Friday was amazing. Everyone was really respectful and silent when I was performing.

“You don’t tend to go on a stag do to hear a bit of opera or songs from a musical, so to see everyone enjoy my performance was nice.”

Clep Bar licensee David Evans shared several videos of Finlay’s performances to the pub’s Facebook page, with his rendition of Bring Him Home receiving more than 35,000 views.

David said: “The response on our Facebook page has been phenomenal.

“I only started running the bar at the start of the month and Finlay’s performance was really well received by our patrons.

“We’ve invited Finlay back to perform in the near future and hope we can share more videos of his talents.”

It’s the second time this year a video of Finlay performing has gone viral.

A clip of him busking in Reform Street gathered more than 127,000 views back in May. Finlay said: “It’s been great to see another video of my performances going viral. It means I must be doing something right while I try to develop my craft.”

Finlay’s friend and groom-to-be Paul Sullivan is in Dundee band Roadrunner, and decided to set up a PA system in the bar so his friends could take turns performing throughout the evening.

He said of Finlay’s performance: “It was fantastic. Finlay is some talent. Everyone in the pub gave him a standing ovation. I’ve asked him to perform both pieces at my wedding on August 2.”

Despite all the online attention, Finlay says getting his musical theatre degree from the Emil Dale Academy in London is still his main focus.

He added: “I want to hone my skills until I’m industry ready.

“Performing on the West End is my ultimate aim.”