Paolo’s guitar is a Buddie brilliant 21st birthday gift for lucky son Nairne
A young Buddie is beaming after winning an incredible prize donated by Paisley icon Paolo Nutini.
Nairne Clark is the proud new owner of a signed Fender acoustic guitar, signed black and white photograph, signed limited edition vinyl, a signed limited edition poster and lunch for four at the Last Night in the Bittersweet singer’s dad’s Castelvecchi restaurant.
Paolo will also host a meet and greet with Nairne.
The keen music fan had to not be hasty in waiting for his 21st birthday present.
His mum, Karen, had bought him a ticket for Coachella Music festival just before the pandemic struck, leaving Nairne unable to claim his gift when the festival was cancelled.
Karen spied the Buddie Don’t be Hasty auction posted by the St Mirren Charitable Foundation on December 15 last year and entered with the hope that she could win for her son to finally get a gift to remember.
The auction was an offshoot of the charity’s Festive Friends initiative.
Festive Friends tackles food poverty and isolation amongst some of the most vulnerable people in Renfrewshire at one of the hardest times of the year.
It delivers a cooked meal, festive treats and a gift to isolated people and families in financial crisis on Christmas Day.
St Mirren Charitable Foundation’s CEO Gayle Brannigan had asked Paolo if he could donate something to their fundraising efforts for Festive
Friends, but the singer was away and by the time he had returned Festive Friends was nearly over.
But with the generous musician keen to support, Gayle set up a quick one-off 12-hour auction, and Buddies went mad for it.
“It had huge traction, I had people messaging me going ‘Gayle, any chance you can rig this for me to win it’, and I said ‘absolutely not! You’re on your own!’ It was so popular, it was brilliant,” Gayle told the Express.
And the money raised from the bids, not only helped fund the foundation’s events on Christmas Day but also a Festive Tea Party for older people on December 29.
Gayle continued: “The winner was a lovely lady called Karen. It’s a lovely story.
“Her son Nairne, just before the pandemic turned 21 and Karen had organised a trip to Coachella Festival in the States for him because he’s a big fan of Frank Ocean who was due to play, but obviously the festival was cancelled.
“But Nairne is also a big Paolo fan and when Karen saw the auction going up she thought well since you never got your 21st birthday present, maybe this can be that, and they won!
“He was delighted, they came in to collect the guitar and everything else, he was absolutely delighted.”
Karen and Nairne collected the prizes at the end of last month and are set to organise a meet and greet with Paolo in the near future.