By Jenny Barwise

Published at 11:45, Wednesday, 23 July 2008

A GROUP of friends have raised £1,300 in memory of guitarist Barry ‘Baz’ Dunnery who died earlier this year.

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Organisers of The Bash for Baz, Buzz Elliott, Dave Tangye and Chris Smithson, presented the cash to Baz’s brother – It Bites frontman Francis Dunnery – at The Ship Launch, Egremont, on Friday night.

Egremont guitarist Baz, who played with Ozzy Osbourne, died last month after a year-long fight with cancer at the age of 56.

The charity tribute gig was held at Cockermouth’s Hunters’ bar and bands featured were The Bullfrogs, Off The Hook and A.N.Other.

Baz’s son John and his band Mad Dog Scone, who haven’t played together for almost 10 years, reformed for the event.

The money raised was donated to a children’s charity – www.ckdcf.org – set up by Francis on behalf of their mother and father. 

The charity helps the health and educational needs of children in the Egremont and west Cumbria area.

David Tangye, who helped organise the event, was a good friend of Baz and had known him since infants school.

He said: “Baz was a great musician from an early age.

“After Baz’s funeral, we got together for a drink and a chat about how much Baz had touched the heart and minds of people he knew, and a general consensus was that we should make the effort and put together a ‘Bash’ for Baz.”

During his life, Baz played with numerous bands in and around west Cumbria.

His first big break was playing lead guitar with the rock band Necromandus during the Seventies.

The group supported Black Sabbath in 1973, where they attracted the attention of fellow guitarist Tony Iommi.

Iommi went on to manage Necromandus for a while but resigned shortly afterwards because of his commitments to Sabbath.

Barry also became a friend of rock star Ozzy Osbourne, who once begged him to join his new band Blizzard of Oz.

He later joined Violinski who went on to have a Top 40 hit with the single Clogdance.

But Barry gave up the chance of a glittering showbiz career to go back to a normal life.

He chose to work as a joiner in west Cumbria – but never gave up his music.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk