UK singer fundraises for Bulawayo club

FORMER Toy Dolls member Pete Zulu is aiming to pack more than a trunk to boost a project sending educational items to Bulawayo.
MUSICAL DONATIONS-...(from left) former Toy Doll Pete Zulu project director Les Watson and musician Ken Hewitt at the Black Horse in West Boldon
MUSICAL DONATIONS-…(from left) former Toy Doll Pete Zulu project director Les Watson and musician Ken Hewitt at the Black Horse in West Boldon

SUNDERLAND – FORMER Toy Dolls member Pete Zulu is aiming to pack more than a trunk to boost a project sending educational items to Bulawayo.

Pete, 59, who sang backing vocals on the Sunderland band’s 1984 hit, Nellie The Elephant, is instead helping to fill a metal cargo crate – by appealing for donations of musical instruments.

Along with thousands of other items, they will be shipped to the Bulawayo Youth Contact Centre, a further education school in the city, to boost its plans for learning.

The Classroom in a Container initiative, inspired by South Tyneside College governor Les Watson, who worked at centre in the 1980s, was launched in November.

It is now just weeks away from embarking on its 5,500-mile trip from the UK.

Other donations include books, desks, chairs, computers, printers, guitars and amplifiers – but there is room for more musical equipment.

Pete, a founding member of the Toy Dolls, got involved through his friendship with Les, 64, and musician Ken Hewitt, 53.

Both socialise in the Black Horse pub in Rectory Bank, West Boldon, which Pete runs with his partner Sarah Reid.

He said: “To give people the instruments to play music and the tools to learn is a wonderful ambition. We especially need an electric bass guitar.” – The Shields Gazette