By Leicester Mercury | Posted: July 06, 2013
When Keely Moreton painted a picture of Kasabian stars Tom Meighan and Serge Pizzorno a few weeks ago, she promised to auction it for charity if it ever got signed. And after bumping into Tom at a cash machine, she is now doing just that.
When the 38-year-old told the singer about her painting, he went back to her home in Clarendon Park, Leicester, and endorsed it straight away.
Keely is now auctioning the picture to raise funds for the LOROS hospice and has already received a bid of £250.
"I saw Tom at a cash machine in Queens Road on Thursday and told him about it," she said. "He came round and was here for about 20 minutes.
"He was lovely. He's a really nice, approachable person – not rock starry at all.
"He said he thought the picture was fantastic and he was looking at all my other pictures as well, eyeing up The Beatles ones. He said the pictures were great and that The Beatles were the best band in the world."
Kasabian fan Keely copied the picture of Tom and Serge from an NME cover.
She told Tom she had seen the band live a few times – but had to make do with listening to their weekend headline gig at Hard Rock Calling on the radio.
"Tom asked for my opinion on how they did at Hard Rock," she said. "I said he was very good. I said I was disappointed with the radio coverage that kept saying it was 'live and uninterrupted,' though, because the radio station didn't seem to understand the irony of that."
Keely studied art at A-level but only recently took it up again as a hobby.
She has already recreated several iconic images – including pictures of Twiggy, Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher.
"I started again a few weeks ago," she said. "I was just bored and decided to do some painting.
"I did the Kasabian picture for myself but I said I would auction it if it got signed. I'll have to do another one for the wall, now.
"I can't run to save my life but this is something I can do to help a local charity. They looked after my aunty and my cousin and I just think it's a great charity."
LOROS senior fundraiser Adrian Walker said: "It's absolutely fantastic that someone as talented as Keely has done a painting like this and then put it up for auction to help the patients of LOROS.
"I'm amazed at how well the bidding is going so far – hopefully, she'll do even better as time goes on."
The auction ends at 8pm on Friday.
To put in a bid, visit the LOROS Facebook Page:www.facebook.com/LOROShospice
