Ian Brown - Not Made of Stone!

Following an online auction, a bid of £641 was received for the concrete slate, containing the singer's hand print and autographed alongside the winning bidder, Stacey from Birmingham, pictured with her boyfriend, Lee (right).

Virtual Festivals: How did you find out about Sight Savers?

Ian Brown: I saw it in the Observer. Fifteen pounds a time will pay for a Cataract operation to save eyesight in the Third World. I thought that was ridiculous, fifteen pounds for eyesight. A gram of coke's about sixty quid, I think.

How do you think others can be made more aware of this?

People that might be famous can help raise awareness. It's such a small price to pay and there's so much wastage in the music industry. I would ask anyone who finds themselves with a spare fifteen pounds to make good use of it.

What message would you like us to send out to your fans and people who may read this?

Give thanks if you've got sight, and please think, when you're wasting your money. When you're out at night, try keeping fifteen pounds back and send the money in to Sight Savers!

Will you extending your involvement with the charity?

I'd love to go out and visit the actual places where the money goes to use. I'd love to witness the Cataract operations and see just how much good such small amounts of cash can do.

No one gives a shit about the people in the third world; society strcutured such as it is that we don't give a fuck about the poor. But we want them all fed and we want them all to be able to see. It's a small price to pay, fifteen quid, that. It doesn't make sense to me. Poverty's deliberate, innit?

It's tough for all charities, y'know, I don't think people really are 'for' charities.

Do you think people are deliberately keeping a divide going between the rich and The Third World?

Yeah I think that the only reason it's there is because it's deliberate innit? Mexico should be a First World country, but they'd deliberately kept it poor. There's many countries with many natural resources that could be helped and brought along by others.

South Africa's apartheid regime fell and I've seen it, so I believe anything can change. That was the most brutal regime and it fell, it just gave up, so I believe anything can happen to any governemnet and any system in society and we have the power to do that.

What can normal people do to incite change?

Just believe.