THE name of Teignmouth has travelled across to India where it is now proudly displayed on a newly-built well in Tamil Nadu.

Local indie-art-rock band Basement Jerks have succeeded in their ambitious endeavour to have a new fresh-water community well built in India following a series of sold-out musical extravaganzas in Teignmouth.

The band of friends – Patrick Cairns, Kevin Terrill, Simon Dow, David Barbot and Eddie Fowler – together with a network of collaborators, have raised funds over the years for various charities including the Helen Foundation and Support4Co.

They then turned their attention to the task of helping an entire community on another continent.

It took the Basement Jerks just two events to raise the necessary £2,500.

Their ‘Bollywood Party’ featured the band as well as an Indian dance workshop led by professional performer and teacher Aanchal Gupta.

A second themed event – ‘Turning Japanese’ took place in February this year and turned out to be one of the very last social events before lockdown.

On this occasion the Jerks were joined by the Kagemusha Taiko drummers from Newton Abbot who performed and ran a hands-on workshop.

‘The provision of fresh drinking water to an entire community seemed like a wonderful cause to fundraise for – and was one that was very close to the heart of Patrick Cairns, our bass player, who sadly passed away in July,’ writes Kevin.

‘We all wanted to use the funds raised for a specific project rather than just donate them to a larger charity – and Patrick was delighted that we managed to achieve our goal.

‘We hope that some of us will even visit the village to build on the existing connection.’

To find out more about the project visit https://drop4drop.org/projects/kadirvedu/