RADIO DJ Graham Mack has helped raise more than £15,000 over the past year after forming a band on the air.

The former BRMB and TFM host, who now works for BBC Wiltshire, created the group with the chief executive of Swindon Council.

The band started when he interviewed Gavin Jones from the council on his show one morning last April.

During his research, Graham discovered that Gavin was a rock guitarist, so at the end of the interview he produced an electric guitar, plugged it into a Marshall amp and said to Gavin: “Let’s see how good you are.”

Gavin did not shy away and his playing, live on air, impressed Graham enough for them to get together and form a band.

The idea was they would only play gigs for charity and have fun at the same time. Gavin brought in two old musician friends of his, Damian Pinguey on drums and Tim Collier on bass, and now the four-piece regularly play classic rock songs including tunes by Cream, Free and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

In 12 months, the gigs have raised £15,164 for Wiltshire Air Ambulance, Goldenhar Syndrome, Lights for Learning, Swindon Carers, Prospect Hospice, Willows Counselling Service, CALM – Swindon Children’s Cancer & Leukaemia Movement – and many others.

Gavin said: “It has been great fun and all the gigs we have played have been for charity, which has been the nice thing.

“That interview with Graham was the most bizarre ever. I went in for a tough interview about council cuts and then it ended being handed the guitar, which I have now bought.

“We have had a lot of fun performing together. I think we were all nervous to begin with but we have come on since then and we are now getting some good reviews.”

The Graham Mack Rock Band’s first anniversary gig will be an outdoor concert in Swin-don Town centre on April 21.

They will be raising money for the mayor’s charities; The Open Door Centre, The Rowdy Bunch and Football In The Community.