Schaffer Raises Funds For Paralyzed Sixties Star Smith

LATEST: US TV host PAUL SCHAFFER is organizing two concerts and a celebrity auction to raise money for his idol, MIKE SMITH who has spent two years in hospital following a 2003 accident which left the Dave Clark Five frontman paralyzed from the waist down.

David Letterman's comedy sidekick, Schaffer befriended Smith after the singer broke his neck in a fall from a fence at his former house in Spain.

And Schaffer is devastated Smith is too poor to fund adequate medical attention, so has arranged two rock gigs at New York's BB King club on 2 August (05) to raise $100,000 (GBP56,000) for Smith and his wife ARLENE GOREK.

The American funnyman has also organised an online sale on auction website eBay next Sunday (31JUL05) which will include a drum head signed by former BEATLE Ringo Starr and house seats for British comic Eric Idle's hit Broadway musical SPAMALOT.

Schaffer says, "The Dave Clark Five was the British rock band in the 1960s that was right up against the Beatles - and Smith was the lead singer and the co-writer on most of their hits.

"There was Glad All Over, Bits and Pieces and Because - which is my wife Cathy's and my song. We both love it.

"Mike had been living in Spain, and he had this terrible accident while he was climbing over a fence, and now he's paralyzed from a spinal cord injury.

"I just want Mike to know that there are people who are aware of his contribution and love him. He's one of the unsung heroes of the British Invasion."