Hull to receive 50 giant rat sculptures to honour Spiders From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson

It has been reported that 50 rat sculptures are set to appear in Hull in honour of the late guitarist Mick Ronson.

The giant statues – which will stand at six-feet-tall – will create an art trail across Hull and East Yorkshire. Ronson was born and raised in Hull in 1946.

Prior to gaining fame as David Bowie‘s lead guitarist, he joined the British rock band The Rats in 1966.

Ronson then went on to play on iconic and influential albums such as Bowie’s 1972 concept album ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ and 1973’s ‘Aladdin Sane’.

He went on to work with massive rock icons such as Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and more. Ronson passed in 1993 at the age of 46 after battling liver cancer.

Titled “The Mischief of Rats”, the sculpture trail is set to be installed in April 2025 and will be open to the public starting in May 2025 for three months.

According to The Hull Story, businesses and organisations who are local to Hull have been invited to sponsor a rat for £4,500 – which will help cover the costs of developing, creating, managing and promoting the trail.

The sculptures of the rates are set to go up for auction in September 2025, in hopes of raising up to £250,000 for the charity The Daisy Appeal.

Rick Welton, one of the project directors, shared:  “This is the most radical animal sculpture trail yet,” (per the BBC). “[It] will raise much needed funds to support the vital work of the Castle Hill Hospital based charity, The Daisy Appeal, which helps advanced and detailed detection of cancer, heart disease and dementia through highly advanced PET-CT scanning techniques.”

Welton added that past trails had “proved highly successful” and attracted thousands of visitors to the region. According to trail organisers, previous trails such as the Larkin with Toads raised over £60,000 for charity while A Moth for Amy garnered £85,000 and The Puffins Galore project raised nearly £120,000. Artists will be invited to submit designs for each rat sculpture later this year.

In other news, Brian Eno previously spoke about his “powerful” David Bowie collaboration ‘Get Real’ which he reworked as part of a new climate change album project.

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