Neil Kulkarni: Family issues thanks for cash

Neil Kulkarni, pictured with daughters Sofia and Georgia (right), died in January

Thanks have been issued to donors to a fundraiser to help the autistic daughter of late "genius" music critic Neil Kulkarni.

Former Melody Maker writer Mr Kulkarni, 51, died suddenly in January, his bandmates from Coventry's Moonbears said.

His daughter Sofia, 18, lives in Coventry, but goes to college in Stratford-upon-Avon and gets "really bad anxiety" on public transport.

Mr Kulkarni's other daughter Georgia, said support had been "absolutely staggering".

A GoFundMe appeal has raised more than £8,800 out of a target of £10,000, set up to pay for a private taxi to take Sofia to college for her final year.

Before he died, Mr Kulkarni had driven her there and back four days a week, but Georgia works in Manchester and has "to work to support us now".

Their father died in January five years after the women lost their mother to cancer.

"Like her dad, [Sofia's] a massively talented musician and she's studying at a college that my dad fought really hard to get her into," Georgia said.

"She absolutely loves it and that is her escape, kind of, from the grief that she's feeling at the minute.

"She's got a close, tight group of friends and drawing her away from that would just completely tear her world apart even more."

'Thanks so much'

At the moment it is costing more than £100 for a return taxi journey to college for Sofia.

Georgia said she thought a lot of money had been raised through her father's friends, but "complete strangers" had donated as well.

"I just want to say, 'Thank you so much from the bottom of our heart'."

The campaign was originally set up by two friends, Emily Pierce and Keren Harding.

As well as a writer and musician, Mr Kulkarni was course leader of music journalism at the BIMM Music Institute in Birmingham, and was also a lecturer in Coventry, his home city.

Music journalist and author Simon Price posted on X he had been left "devastated", by Mr Kulkarni's death.

"A genius writer, one of the finest music critics ever to do it," he said.