IT'S coming up to a year since 15-year-old Dan Nolan vanished on a late night fishing expedition at Hamble - but his pals at Southampton's King Edward VI School are keeping the faith that their missing friend will be found.

Yesterday Year 11 pupils put Dan's case firmly back in the spotlight by staging a lunchtime rock concert at the Kellett Road campus to raise funds for the Find Dan Nolan appeal.

The music came from a group called Blind Summit whose members are Johnny Poole, James Joyce, Lewis Adamou and Ed Bartlett.

But the concert was backed and promoted by a much wider circle of Dan's friends who wanted to mark the January 1 anniversary of his disappearance and raise the profile of the case.

Fifteen-year-old Dave Charnley said: "We all know Dan pretty well and we wanted to keep the awareness going.

"We were all upset to start with but it has got easier as time has gone on. Everybody has been really supportive which has helped.

"Dan has really been missed during the year. He is good fun, friendly and has a good sense of humour. It would be amazing for us to be able to welcome him back."

Dave added that Dan's pals were waiting to see how the lunchtime concert went with a view to staging a follow-up bigger event with more bands outside of school hours.

Judging by the support given to the school gig, a bigger event may well be on the cards.

One hundred tickets were sold for the Blind Summit rock concert and the audience, comprising students and staff were urged not to give up hope.

Also in the audience was Dan's mum, Pauline, who told the Daily Echo: "It is just fantastic that all Dan's friends want to do something positive to find him - you can feel the energy and support.

"It goes to show how much he is missed and how everybody wants him home."

l Every state secondary school in the country now has a poster of the missing Hamble schoolboy thanks to a book based on the play Dan Nolan - Missing which was written by award-winning playwright Mark Wheeller and premiered by Oaklands Youth Theatre in Southampton last month.

Mrs Nolan said the book's publishers had contacted all 5,000 state secondary schools notifying them of the book's availability and had included a missing poster featuring Dan's picture.