Campaigners hope for Christmas Number One with pop classic song fundraiser
Reporter: Ken Bennett
Date published: 29 October 2019
The Councillors, left to right: Sam Al-Hamdani, Jamie Curley, Paul Errock, Stephen Hewitt and Duncan Goodman.
FOUR councillors have united in song to boost a fund aimed at saving a community’s beautiful valleys from a major housing development.
The novel idea to record the classic sixties hit, ‘Hey girl don’t bother me,’ was the brainchild of Paul Errock, a member of the Save Our Valleys committee.
Paul, a singer with the Million Billion Band for ten years, deliberately chose to record the 1960’s hit, “Hey girl don’t bother me,” because it was non political.
And along with four councillors, from opposing political parties in Oldham Council and Saddleworth parish council, they formed a group, The Councillors.
They are Stephen Hewitt (Labour), Sam Al-Hamdani (Liberal Dem), Jamie Curley ( Conservative), Duncan Goodman(Independent) and Paul himself (Proud of Oldham and Saddleworth).
And after an initial consultation with the Performing Rights Society (PRS) Paul was granted a worldwide music licence, contracted to Concord Music Group in Nashville, Tennessee, to re-release the single, originally recorded by The Tams in 1964 and written by Ray Whitley.
Said delighted Paul: “I have always loved Tamla Motown Music and the song is non political.
“My ambition was to unite all political parties and actually put differences to one-side and do something together for the good of the community and the constituents.
“Currently, our SOV funds stands at £22,000 towards legal fees estimated at £44,000 to mount the challenge at a judicial review.
“I told the publishing group we were to raise £22,000 in order to Save The Valley, which is the last countryside and wildlife habitat of it's type in our community.”
He then received a call from Los Angeles who commented: “You got Republicans and Democrats to sing on the same song for the local environment? Gee, that's great!”
Said Paul: “ I explained we had different names for the parties here and to my amazement, they granted us worldwide music license copyrighted to Concorde Music Group.”
The councillors filmed a video shoot at Film Studios, Rochdale, and after intense days in the editing suite, the release date planned for Friday, November 1.
Cllr Hewitt said: “It started as a joke and I agreed thinking it was a nice idea but never expected it to happen. Paul worked really hard and got two years exclusive rights from Concord Music Group.
“The other borough and Parish Councillors agreed and we did it for fund raising for SOV."
Ward councillor Jamie Curley, who is also chair of Saddleworth Parish Council, said: “We are showing a united front to bring attention to the Save our Valleys campaign and the wider issue of protecting our green spaces.
“And in addition, showing that, believe it or not, we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Hopefully, we will raise some money for the campaign.
“Who knows you may see “The Councillors” challenging for the Christmas Number 1 spot.”
And Paul added: “What makes our campaign different from many others, is we are funding a legal challenge that will stop the loss of much cherished countryside and wildlife habitat, which is disappearing at an alarming rate here in Saddleworth and Oldham, and the UK.
“This is the chance for people to make a real difference. Donate £1 or more via BACS and send the video on to 10 friends of have similar views, and we can get the additional £22,000 our Judicial Review Legal Costs require.”
The video, with bank details, will be available on You Tube, Facebook, Instagram and other social media channel from Friday November 1.
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