I started supporting other businesses while networking. It was the ideal way to show what I could do. So I asked business owners to put me in touch with charities who might appreciate and be able to use a jingle, free of charge.
The first to want to collaborate was Val at Business Against Poverty. She wanted a custom cover song to explain what it is Business Against Poverty did. I wrote lyrics over three well-known songs and sent a recording of me singing them. Val chose Volare in the style of the Gypsy Kings.
Later the same year, I was put in touch with the Brain Tumor Support charity. They run a Sparkle campaign where people are encouraged to get dressed up and raise money through community activities such as running, or a coffee and cake event. They wanted an original song and used it at the end of the event to capture different ‘sparkly’ photos that had been sent to them.
I met with the Ian, the founder of the Stan Bowley Trust to see what I could create for them. One of their money-raising campaigns is counting steps to represent the distance Stan Bowley had to travel to get cancer treatment. Asking volunteers to count and record their steps, is a brilliant a meaningful way to raise money for cancer treatment technology to be available in the UK. One of the campaign slogans was ‘Best Foot Forward’, so I used that, along with Ian’s request that it should be a realistic, but hopeful call-to-action song. I found doing research for the song very interesting and awe-inspiring what the charity was doing.
I have no doubt there’ll be more charitable songs in the future, including a song in celebration of Off The Fence‘s 25th Anniversary. They help homeless and vulnerable people in Brighton & Hove. It was a pleasure to collaborate with them. As Off The Fence’s Sara is an excellent singer they wanted to perform the vocals themselves, so I have left the composition in their care.
