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Artist News
Hillsborough report impacts on singles chart
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 17 September 2012
While lots of industry types might have expected last week’s Mercury Prize shortlist to have an impact on this week’s charts, I’m not sure many would have predicted that the publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel report would have a bigger impact.
In fact, other than Alt-J going up fourteen places in the albums chart, the Mercury shortlist has had no real impact on that top 40 at all, possibly because by publishing the shortlist in September, one of the busiest times of year for big new releases, any uplift in sales resulting in the Mercury hype will have a less noticeable impact on the higher echelons of the chart.
However, in the singles chart Gerry And The Pacemakers’ version of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ has charted at number twelve, following an online campaign initiated by Liverpool MP Steve Rotheram and backed by Liverpool FC fans and supporters of the families of victims of the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy, who are hoping that the revelations in last week’s report will help them achieve their long-held ambition for ‘justice for the 96’.
The Gerry And The Pacemakers version of the Rogers & Hammerstein song, adopted by Liverpool FC more than any other football club as an unofficial anthem, is, of course, generally considered the classic version of the track, especially on Merseyside. And, according to Rotheram, Gerry Marsden has said that he will donate any royalties he receives from new sales of the song to Hillsborough-related charities.
Rotheram tweeted: “People have asked what they can do now. If you download ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, it will send a message to the rest of the country. Just spoke to Gerry Marsden who is supporting YNWAno1 and will donate any proceeding to Hillsborough charities. Great gesture. Great man”.
There was, of course, a charity record released in the wake of the Hillsborough incident, again in aid of charities supporting victims and their families. It was a cover of another Gerry And The Pacemakers hit, ‘Ferry Across The Mersey’, involving various music types of the day originating from Merseyside, including Marsden himself, and The Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney and Pete Waterman.
Though that’s not available via iTunes, nor as good as the Pacemakers version of ‘Walk Alone’, so Rotheram’s campaign was probably the right one.
