Pop goes Christmas with DIY albums

MUSICALLY-minded youngsters from Rotherham have been writing and recording their own albums in a bid to raise valuable funds for charitable causes in the run-up to Christmas.

In two separate projects funded and managed by Groundwork Dearne Valley’s Turning the Corner (TTC) initiative, groups of girls have produced self-penned CDs which have now gone on sale just in time to catch pre-Christmas trade.

They have already raised £350 for good causes and hope the total will rise even higher.

The first group is made up of four Year 11 students from Wingfield School.

Megan Williams, Ellie-Rose Jackson, Claire Woodburn and Yasmin Middleton, all aged 15, teamed up in March to form the band Rebels and Fighters and decided to write and record their own album relating to their own and friends’ life experiences.

Working alongside TTC youth worker Carole Foster and Matt Ellis of Bass2Beat, a new recording and rehearsal venue hosted by Herringthorpe Valley Youth Centre, the singer songwriters laid down their album self-named album Rebels and Fighters.

Funds raised from the sale of the CD will be donated to Cancer Research UK.

Megan said: “It was really good fun and an inspiration writing and recording the album, but it was quite emotional too as the lyrics were about different issues in our lives that had an effect on us.

“It made us more determined to let out how we feel about certain things and enjoy ourselves more and more every time we write new songs.

“Also the people close to us had a great impact too, they believed in us to do very well and knew from that very moment we began that we are all talented.

“It’s great to see the CDs on sale.

“I hope plenty of people buy them as they make great Christmas stocking fillers and the money raised goes to a very worthwhile cause.”

In a separate venture inspired by Rebels and Fighters, a group of Year 7 girls from Winterhill Young People’s Centre have also been getting in touch with their musical side.

The youngsters—Melissa Foster, Anna Kinbaid, Gracie Kilby, Reanna Bowdler and Beth Harper—were were so touched by the plight of Ben Williams, a young local boy who has severe mobility and communication difficulties, that they approached

Carole Foster at Groundwork Dearne Valley with the idea of writing and recording a single to benefit the charity Ben’s Footsteps to Independence.

Song for Ben was also recorded at Bass2Beat will be on sale alongside Rebels and Fighters at S & N News in Fellowsfield Way, Kimberworth, and the YMCA shop at St John’s Green in Kimberworth Park.