Jingle Bell Brighton Rocks: Brighton supergroup releases charity single ‘Jingle Bell Brighton Rocks’ to help combat loneliness this Christmas
A Brighton Band Aid-style Christmas song and music video, featuring elderly legends Disco Pete and Dancing Ann and a host of celebrities, is raising funds for a local befriending charity.
All proceeds from sales of Jingle Bell Brighton Rocks by newly formed supergroup The Brighton Belles will be donated to Time To Talk Befriending, the Brighton and Hove charity founded by Emily Kenward to combat loneliness and social isolation.
The single is available to buy online for 99p on 7th December and can be downloaded from many music streaming channels including iTunes and Spotify. Further donations can be made on the Just Giving page.
Jingle Bell Brighton Rocks’ main star is Britain’s oldest raver, Sussex-born Pete Turner, 80, whose unbending passion for music and dancing has earned him many fans.
Elderly talent, Ann Tunstall, also features in the song. She wowed us all with her spontaneous grooving to a street busker’s version of ‘Let’s Twist Again’ on Brighton’s North Street earlier this year, with the video of her dancing going viral globally.
Other vocalists include local celebrities of Brighton and Hove: Pete Bennett (Big Brother winner), Stephen Webb and Chris Steed, Louise, Alex and Carol Michael (Gogglebox) and Guy Butters (former Albion and Spurs footballer).
Britain’s oldest raver, Sussex-born Pete Turner, 80, is the main star
The Brighton Belles want to encourage communities across Britain to befriend their elderly neighbours this Christmas. In Brighton and Hove alone there are around 7,000 elderly people who live on their own and don’t have any family or friends to visit them; as a result they are left feeling invisible, forgotten and desperately lonely.
Time To Talk Befriending trains volunteers, matching them with like-minded companions aged over 65. Charity founder, Emily Kenward, says: “We meet amazing older people every day who have a rich life history to share and we witness first hand how befriending can literally transform lives.”
Jingle Bell Brighton Rocks is a volunteer project organised by Juice FM’s Guy Lloyd and Timeless intergenerational event founder, Sophie Tanner. The upbeat Christmas single was recorded in Park Studios, filmed and edited by Ant Carpendale and Gaby Roos and produced by MC Cashback and Eds John.
Organiser Sophie says: “We feel blessed to have met Pete and Ann and are delighted to share this Christmas song with them. It’s heart breaking to think how many undiscovered Disco Petes and Dancing Anns are hidden behind closed doors, with mobility issues meaning they have less opportunity to meet new people. We want this song to remind people that even the smallest gesture of human contact can lift a lonely person’s spirit.”
To help older people who are alone this Christmas feel remembered and not forgotten please visit the link below and share and/or purchase the song.
