A charity single has raised £12,000 for Senghenydd’s National Mining Memorial, which was unveiled last month.
‘A Miner’s Song’ features a host of stars from the musical, acting and sporting worlds with singer Aled Jones, Britain’s Got Talent winner Paul Potts, boxer Joe Calzaghe and Hollywood star Ioan Gruffudd.
The song also features more than 300 local musicians, choirs and bands from around South Wales including BTM Brass Band, The Gentlemen Songsters Choir, The Richard Williams Singers, The Aber Valley Male Choir and one hundred and twenty school children. The bass guitar on the song is played by World renowned musician Pino Palladino.
Welsh composers Daniel and Laura Curtis are behind the song.
Daniel said: “The support we’ve had from the Welsh public along the way has been fantastic.
“This song just goes to show what can be done when a Welsh community comes together from across the world. What is amazing, is that such a line-up could normally only be achieved by the big labels such as Sony or Universal.
“Instead, a group of sponsors kindly donated a £4,000 budget for us to work with. After that is was up to Laura and I to do our best to write a song that people would like, and persuade some of the biggest Welsh names in Hollywood to take part.”
Laura added: “In the end none of the stars took much persuasion, they were proud to pay their respects to their mining heritage. Although for Dan and I life descended into madness, as we worked at least 12 hour days, working with London, New York and LA Agents in their respective time zones simultaneously.
Dan and Laura, as well as all the performers taking part gave their time free of charge. Daniel said: “The amount of fees that have been waived amounts the hundreds of thousands of pounds, so we really are so grateful to all the performers.
“With some of the artists who took part, they could normally request £20,000 to perform one song.
“We hope that the CD will continue to sell far into the future and continue to contribute vital funds to the continued upkeep of the Welsh National Mining Memorial.”