Radio legend George Bowie is thrilled his tribute to frontline workers is heading for the charts tomorrow – because it’s what they deserve.
The song, GBX and Sparkos’ cover of David Bowie’s Heroes featuring singer Stephanie Cheape and backed by the Daily Record and Clyde 1 FM, shot up the iTunes chart on release last weekend.
And the video – featuring frontline staff at work – is out today on George’s Facebook page.
George told us: “We were hoping it might go top 100 on iTunes so for it to go to No11 on the main UK chart was nuts. Tomorrow, it would be nice to be in the UK top 40 and top 10 in Scotland.
“It wasn’t about that, of course, but it shows the appreciation of what the frontline workers are doing for us is there.
“The reaction has been incredible and the chart position is about recognising our frontline heroes, not us. The response from frontline workers has been amazing, we’ve had lovely messages.
“So many stars are tweeting telling people to download it too. Footballers, pop stars, Martin Compston, Sam Heughan, Kyle Falconer...
“Scott Brown, the Celtic captain, sent us a message saying he loved the song, Lewis Capaldi’s dad was talking to our boss at Clyde and said Lewis loves it too.”
George’s production partner Sparkos – real name Marc Anderson – said: “This is by far the most exciting thing I have worked on. But we knew it had to be different to appeal to the masses. Dance music isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.”
Stephanie Cheape jumped at the chance to be part of the song.
She said: “Music can create positive change and I’m so proud to put my name to this. We knew Scotland would get behind us but we are blown away by the response.”
The video for the song features frontline staff at work, after Clyde 1 and the Daily Record asked them to send pictures to a special Whatsapp number.
Stephanie added: “Thanks also to everyone who has helped us on this – from David Forbes who mastered it to Dave Glover who did the video and Garry Aird from my band.
“George, Marc and I put our heart and soul into this because it is quite literally life or death.”
