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Athlete - News
Athlete Release Charity Single To Raise Money
| 07-11-2009 15:02 | 0 reaction(s) | add reaction | add news |
 When Joel Pott’s grandfather John died four years ago, the Athlete singer had a sneaking suspicion that he would eventually write a song in his honour.
Major John Pott, who led a company of paratroopers in World War II, died peacefully at 84 while visiting friends in London.
But he had lived what his grandson calls ‘an extraordinary life’, and Joel recalls being captivated by the tales of how his grandad escaped from a German military hospital
in 1944.
Songwriting inspiration was not immediately forthcoming, however, so Joel went about the business of concentrated on fronting London-based quartet Athlete until the idea of Black Swan Song came to him earlier this year.
‘My grandad’s death had a huge impact on us as a family,’ says the singer, who topped the charts with Athlete’s second album, Tourist, in 2005 and won a prestigious Ivor Novello songwriting award the following year.
‘I was inspired by his incredible life and I wanted to pay my respects. The idea came to me while I was looking out over the Welsh hills.
'I wrote the song from his perspective, firstly about his wartime experiences, but also about his longing to be reunited in heaven with his wife Anna, who had died a few years before him.
‘Saying farewell to him was sad, but the funeral was a moving celebration. His former comrades stood at the foot of by his grave in uniform to salute him, and it was a death without the usual gloom. I wanted to reflect that with a piece of triumphant music.’
Black Swan Song, out next week as a single, is a powerful tribute. A melodic ballad that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Coldplay album, it is also the latest example of a high-profile British rock act supporting the Royal British Legion, with all proceeds from the release going to the armed forces’ charity.
In contrast to the glitzy initiatives of pop’s big global telethons, we are now seeing a growing band number of contemporary musicians paying quiet, dignified respect to the men and women who fought in two world wars.
Already this year, Radiohead have saluted First World War I veteran Harry Patch, who died in July, aged 111.
Former Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler, too, used two tracks on his recent solo album, Get Lucky, to offer his own poignant homage to Britain’s battlefield heroes.
With the Royal British Legion also benefiting from Coming Home, the debut album by The Soldiers, three present-day servicemen who sing professionally in their spare time, the phrase ‘poppy appeal’ has suddenly taken on a totally new meaning.
For Athlete’s Joel, 30, such gestures are about keeping memories alive as well as raising money to help the injured and bereaved.
‘We all have grandparents who lived through the war and it’s important that their stories live on,’ he says. ‘With the Radiohead track, there was a strong sense of a generation, the First World War I veterans, that is now passing away.
‘The point of remembrance is to remind ourselves of the horrors that previous generations went through.
‘Black Swan Song is one person’s story, but it’s ultimately a song about love and the desire for peace. My grandad was a great supporter of the British Legion and I’ve inherited that from him.
'A new generation is making the same sacrifices today and they’ll need support for the rest of their lives.’
John Pott joined the Parachute Regiment in 1943 and fought at Arnhem the following Septemberyear, an engagement dramatised in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far.
The commander of A Company in 156 Battalion of the 4th para brigade, he found himself wounded and unable to walk after being hit by a bullet in his left leg.
With his thigh broken in three places, he lay injured in woodland for 20 hours and, thinking he was going to die, tried to write a farewell letter to his wife.
Picked up by three passing Dutch civilians, he received treatment in a German military hospital until his audacious escape bid.
‘Most of the soldiers in the hospital were in a bad way, so escaping wasn’t really an option,’ Joel says. ‘But my grandpa was an officer, so he thought it was the right thing to do.
‘Even though his left leg was in a cast, he managed to climb out of a window and swim across a river. He slept overnight in a barn and was given breakfast by a Dutch farmer. Although the farm workers eventually turned him over to the Nazis, he didn’t begrudge them that. If they’d been found harbouring a British soldier, they’d have been shot.’
John was subsequently transferred to a PoW camp, where he remained until his release by American troops in April 1945.
‘My grandad survived, but most of his friends didn’t,’ continues Joel, who visited Arnhem two months ago.
‘Of the 120 soldiers in his company, only 14 survived.
‘And, of course, if he’d been killed at Arnhem, neither my father nor I would be here today. His whole story shows just how fragile life can be.’
For Athlete, the single and recent album Black Swan mark a new phase in a career which that began with 2003’s Mercury-nominated Vehicles & Animals. Having left EMI last year, they have inked a new record deal with Fiction, home of Snow Patrol and Kate Nash.
They recorded Black Swan in LA with producer Tom Rothrock to add, in Joel’s words, ‘a little Californian sunshine’ to their quintessentially English sound.
‘It’s been a rocky road,’ says the singer.
‘There was an initial sense of euphoria after we left EMI, as we wanted to get off the label. Then, a few weeks later, the reality sunk in.
'Our future seemed uncertain. But being without a record label helped to spark us creatively. We knew we were a good band, so we just got on with it.’
Athlete are cementing their association with the Royal British Legion next Wednesday by performing live at the Silence In The Square in Trafalgar Square, an Armistice Day event that also features Mark Knopfler and Cerys Matthews.
‘We were invited to appear by the Legion,’ says Joel. ‘I don’t know what to expect, but it will be an honour to play there.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1225817/Athlete-release-single-honour-WWII-paratroopers-raise-money-Royal-British-Legion.html |
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