Lindisfarne drummer Ray Laidlaw and comedian Jason Cook asked me to write a piece to start the opening of the 20th anniversary of Sunday for Sammy - a bi-annual charity event featuring the cream of the North East's music and light entertainment industry - including Sting, the Auf Wiedersehen Pet lads, Chris and Rosie Ramsey, Johnny Vegas, Trevor Horn, Joe Mcelderry, Denise Welch and directed by the legendary Geoff Wonfor (Channel 4's The Tube and The Beatles Anthology).
...so absolutely no pressure.
Despite this daunting prospect, I found writing the piece incredibly cathartic, as I am a North East nerd deep down - always banging on to anyone outside the region about the cultural importance the North East has played in the identity of Britain.
The piece was perfectly narrated by Tim Healy, scored beautifully by the composer Alexander Proudlock, and sumptuously filmed by the incredibly talented lads at Unified Films - who turned my love letter to the North East into triumphal piece of film.
The film was incredibly well received - both at the concert and after it was released into the world - being shared and viewed many thousands of times.
Round Here
By Scott Tyrrell
It’s not easy being from round here
where the struggles are real and the grit is true
It’s in the people we are and the work we do
We make our own warmth and we brew our own charm
And we’re gruff and immediate but we live to disarm
The Summers are wet here, and the winters are foul
Even the Romans threw in the towel
But our triumphs are savoured and always hard won
It’s what we’ve always done round here
Here
Where growing up is done in back lanes
kicking balls against walls and being out in the rain
and teetering about in Mam’s high heels
and getting chastised for being late for meals
and learning to give it as well as you take it
and trying to fake it until you make it
because round here silver spoons don’t come by the tonne
and some chances are over before they’ve begun
It’s not easy being from round here
But look at we’ve done
This is where Swan lit the lightbulb
And Wouldhave built the Lifeboat
Where Gormley built an angel
and Barbour made a coat
Where Cookson wrote tales for the working classes
where the lads are hard but not as hard as the lasses
Where Stevenson laid the first tracks in Britain
Where Skellig and Horrible Histories were written
Where Hull and Sumner wrote songs that inspired
Where Fender’s Hypersonic Missiles were fired
Where the Donald brothers came up with the Viz
Where Grace Darling showed what courage is
Where Knopfler and Healy practiced till their fingers bled
Then filled the world’s stadiums and knocked ‘em dead
The home of Get Carter and I, Daniel Blake
and Millican and Laurel and the Stottie Cake
Where Shearer and Longstaff and Millburn scored
Where Sir Bobby became revered and adored
This place of docks and world-famous yards
Where hard men with hard hands and hard jobs worked hard
on monsters made of iron and steel
then spat them out the mouth of South Shields
This place that moved on when the ships moved out
This place that knows how to cope with a clout
That picks itself up out the rain and the wet
and knows how to say Auf Wiedersehen pet
This place is unbeatable, it’s wild and alive
and its people know how to survive and thrive
and keep going until the day is won
It’s not easy being from round here
But look at what we’ve done.
The Sunday for Sammy 20th Anniversary DVD is available at JG Windows.