Queen’s Brian May and The Who join Grenfell Tower fire benefit single
The Who’s Roger Daltrey & Pete Townshend and Queen’s Brian May have all contributed to a charity single raising money for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.
Music mogul Simon Cowell has personally assembled an all-star collective of musicians, dubbed Artists For Grenfell, to record a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’.
Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend arrived at Notting Hill's Sarm Studios in west London yesterday afternoon to record their parts alongside a string of pop stars ahead of the single’s release on Wednesday (21st June).
Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Pete said he knew some of the victims and had personally “written some cheques” to help them out.
“I know people that lived in the building - I know four families. They were Spanish,” Pete said.
“They’re not OK. A mother lost her daughter, two little girls were in comas. So I’ve been right in there helping with those families.”
The guitarist, who grew up in nearby Shepherds Bush, continued: “A little Spanish girl in there studied the piano - they got a piano up 10 flights and of course it’s gone now, so I managed to get her a piano.
“The families that have got away have got the most trouble now - its trouble for all of us. I hope this helps.”
Roger Daltrey added: “Simon (Cowell) asked us to be involved and we’re here because this is the area we grew up in. It borders on where we grew up as kids - it’s pulling the community together.
“There’s a lot of things been said over the last week that I think have been divisive, and the whole of the community is trying to pull this one together. That’s what this is about.”
Meanwhile, Brian May recorded his guitar parts in Anaheim, California where Queen & Adam Lambert are rehearsing for their North American tour, which kicks off in Arizona on Friday (23rd June).
> Job done ! Guitar parts played tonight on the Queen stage where we're rehearsing in Anaheim - close to Los Angeles, California. Simon Cowell's team are working on the track in Sarm Studios - close where the Grenfell disaster happened - and a studio where so much of our old material was recorded. Through the miracle of Digital encoding, this will be transmitted tonight and will all native ready to be laid into the London backing track, along with the vocal overdubs. This is a great cause - all credit to Simon for pitching in - and of course this is my neighbourhood too - so I had to volunteer my services to help the families who are suffering so much. The plan is to release this track on Wednesday - just a week after the fire. Bri > > A post shared by Brian Harold May (@brianmayforreal) on Jun 18, 2017 at 10:24pm PDT
Writing on Instagram, Brian said: “Job done ! Guitar parts played tonight on the Queen stage where we're rehearsing in Anaheim - close to Los Angeles, California.
“Simon Cowell's team are working on the track in Sarm Studios - close where the Grenfell disaster happened - and a studio where so much of our old material was recorded. Through the miracle of Digital encoding, this will be transmitted tonight and will all native ready to be laid into the London backing track, along with the vocal overdubs.
“This is a great cause - all credit to Simon for pitching in - and of course this is my neighbourhood too - so I had to volunteer my services to help the families who are suffering so much. The plan is to release this track on Wednesday - just a week after the fire.”
This coming Sunday (25th June) at 7pm, Brian May is hosting his very own one-off show on Planet Rock where he’ll be playing his favourite Queen tracks, recounting stories from over the years and discussing his brand new stereoscopic photo book 'Queen in 3D'.