A modern-day warrior
Mean mean stride
Today’s Tom Sawyer
Mean mean pride
The Sheffield-born singer performed at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969
Cocker, pictured here at Los Angeles airport in 1972, had shot to fame in the 1960s
Cocker's duet with Jennifer Warnes Up Where We Belong won a Grammy and an Oscar
Cocker was recognised with an OBE for services to music in 2007
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NewsBrian May & Kerry Ellis team with Virginia Mckenna for 'Nothing Really Has Changed' - Track To Benefit Badger Vaccination Fund
Queen guitarist Brian May is launching a new music video, collaborating
not only with his long-time singing partner Kerry Ellis, but also with
legendary British screen actress Virginia McKenna.
The track is a haunting version of Virginia McKenna’s original song “Nothing Really Has Changed”.
The release of the track forms part of May’s hard-fought campaign to
oppose the continued slaughter of thousands of Britain’s badgers under
the Government’s ‘roll out’ of the cull which would see the killing of
thousands of mostly healthy animals.
It was recorded during Ellis and May’s live performance at the recent
Montreux Jazz Festival, as part of their ‘Acoustic By Candlelight’ tour,
and the video for the song is now available to view on YouTube here
and to buy on iTunes here.
All profits from the sale of this track will go to the 'Sponsor Badger
Vaccination Fund'. Viewers can also donate to the Fund on YouTube.
Both compassionate animal rights campaigners, May and Virginia McKenna
met at a Hay-on-Wye literary festival some years ago, where they were
both presenting lectures. They were drawn together through the
wildlife work of Virginia’s BORN FREE Foundation, formed in 1984 to
fight for to keep the world’s wild animals in the wild, and May’s
Save-Me campaign, created as a voice for Britain’s wildlife, especially
foxes and badgers, both threatened under the present government’s
agendas.
Impressed by the work being done by the BORN FREE foundation to fight
animal exploitation and to protect and conserve threatened species,
particularly Africa’s magnificent lions, May and Ellis flew out to work
in Virginia’s South African reserve, Shamwari; and Virginia reciprocated
by committing her energies to supporting Save-Me’s campaign to save
Britain’s badgers. This created a permanent bond between the two
campaigns, both now signatories to Team Badger.
May and singing partner Kerry Ellis have played two highly successful
UK concert tours to promote and benefit the Born Free Foundation.
Now Virginia’s song, recorded by May and Ellis, is being released to
highlight the plight of the badgers whose families have been devastated
by the recent ‘pilot’ badger culls in West Somerset and Gloucestershire.
May comments: “The so-called trials are going ahead despite fierce
public opinion, under conditions of secrecy - nobody is allowed in the
areas of the cull, and no photographs may be taken - and with absolutely
no form of public accountability. The Government continues to ignore
the whole scientific community, and the view of the public. The cull is
a disaster as was predicted; it was never on the cards that culling
could eradicate bTB – only vaccination can do that. Nobody benefits –
certainly not the farmers, or the taxpayer. The Government has
plunged, blinkered into this mess. So, after all this, what will have
changed ?”
Virginia’s song, ‘Nothing Really Has Changed’ is the perfect message for this time.
Says May: “Virginia McKenna wrote this beautiful song about 30
years ago. It never really saw the light of day, and when we all met up
in Africa, Virginia said it would be fantastic if Kerry could sing it,
and I could make an arrangement to make that happen. We performed it on
tour with a background of badger rescuees, and it perfectly conveys the
sadness of the pointless and barbaric killing of these highly
intelligent native animals."
Virginia McKenna, through films including “Carve Her Name In Pride”, “A
Town Like Alice” and “Born Free”, became a household name and one of
Britain’s most loved actresses. She says: “ How touched I am that
the visuals behind my song, ‘Nothing Really has Changed’ are images of
one of the world's most beautiful creatures. A creature that is being
controversially killed, in parts of our country, under conditions of
secrecy. It is almost impossible to believe that, one day, badgers and
their families may no longer roam the countryside - their home, just as
much as it is ours. Should this happen, it may look, but it will never
be, the same. Once it has gone you can never put nature back, and
badgers will not be the only losers.”
Click here for Sponsor Badger Vaccination.
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