Sunderland musicians feature among celebrity interviews in new Lockdown Tracks book

Lockdown Tracks, which is a collection of thirty-four music-based interviews carried out during lockdown, features the likes of Sir Tim Rice and Steve Cram; ex Sunderland players John Byrne, Dick Malone, Ritchie Pitt and Martin Smith; musicians Rowetta (Happy Mondays), Rick Witter (Shed Seven), Johnny Bond (Catfish & The Bottlemen), Baz Warne (The Stranglers), David and Peter from Field Music, Barry Hyde (The Futureheads), Saffron Sprackling (Republica) and TV and media personalities such as Melanie Hill (Coronation Street), Henry Winter (The Times) and Pat Nevin (Match Of The Day).

All proceeds from the book, which is being published by ALS in Sheepfolds, go to Sunderland based NHS charities

Author, Giles Mooney, from ALS, said: “We’ve been bowled over by the support we’ve had on this project with our design and print contacts offering their services for free, or at cost. It’s a hard time for business right now, but it just shows the respect and support that the people of our city have for the NHS.

“The book itself began as an idea during the early stages of the first lockdown when I found myself listening to a lot of music and, as always with music, many tracks took me back to places, events and people from my past.

"That led me to wondering if others were doing the same and so we at ALS reached out to our contacts in music and football via Zoom and Facetime and chatted with them about their musical history. In a way it gave us something to do and a chance to catch up with some old mates, as there was no football on and little else to do.

"Before we knew it, we had enough content to publish our twenty first book release.”

Designer, Ross Palmer, had been made redundant during Covid, but took the knock back as an opportunity to set up his own design business, We Are Ken.

The award-winning designer from Fulwell, said: “I worked at ALS when I was at Uni and so I thought I’d get in touch with them when I

set up my new business and as a music and football fan was delighted to be involved with the project.

"Even though we had agreed a fee for the design, once I realised that all proceeds were going to NHS charities, I decided to offer my services for free. I just felt it was the right thing to do.”

Eric Stevenson MD at PBL Print in Chester-le-Street, said: “We’ve worked with ALS on other book and magazine projects for a few years now and although we have staffing and paper costs to consider during these tough times, we decided to offer to produce this great project at costs as we wanted to offer as much support as we could and we’re very proud to be a part of it.”

The book, which costs £10, is released this week and is available from the ALS Shop, opposite the Stadium of Light or online https://www.a-love-supreme.com/product-page/lockdown-tracks

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