Brighton businesses release Christmas single for children's charity

A Hove recruitment firm has launched a Christmas song to raise cash for Rockinghorse children's charity.

Pier Recruitment teamed up with a host of Brighton businesses to launch the fundraising drive, with the hope of raising £10,000.

Katie Gibson, director of Pier Recruitment, came up with the idea of writing a Christmas song for Rockinghorse, as the company has a festive fundraising drive each year.

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The song, called 'Santa Stop Here', was inspired by Band Aid.

Quality Care Insurance got involvedQuality Care Insurance got involved
Quality Care Insurance got involved

Businesses that got on board include The Focus Group, Posh Totty Designs, Zsta Architects, Mercedes, Quality Care Insurance, Domestic and General, Cobb Digital, Holiday Taxis, Neilson Holidays and children from Bird Studios/BRICTT.

Emma Jones, marketing manager at Pier Recruitment, said: "In 2016, we visited The Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital where we witnessed the fantastic work of the charity and its partners' donations – first hand. It is also where we heard the sentence that soon became the epicentre of our 2017 fundraising project; 'sometimes children worry that Santa won’t know where they are when he visits, so simple things like writing a small note at the end of their Christmas list to explain where they are, really helps'.

"This statement really struck a chord with us. Whilst hospitals do everything in their power to make Christmas as festive and comfortable as possible, it is difficult to comprehend the difficulties it must present families with.

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"So, in January 2017, we decided to do something that would really stand out. Something that hasn’t really been done in Sussex before. Something that we hoped would really raise awareness of the Charity and the amazing work they do… so we concocted the crazy idea to write a ‘Band-Aid style’ Christmas Charity Single to mark the Rockinghorse Charity’s 50th anniversary – how hard could it be?"

Zsta ArchitectsZsta Architects
Zsta Architects

Work started on the song in Spring this year, and they soon got plenty of companies on board wanting to sing on the track.

In September, the doors at North Brighton Recording opened and recording commenced, filmed by Soren Pople managing director of Huga Digital Marketing.

Emma said: "Despite their initial reservations, we have been assured that everyone involved thoroughly enjoyed the studio experience (despite a few initial nerves) and that they would love to do it all again! Whilst we were unsure about how successful the majority of their singing careers would be, it was refreshing to hear that the project was already proving to be successful and enjoyable and that the participating companies were fully behind us in taking the venture through to completion."

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The song was officially launched last Wednesday (November 22) at an event at the Grand Hotel Brighton, where £1,285 was raised towards the project, adding to the £4,000 already raised by the businesses singing on the track.

Katie Gibson of Pier Recruitment at the song's launchKatie Gibson of Pier Recruitment at the song's launch
Katie Gibson of Pier Recruitment at the song's launch

The music video is now on YouTube, where there is a number to text to donate to the Rockinghorse appeal.

So far the song has raised £5,885.

To donate, text PIER17 and the denomination of your choice (including £ sign) to 70070. For example: PIER17 £5.

To find out more, visit: www.pierrecruitment.co.uk