Crown Oil Arena stars as Gracie Fields song is brought to life!
Rochdale Borough’s Museum collection and Local Studies archive held at Touchstones are filled with football memorabilia from the local area. Old photographs of local school, church, industrial works and village teams sit alongside silverware for tournaments that are no longer contested.
And then there is Gracie Fields.
In amongst the song sheets, the old 78 rpm records and the photographs of Gracie in football gear athletically kicking a ball, were the words to a song – Pass! Shoot!! Goal!!!
It was a gift for artists Neville Gabie and Alan Ward, who are currently undertaking a community engagement project.
From the very beginning, Ward and Gabie had a clear desire to re-record the song and for it to be interpreted and sung in several languages, including British Sign Language, by communities currently living and working within the Borough.
They imagined the terraces at Spotland coming alive with the sounds of different voices, an idea that has been realised in this new video and audio recording of Gracie’s original song.
Earlier this year representatives from Deaf Rhinos, Nigeria Community Association Heritage Cultural Group, Rochdale Retirement Choir, Members of the Edwin Waugh Dialect Society with Jennifer Reid, Saliah Begum and Peter Latham and the Rochdale branch of the Ukrainian Association all descended on the Crown Oil Arena to play their part in recording the special song.
You can see hear/ see the outcome of the project/ song at Rochdale Touchstones from now through until 26 June 2022.
