Arthur Brown, the God Of Hellfire himself, has hooked up with as number of fellow musicians to record a version of House Of The Rising Sun, the classic folk tune popularised by The Animals in 1964.
Working together under the name Arthur Brown’s Crazy World of Lockdown, the musicians – who also include former Big Country bassist Tony Butler and Fairport Convention’s Dave Pegg – hope to raise awareness of the Help Musicians charity, and independent UK body for professional musicians of all genres.
"One thing can lead to another, and in this case it did," says Brown, who recorded his vocal at home while on lockdown. "We wanted to be proactive in supporting a charity that has supported so many of our friends and colleagues across the music industry during this most difficult of times, so we are delighted to be working Help Musicians. They do an amazing job."
“Help Musicians is spending millions of pounds right now supporting the thousands of musicians who cannot make ends meet," says Help Musicians Chief Executive James Ainscough, "so we are delighted that Arthur Brown and many other musicians, music lovers and music industry figures are fundraising for us.
“As other parts of the UK economy are given the green light to reopen, a return to capacity for the live music sector still seems a distant prospect. Musicians will need direct financial help from the government for many more months to come.
"The current Self-Employed Income Support Scheme leaves many musicians unsupported and, when it ends, even more will only have Universal Credit to turn to, which does not provide a level of financial support to sustain people over the long-term."
Ainscough continues: "The music industry is a crucial element of the UK economy and we have all seen the true value of music to connect us and lift our spirits during lockdown. We all need to rally round and do what we can to support musicians over the coming months.
“The government must do more to help the music industry, which currently generates over £5billion a year to the UK economy. It’s so much more than supporting an industry in its time of need – it’s a critical investment.”
Joining Brown, Pegg and Butler on the recording are keyboard player Josh Phillips, session sax player John Altman, The Dirty Strangers’ Alan Clayton on guitar (playing a guitar that Keith Richards used during the recording of The Rolling Stones classic Exile On Main Street), Sadie And The Hotheads drummer Terl Bryant, and session musician and producer Paul Mitchell.
House Of The Rising Sun will be released on July 24 on all streaming platforms. All proceeds will be donated to Help Musicians.
