Charity single – Let the rainbows shine, in memory of swimmer, Susan Taylor who sadly lost her life attempting to swim the English channel whilst raising money for charity. Susan was 34 years old, and had a lifelong ambition to swim the channel. Being the wonderful, selfless person she was, wanted to use this opportunity to raise money for two charities. The proceeds from this single will go to one of Susan’s chosen charities – Rainbows, a children’s hospice. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england…

The song was composed a while after a plaque (words by P Ferrier) was raised in her memory, some of the words making up the lyrics in the song.

The song is to raise awareness and funds for Rainbows Hospice

VISIT https://www.rainbows.co.uk/

DONATE https://www.rainbows.co.uk/donate

The song is performed by Chique ABBA Tribute https://www.abbachique.com/ iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/album/id15764… Apple music http://itunes.apple.com/album/id/1576… Spotify https://open.spotify.com/album/6Q1oep…

How the song was composed

Several years ago, a friend rang me one morning, quite upset, and asked me to see if any news was available on the internet of a friend of theirs who had set off to swim the English Channel. All I could find was a French news site, which I translated, but the news was not good. She had died during the attempt. She was SO close, about one mile (22 is the full distance). My friends family (as a lot of people I know) were all knew Susan quite well , her son a training partner, and he was also updating the twitter/facebook feed during the attempt.

News articles of the time http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23315992and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-25868095

A while past after this and I had the idea to use an undeveloped song I had, and use it for a tribute song, but it seemed it was still a little too soon after the event. A couple of years passed, and my friend told me friends and family had raised money for a memorial bench in Dover, with a dedication plaque.

After reading this, I thought it would be a good idea and the right time to develop the memorial in song, some of the words form the basis of the song, they seemed to motivational

The First part of the song was complete. But Susan was such a energetic lively person, the song needed a uplifting second half. Inspired by the BBC choir program, a gospel style ending was arranged featuring Rainbows, a charity Susan was raising money for.

The song ends with a guitar power chord symbolizing dying energy and the clicks of two pebbles being struck together. it was Susan’s intention to bring back a French pebble for the children, and one of her motivations for pushing on with the swim through the hardest parts, the jelly fish and the rip tides.

It took a while to proceed with the project due to health issues of the composer, but eventually a recording was made, Rainbows the charity consulted and consent granted from Susan’s family.