Timed to follow Wootton Bassett receiving its Royal status, the project is the brainchild of Wiltshire mum of two, Tracey Rogers, whose brother, Captain Mark Hale, was repatriated after being killed by an IED whilst evacuating an injured soldier in Afghanistan in 2009. Having now completed the single and accompanying video, Tracey explains: “I first had the idea for a charity single in June this year. I wanted to do something meaningful that involved as many people as possible from this wonderful community to remember my brother and other fallen heroes, to mark the end of an era of repatriations through Royal Wootton Bassett and also to raise much needed funds for military charities that focus on supporting bereaved families and also help and support wounded servicemen and women”. Although repatriations no longer pass through the town, the community of Royal Wootton Bassett are continuing to support families and soldiers by raising funds through sales of the single and video and will continue to remain in close association with military families.
Having secured the support we needed to get the project off the ground, Richard Sutcliffe our Music Producer and Sound Engineer recorded the single using local musicians and singers together with two choirs and over 200 people from the town, the recording and mixing of the track took place in Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Box, Wiltshire with additional recording in St Bartholomew’s Church in Royal Wootton Bassett and has been mastered at Abbey Road Studios.
The accompanying video for the track features over 1000 local residents. From our singers and musicians, skateboarders, the Junior Town Crier, sports and youth groups to British Legion repatriation bikers and standard bearers – everyone played a part in the video, which used the iconic Royal Wootton Bassett high street as the back drop. It is visually stunning, beautifully mastered and at the same time extremely moving. For more information on cast and crew, please visit the IMDb page
The project has had fantastic support both locally and nationally; the single was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios and mastered at Abbey Road. The music video was filmed using a Red One camera to give a cinematic quality and has been mastered to cinema standard by Dolby. The video was directed and produced by Mark Kenna co-owner of Dreambase Studios in Royal Wootton Bassett and the Director of Photography was Ross MacKenzie owner of Firebird Films in Swindon. Dreambase also completed 100% post production including 5.1 sound mix, edit, grade and DCP for cinema.
The single and video can be downloaded NOW from iTunes, Play, HMV, Amazon, Napster, Spotify, 7digital. You can purchase t-shirts, writstbands and pre-order your limited edition DVD form the Wootton Bassett Rocks website. Charitable donations can be made by the general public via SMS texting RWBR11 and the donation amount to 70070 or at the JustGiving website. You can follow our progress on the Facebook page or follow the project on twitter
If you have any projects you would like us to get involved with, please email mark@dreambasestudios.com. We look forward to hearing form you.
