A well-known English pop band has written a song for a new Cumbrian children’s book.
Right Said Fred has joined forces with children’s book author and illustrator Tim Stead, 51, of Silloth, to help promote his upcoming book Dinoshakes and Bellyaches.
Tim was inspired to reach out to the band – best known for their hit song I’m Too Sexy – after spotting his seven-year-old step-daughter Anntonia’s love for children’s music on YouTube.
Tim said: “There’s a lot of ferocious competition when you’re trying to get your book out there and in the past to promote my books I’ve done celebrity readings, but I wanted to take that to the next level.
“I remember I was sat one night and Anntonia was on YouTube and she was listening to music really loud and I said can you turn it down sweet and she said yes, but asked me to come and watch one with her first.
“So I did, and it was a famous kids track, and I looked down at it and it had millions of views and I thought, that’s it, a kids track would be great for the book.”
Tim went on to make contact with guitarist Fred and lead-singer Richard through the band’s social media.
He added: “I knew right away I was going to ask them as they follow me on social media. I said to our Lucy ‘I’m going to do a pop song for kids’ and she said right and I said ‘I’m going to ask Right Said Fred’ and she just looked at me blankly and said are you off your head? But I said no, it’s worth a try!
“So I got in touch with them and sent the book through and they loved it and thought it was a great idea and project.
“I was just amazed, absolutely amazed to have them say yes.”
Tim said that he wanted the song to be similar in tone to songs like Black Lace’s Agadoo.
He added: “They got in the studio and asked me what direction I wanted to go in and I said I wanted it dancey, quite fast and a bit folky with ukuleles and things like that.
“I also said to Fred to be honest, I want it to do the mums and dads head’s in. The song Anntonia plays does my head in and it makes you say oh not this song again.
“I wanted that but I wanted kids to absolutely love it, because if the parents hate it, the kids love it even more.
“So they went away and did it and came back with a demo and it blew me away. I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it has turned out.”
Tim’s step-daughter Anntonia also had the chance to sing on the track with her classmates Sophie Henderson and Eleanor Anderson.
He added: “Fred said to me would you like any kids to sing on the track, so I got my daughter and her two friends to do it. It had to be done in a certain way with timing but we got it spot on and they put it in the track.
“That’s made it even more special as it represents Silloth and to have three local girls on the track with these iconic lads who are massive in Germany and Europe is just so great.”
Dinoshakes and Bellyaches is Tim’s 14th book and follows the story of four dinosaurs who go on a quest to find something good to drink and end up discovering how important random acts of kindness are.
It is his second book to be published professionally by Pegasus Publishers and follows in the footsteps of Iplay which Tim created with Britain’s Got Talent finalist Francine Lewis.
Tim added: “I want to put Cumbria in the spotlight with this song. I’d love for people to go on holiday and hear it and have kids out on the dance floor with parents who are thinking ‘oh god not this again’ but when they’ve had a few gin and tonics they’re up singing and dancing when the kids are in bed.
“Those kind of songs go on forever and are always on at parties. We actually debuted it at my mum’s 70th birthday last weekend and everyone was up and dancing, it was just great to see.”
Dinoshakes and Bellyaches is set to be published in August this year and the song is set to get a professionally animated music video beforehand.
You can find out more about Tim’s work on his Instagram.
