Wigan music group Merry Hell's moving song and video for health workers

A Wigan folk-rock band has written and recorded a touching tribute to the front-line heroes of the NHS.
Merry HellMerry Hell
Merry Hell

Merry Hell released the video for Beyond The Call, a song written by guitarist John Kettle praising the work of the health service and the people risking their own health and lives to look after coronavirus patients.

The words of the song reflect on the current situation of most people being ordered to stay at home before sending “thanks and admiration” to “those whose occupation is to hold our trembling hand”.

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The band is also joined by the Social Isolation Choir and Key Worker Chorus, made up of friends of the band and the musicians’ family members, some of whom are current NHS employees.

Merry Hell’s manager Damian Liptrot said: “John just wrote the song one night because it was the way he felt and it was put out as a demo video.

“There was a huge response so we decided we would do it as a band version.

“Everybody is immensely proud of the job our doctors and nurses are doing at the moment.

“We’ve been hugely humbled by the response so far.

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“It’s just a musical thank you from Merry Hell. Our message is support our NHS in any way you can.”

The video features several of the band members performing their parts to Beyond The Call in lockdown.

They are then joined by the massed voices of the band’s relatives and fans who recorded themselves singing along to the chorus and sent it back to Merry Hell.

Originally the idea was just to have a backing chorus but the musical results of the filming, much of it done on mobile phones, was so impressive that when creating the final track John put the choir on its own singing at one point.

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The images also reflect the theme of gratitude to the NHS as it features the band members singing within a frame, with the rest of the space occupied by photographs of key workers.

It is not the first time Merry Hell’s music has backed health-related courses as Lincolnshire Refugee Doctors, a group which supports medically-trained arrivals to the country and integrates them into the NHS, uses the song We Need Each Other Now by the band as its theme.

Beyond The Call is online to view now. Go to www.facebook.com/MerryHellBand

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