Wigan musician’s uplifting song proving to be a hit during pandemic

Scholes artist Joe Astley’s Anthem For The North is quickly living up to its name, thanks to its core message of sticking together through hardship, underpinned by positive lyrics like “I’ll survive ‘cause I’ve got Northern Soul”.

And the music video has also been a hit with locals thanks to its inclusion of landmarks like Trencherfield Mill, Wigan Pier and an Abbey Road-inspired crossing of King Street in the town centre.

Joe, 23, has been performing the track on the pub circuit for several years, but decided to produce it in a bid to keep the town’s morale high during the current crisis.

He said: “It’s been written for quite a while. A number of years ago, I wrote it in the back of The Raven pub, and I’ve been sitting on it for a while.

“Everytime I played it live, it went down a storm because it’s about Wigan, inspired by our home town. It has landmarks in there that people know.

“It was a bit of an anthem for myself, and I wanted it to be as big as I thought it deserved to be. It’s come at a perfect time. None of this was planned, but this is the time to give people the message to support each other. Northerners are a different breed, there’s no one quite like us. We have this strength that pulls us through the darkest of times, and that’s really relevant now.”

The track caught the attention of Wigan Warriors and Wigan Athletic, who this week used the song and its accompanying music video to promote their joint statement of support for the borough.

It has also been played on the BBC airwaves, and Wigan athlete Jenny Meadows even took to social media to reveal she had been listening to the song while out on her Government-allowed daily exercise quota!

Joe, who lives with fiancée Dannielle and eight-month-old son River-Ray, said: “I’m really pleased I’ve had the town behind me on this. It’s exactly what I wanted.

“I think it’s good if we can pull together through something like this because it’s going to get harder before it gets better.

“I hope the power of music can cheer people up.”

He added: “The video, we filmed all around Wigan. I wanted to get as many landmarks in as possible.

“I have a friend, Ryan Connor, who works all over the world as a videographer. It was his first music video and he’s done a really good job. It’s turned into something I never could have imagined. It couldn’t be any better of a message to send at this moment.”

Anthem For The North is available now on Spotify and iTunes, and the music video is available to view on YouTube.