Wigan musician's song featured in new film

Rik Jones, from Newtown, spoke of his honour at having Walk A Mile In My Shoes selected for the soundtrack of new production 7 Days.

The film is about the inspirational exploits of Dave Heeley, a Birmingham father-of-three who in 2008 became the first blind person to complete a gruelling challenge of doing seven marathons spread across the continents on seven successive days.

Rik, who regularly plays at Wigan venues and has had a couple of albums of his songs released, said the opportunity to be included in the film came about by chance after he started looking for opportunities to showcase his talents a bit further afield.

By a roundabout way which has left Rik amazed at how things sometimes work out, his singing and songwriting abilities came to the attention of Dave himself and then the film-makers at Pixel Revolution putting him on screen.

Rik, 28, said: “It’s strange how things like this happen. I got in contact with a radio station in Scotland connected to the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) asking if they played unsigned artists.

“They passed me on to another guy and we did an interview for his online radio and podcast and he then got talking to Dave Heeley.

“He rang me back and said Dave was looking for a song for this film about his life. I had something already done from my second record which I thought would be suitable so I sent it to see what he thought.

“A few hours later he said he loved it and would pass it on to the production team.

“The song is based on the saying. It’s about having to understand what someone is going through, but it’s also quite open to interpretation.

“It’s a massive achievement for me having this song chosen. Things like this don’t happen every day.

“I’m just very lucky because I didn’t write the song for the film, it was done way before that.

“It’s just nice to have it picked. They told me they asked lots of artists and music makers but it was my song they wanted. It’s good recognition for me.”

Walk A Mile In My Shoes comes from Rik’s second full-length release The Hotel With No Name, from 2017.

The album closer, it is an unusually stripped-back number which just features Rik’s voice and guitar.

Rik worked with Stephen McNally, from the band BBMak, to put the album’s 10 tracks together.

Walk A Mile In My Shoes will feature at a key moment in the short movie which has its premiere in Birmingham on February 1, an occasion Rik and his family are looking forward to attending.

As well as his astonishing seven-marathon challenge Dave has also done a 700-mile bike ride between Zurich in Switzerland and his home city in the Midlands.

He was a torch bearer during the Olympic relay in 2012 and in the same year appeared in the opening ceremony of the London Paralympics.

His exploits have been recognised by, among others, transport company National Express West Midlands which in 2012 named one of its fleet of buses in his honour.

For more information about Rik visit rik-jones.co.uk and to find out about the film go to www.pixelrevolutionfilms.com