A Cumbrian children’s author has formed an unlikely partnership with a chart-topping band to help launch his latest book.
Silloth based, Tim Stead has enlisted the help of 90s favourite, ‘Right Said Fred’ to write a song for his new book, ‘Dinoshakes and Bellyaches’.
Inspired by the catchy songs listened to by his young daughter, Tim reached out to the group who agreed to pen a song which would ‘drive the adults crazy’.
“I was watching TV one night, and my daughter sat on the couch with her iPad playing these kids songs, pretty loud,” said Tim.
“She came over and she played me this kid's song and this thing had nine million views and I thought, that's it - I need to produce a kid's song.
Tim had previously been followed on social media by Right Said Fred, so he decided to reach out to them and they agreed.
“I messaged Fred, and I said, would you be interested, and he said, let me have a word with Richard, who's the singer in the band.
“After seeing the book, they come back to us and said, yeah, we'd love to work on this too.
“It was absolutely mind blowing.
“I asked them to produce something that will do parents’ heads in which will only make the kids love it more.”
The group went away and working on a demo track which they ‘knocked out of the park’ according to Tim.
During the recording process, Right Said Fred got in touch and asked if any local children would like to be on the track and Tim’s daughter and two of her classmates and neighbours from Silloth are featured on the track.
“When they recorded the track and I heard it for the first time, I just thought that it was exactly what I wanted and even better than I had ever imagined it to sound,” said Tim.
“The guys were just fantastic and everyone that I’ve shared it with instantly say it’s definitely catchy.”
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An animation video is being created to go with the song and it will be available as a download track and can be viewed on YouTube.
The book itself follows four dinosaurs on their quest to find something nice to drink and is a morality tale based on small acts of kindness,
The book, which is Tim’s 14th, is being released later this summer.
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