I remember the Hillsborough disaster well. I was sitting in the pub with my boyfriend, listening to the football on the radio, when the report came in that someone at the FA Cup semi final between Liverpool and Notts Forest had died. We were shocked. This was football … people didn’t die at football. We couldn’t quite take in the events as they unfurled, and later that evening, as the horror of what had happened finally hit us, we hugged each other and sobbed.
There are some disasters that affect you more than others, because you have a personal link to the events. For me it’s Zebbrugge (we’d recently been to Holland and Denmark on the ferry), Dunblane (I had a young child) and Hillsborough – because I am and always have been a football fan, and at the time of Hillsborough I regularly attended matches. What really hit me was that it could have been any ground, any match, any fan – perhaps even me.
When the news broke in the summer that the cover up had finally been revealed I was pleased – because the families of those that died so badly need to get justice. So when I heard that a group of artists had recorded the Hollies’ song He Aint Heavy to raise money for charities related to the disaster, I had to buy it. OK I’d also like to stop the X Factor winner getting the Xmas number 1 too – but justice for the Hillsborough victims is a charity I can really get behind.
So the favour …. please buy the song. It’s less than a quid, at least 50% of that will go to the charities, and it might even get to number 1. You can get the MP3 from Amazon
And if you’ve not heard it yet, here it is.
