First there was Band Aid, then Live Aid. Now it’s SCHOOL AID. In the small Wiltshire village of Broad Chalke, a revolution is brewing…

DGM has launched SCHOOL AID to help save the local primary school. 

Although the recording features Tony Blair’s own favourite guitarist and well known ex-Broad Chalke inhabitant Robert Fripp, this is not a gathering of guest celebrities. It is made by proud locals for the good of the community - the opening lines are sung by a local builder and his daughter, and the song ends with the massed ranks of Broad Chalke school in full chorus.

As keen diary readers may know, earlier this year, one of the classrooms at Broad Chalke School burnt down, thankfully without any injuries. However, despite consistently high ranking in Ofsted’s league tables and a playground filled with mobiles, it is still scandalously £400,000 short of the money it needs to build a new school. The primary has tried to raise money through the building of houses alongside the new school site, but this has been rejected by the planning authorities, leaving teachers and pupils bemoaning, in the words of the song:

Our classroom burnt down this year, Mr Blair

There are cows grazing where our school should be

If we had the money…

Where’s the money, Mr Blair?

There’s no room in the playground Mr Brown.

SCHOOL AID is not, however, party political, nor is it limited to one school. Realising that the plight of Broadchalke school is far from unique, we have included an instrumental version of the song – encouraging other schools to add their own words, in aid of their own local appeals. There is already talk of a Welsh language version –

“Ble Mae’r Arian, Mister Blair?”

All of which would be meaningless if the record was not good. But, of course it ias good.  And you can contribute $2 to a worthy cause by downloading and finding out.