(If you want to follow suit before 31 Dec 2023 get some further info here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ew0EjM1b5MQwS8QmmI-UHLuX8xYh49A8JLv1kA8cEVw/edit )
Dear Mr Manning,
As a popular music listener of several decades -more than I care to enumerate now!- I think it's important to draw your attention to what happened during The Big Top 40 Countdown on Sunday 24th December 2023.
During the Countdown, the song “We Tried” by Louise Harris was, very surprisingly and rather shockingly, not played. Perversely it was not announced as no.4. (Mariah Carey given out as no.6, nobody was called as no.5, Wham! was then wrongly stated to be no.4). A recap of the Top 10 was then made, during which Wham! was announced as no.5, and “Louise Harris - We Tried - re-entry” was announced as no.4, and no more than approximately 10 seconds of the song was played.
I've got to say: this came over as suspiciously like censorship wrapped around by a cock-up.
To be fair and more fully contextual: “We Tried” by Louise Harris was not the only song in the Countdown that wasn’t played in full. Jimin’s song “Closer Than This” was announced as no.26, and about 20-30 seconds of the song was played before moving on. Fred Again’s “leavemealone” was announced as no.21, but then the song wasn’t played at all – only 10 seconds of it was played during the recap of the 20s. And note: these are songs in the 20+ placings not the top 5.
So, my first beef with this is about the omission and shortening of songs in general during The Big Top 40 Countdown. If you're doing a ‘Top 40’ countdown, surely the point is to play all of the top 40 songs. And if you're not going to do so, then have a consistent and easily surmisable policy about it as the random-seeming approach heard on Christmas Eve is unfair on artists and on fans who have invested in supporting these songs – sometimes specifically to get them into the Charts, so that they are played on radio to the masses.
Beef no.2 is specifically about leaving out “We Tried” by Louise Harris. This was the only song in the entire Countdown that was not announced in its rightful place, at no.4. It wasn’t announced at all, in any place – other than during the recap of the Top 10. (Not to forget either that no.5 was mysteriously skipped completely, and Wham! was incorrectly announced at no.4 where Louise was meant to be).
It is very peculiar (or, as I wrote above, "suspicious") that, on the biggest music day of the year (the Xmas No.1 Countdown) on what is advertised as “the UK’s biggest chart show”, such a huge cluster of errors was made. It is even more 'peculiar' that, following the recap of the Top 10 whereby the correct Countdown was announced, the team including yourself as announcer did not seem to notice – nor point out – that this huge mistake had been made. Furthermore, when the Christmas Top 10 list was posted on social media, no apology nor explanation of the error was issued here either. At the very least this should happen and some act of reparation be made -like giving extra airtime to 'We tried' over the next month.
I'm normally a cock-up rather than a conspiracy theorist. However, given the maintstream media's more recent apparent alignment with current government attitudes, it's harder to dismiss the conspiracy point of view.I note that Louise Harris is an unsigned, independent and unknown artist, who was robbed of a huge opportunity for her music to be played to millions of people, who had never heard of her or her song before. This appears to be not only an injustice, but one that aligns with the interests of the big players in the music industry. Recall please that Capital and Heart radio stations both have listenerships of millions, and The Big Top 40 Countdown is advertised as “the UK’s biggest chart show”. Receiving radioplay like this can be the make or break of an unknown artist’s career – with their music reaching a whole new audience, of a whole new scale, for the first (and perhaps only) time.
“We Tried” is a song Louise wrote about the climate crisis, and what will happen if we don’t act. The powerful song and its emotive music video have already touched the hearts of so many people, mine included -the first time for a long time that a popular music chart entry has done so. I think it is important that a song inviting listeners to emotionally connect with the greatest existential threat humanity has ever faced should be played particularly in a season which has among its themes the recollection of the importance of doing good and paying attention to the poor and needy (including those directly impacted by climate change: Do They Know it's Christmas?). Assuming Louise is basically correct (and the scientific community concur) this is a song that could encourage them into collective climate action – which many see as the only hopeful solution left, given the inaction, and deliberate harmful actions, of world governments. And please don't brush this aside as somehow not being the concern of popular music: I've already alluded to the LiveAid single in the 80s, and we all know that a slew of well-selling (and airtimed) singles down the decades could be cited for their social and political commentary -as well as their sales!
If this song had been heard by millions of people, like it was meant to have been, this could have inspired millions of people to help to tackle the climate and ecolagical crises – which ultimately could have saved lives. One person dies every 28 seconds in East Africa due to famine, resulting from crop failure, caused by drought – an effect of the climate crisis. Over 50 million people are starving in East Africa. Right. Now. (Reprise my allusion to Live Aid).The more time that goes by without climate action, the higher the number of people who die unnecessarily. Therefore, preventing this song from being played, and its message from being heard, has hindered the possibility of lives being saved through climate action, and has allowed harm to continue to be inflicted on millions around the world due to the climate crisis. We are running out of time to prevent irreversible climate catastrophe, meaning every day gone by without climate action counts.
I personally felt angry and disgusted when I heard that “We Tried” was not played nor announced in its rightful place because. And yet I was somehow not surprised given the corporate apparent determination to deny, obfuscate or marginalise anything that seems to remind us of an uncomfortable and therefor inconvenient truth.
There is no way you could ever possibly fully make up for this act of omission, because the Christmas Countdown is the biggest one of the year, with the most listeners. That specific audience, and that specific opportunity, has now been permanently lost. However, there are certain things that you could do, to attempt to make up for this loss and injustice.
You could:
-Play “We Tried” by Louise Harris in full on your next Big Top 40 Countdown radio show.
-During this show, explain, and apologise for, the error that was made on the Christmas Countdown: no.5 was not announced at all, Wham! was incorrectly announced as no.4 when they were no.5, and Louise Harris was not announced at all, when she was actually no.4. Also, Louise Harris’ song was not played in full, like all of the other Top 10 songs were. Explain that this song was written by Louise “about the climate crisis, and what will happen if we don’t act”.
-Post a Tweet, Instagram post AND Instagram story, and Facebook post, on all of your social media accounts (Will Manning, Big Top 40, Capital, Heart, Global & Global Player) explaining, and apologising for, the error that was made on the Christmas Countdown: (for ease of reference when you cut and paste this into your socials I repeat:) no.5 was not announced at all, Wham! was incorrectly announced as no.4 when they were no.5, and Louise Harris was not announced at all, when she was actually no.4. And Louise Harris’ song was not played in full, like all of the other Top 10 songs were. Explain that this song was written by Louise “about the climate crisis, and what will happen if we don’t act”. In this post, tag @louiseharrismusic on Instagram & Facebook, and @louisehmusic on Twitter.
A social media post is requested is because this can help partly make up for the lost audience – as a new audience, your social media followers, would be reached and informed about the song, and the error made.
I appreciate that, as “the UK’s biggest chart show”, you would not want to do a disservice or injustice to unsigned, independent artists, nor to those trying to raise the alarm about the climate crisis.
ɷˡˡ̷
Andii Bowsher
"Was the earth made to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease; or was it made to preserve all her children?” - Gerrard Winstanley, 1649, founder of ‘The True Levellers’I blogWe pray
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