Meet the 90-year-old D-day veteran hoping to storm the singles chart
Ballad written in tribute to those who fell in Normandy could overtake Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran
A CAMPAIGN has been launched to get a D-day single to number one in the charts after the unlikely success of a 90-year-old veteran’s song.
Jim Radford’s ballad The Shores Of Normandy is inspired by his memories of comrades who “stormed the gates of hell” on June 6 1944.
Following its release two weeks ago, the folk song briefly went ahead of Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber’s joint single I Don’t Care on Amazon’s music chart. Mr Radford, who is donating profits to- wards a sculpture honouring those who “died upon that blood-soaked sand”, said reaching the top spot was beyond his “wildest dreams”.
Now, backed by the likes of BBC presenter Jeremy Vine, Nationwide Bank and The Normandy Memorial Trust, he hopes to hit No 1 on the official UK singles chart on D-day’s 75th anniversary.
“I don’t follow pop music much,” said Mr Radford, who was born in Hull and now lives in Lewisham, south-east London. “These stars like this Bieber, I’m not sure I’d recognise his songs. He probably doesn’t listen to me.”
The veteran said writing the song was “very hard” because “it meant reliving very harrowing experiences”.
Money raised by the single will go towards a memorial to the 22,442 men and women under British command who died during the Allied landings and the Battle of Normandy.
Aged 15 at the time, Mr Radford served as a galley boy on a Merchant Navy ship, Empire Larch, and remains the youngest-known veteran.
The ship’s crew helped to build the Mulberry harbour off Gold Beach, allowing the Royal Navy to transport troops, vehicles and supplies for the landing. Scarred by his memories of the D-day battle, Mr Radford said: “Gold Beach was a terrible sight. It was piled high with equipment and burning landing craft but as we got closer you could see a lot of bodies. Dead and wounded men. On the sand and in the water. It was fairly clear to us all we were in a nightmare situation.”
Mr Radford wrote the song after an emotional return to Arromanches-les-baines in Normandy in 1969.
After performing it for decades, including a memorable Royal Albert Hall show in 2014, the father-of-three recorded a new version to raise funds for a memorial in Ver-sur-mer.
The Normandy Memorial Trust, which hopes to build the monument, has helped Mr Radford to promote the single and gather support on social media.