No generation gap for the duo who stand by each other
Jordan Higo and his grandad Ronnie are best friends and tonight the nation will see them recording their favourite song on TV. Catherine Scott meets them.
WHEN JORDAN Higo’s parents separated when he was just four months old, his grandad, Ronnie, filled the gap.
Ronnie, now 72, drove a young Jordan to rugby training around Yorkshire while his mum Sue was at work as a nurse at Bradford Royal Infirmary. It was during these journeys that the pair would sing an eclectic mix of songs.
“We just loved singing together,” recalls Jordan, now 24, from Huddersfield. “We sang all sorts of songs and would change the words sometimes to refer to each other.
“My grandpa is a very special person to me.”
It was this special bond and their shared love of music that led Jordan to answer an advert he saw on social media for a new BBC One show.
This is My Song takes ordinary people with a story to tell and puts them together with a top music producer and vocal coach to record a song that is important to them.
In the case of barber Jordan and former engineer Ronnie it was Ben E King’s classic Stand By Me.
“It was a song we would sing all the time. We’d change the words. Jordan would sing ‘Stand by me Grandpa’ and I would say ‘Stand by me Jordan’,” recalls Ronnie.
“We don’t sing together as much as we did and I thought it would be a really great thing for us to do together.”
And the pair’s story touched producers, so they were chosen to record their special song which will be aired tonight at 8pm.
“It was an incredible experience and a fantastic opportunity for both of us,” says Ronnie.
“I wasn’t nervous, I just wanted to remember all the words so that I didn’t let Jordan down.”
Ronnie’s memory isn’t what it was, and we see him struggling to remember the words.
But, with the help of acclaimed producer, Andrew Hunt, and top vocal coach, Mark De-Lisser, who encourages him to sing from the heart he doesn’t forget a thing.
And the pair now have a framed vinyl copy of their recording on the wall.
“It makes it a bit tricky if you want to play it,” says Jordan.
“But it does work and is something that we will always have.
Since recording the show they have appeared on The One Show which included a chat with Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall and a high speed motorbike ride through the centre of London at night to sing live together in Hyde Park.
“We didn’t know anything about it,” says Ronnie.
“I knew we didn’t have long to get to Hyde Park when Matt (Baker) said what we were going to do and then these motorbikes appeared. That was some experience.”
“It was amazing to sing live in front a massive crowd with my grandpa,” says Jordan.
“When I was little I didn’t really appreciate just what he and my grandma did for me.
“I would just always go to their house after school and at weekends when mum was working. It was only later that I realised when they had done for me.
“They’d had their children and then ten years later they get me.”
And for Ronnie, there are no regrets. “If I could go back and relive those years with Jordan I would to it again,” he says.
Jordan’s mum, Sue, said: “My dad has played a big part in making Jordan the man he is today.
“He has felt secure with his grandad as he’s grown up.”
Jordan now hopes for a career in the music industry and has already released a single which got to number two in the iTunes chart. His second single Less is released today.
■ This is My Song is on BBC One tonight at 8pm