Kids record Beatles hit in Scots accent

With pix of Kibble pupils at recording session and of Tom Newman, left and Paul Brett.

AN iconic Beatles song has been recorded being performed like never before.

Legendary British music producer Tom Newman had pupils at Paisley’s Kibble Education and Care Centre sing a verse and chorus of With A Little Help from My Friends in a broad Scots accent.

sing 1

The youngsters were the first pupils to take part in a project that will see Scots schoolchildren record tracks from the famous Beatles album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Tom, along with fellow rock musician, Paul Brett – who played lead guitar with The Strawbs – visited Kibble to set up a day’s recording session with pupils playing guitars, singing and playing percussion instruments.

Last year the duo recorded schoolkids from Northern Ireland performing music from Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells album, which Tom produced in 1973.

Now Kibble pupils have been recorded doing a cover version of the Sgt Pepper album’s title track as well as With A Little Help From My Friends.

And when the teenagers thought they had finished the song, Tom got them to record a verse and chorus in a Scots accent using lines like ‘I get by wi’ a little help fae ma pals’.

Tom – who was involved in setting up Virgin Records with Richard Branson in 1972 – explained: “We didn’t want to make just another cover version of a Beatles song. I wanted the pupils to create a Scottish version and something that will stick in people’s minds.

“And you never know, they may be able to knock Simon Cowell’s acts off the Number One spot in the charts.”
Paul said: ”We decided to start off the project at Kibble because the pupils and staff were very enthusiastic about the project and embraced the idea.”

There were eight Kibble pupils involved in the recording session – Daryl Shaw, Chris Sweeney, Louie Tedford, Joe Green, Olivia Rennie, Jamie Leigh Muir, Jordan Bunce and Cameron Anderson – who had been rehearsing with their music teacher at Kibble, Chris McDonald.

Chris said: “The recording session was a great way to build confidence and social skills, as well as showing pupils how to work as a team and towards a common goal.

“Both Tom and Paul were fantastic with the pupils. And although the kids are too young to have ever heard of them and what they did in the Seventies, they thought they were really cool guys by the end of the recording session.”

Author

Founder of Paisley.org.uk in 1998 and constantly strives to change peoples attitudes to the town, Brian is a self described Paisley Digital Champion who promotes Paisley via any means necessary. You can also follow me on X