Tune in from 9pm every Sunday on Tameside Radio 103.6FM to catch up with Michael Taylor and Neil Summers. In the meantime, read their latest column here...

In 2007 me and a few pals - Jeremy Smith and Michael Reeves - wanted to unite the business world with charity, by using the power of music. 

We also thought it would be great fun, but by gathering a group of people together with access to clients and friends with a few quid, it made total sense to hook up with a charity, initially with MENCAP, which does so much to link the performing arts with people with learning disabilities.

From there the Y Factor challenge was born. It gave a stage to previously hidden talent from within the deal-making world, and raised huge amounts for charity over a number of years. 

We managed to get such great momentum and pulled in favours from showbiz friends like Happy Mondays singer Rowetta and the Hyde-born comedian Justin Moorhouse, who were tremendous as judges at venues like Band on the Wall, Life Cafe and the Printworks.

As well as steadily guiding the whole thing Michael Reeves plays guitar in the band, and as musical director Jeremy Smith, it has to be said, pulls together a band, coaches the performers and plays the keyboard with phenomenal precision and passion. He is the keyboard player in Barclay James Harvest, prog rock legends, with strong ties to this part of the world. My musical contribution is zero. My role has been to compère the evening’s entertainment, introduce the acts and work with the judges and encourage the crowd to dig deep.

After a brief break we returned with a bang in 2019 with an amazing night at Gorilla in Manchester. We raised nearly £50k for a Greater Manchester charity supporting the homeless and were treated to an incredible rendition of Try A Little Tenderness by a lad called Kieran Lawton, the overall winner. 

It gave us our mojo but sadly, Covid put a stop to our 2020 plans.

However! This year we instead decided to do something a bit different and persuaded 36 brave performers from across the Greater Manchester business community to come together (virtually) to record a song to raise awareness and money for MancSpirit - a charity committed to improving the mental well-being of people in Greater Manchester through creativity and arts.

We’ve recorded One Day Like This by Elbow, a proper Manchester classic - brilliantly produced by Jeremy - and it deserves to be seen and heard.

It’s not an easy song to do, as Jeremy found when he had to pull it all together. Apparently, Guy Garvey of Elbow has a wider vocal range than you’d imagine. 

On the first pass we raised £10k, but we hope it can go further still. 

It got me thinking about what so many of us have been through over the last couple of testing years. 

I don’t mean to raise the poor plight of well-paid, well-resourced business people, but so many people feel detached from the community they would normally operate in. 

They want to contribute to a cause bigger than themselves to give something to others.

Putting themselves forward to perform musically is a great leveller, there’s nowhere to hide, even for someone with a voice like mine, but hopefully, we’ve raised some money for a decent cause, but maybe also brought a smile to people’s faces for the sheer joy of taking part in something magical, meaningful and musical.

You can listen to Michael Taylor and Neil Summers on Music Therapy on Tameside Radio 103.6FM on Sunday evenings from 9pm to 11pm. Click here to subscribe and catch up on previous shows.

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