By Katherine Turner
When Wortley resident John Balding got together with musician Johnny Stott for a few drinks after a hard day’s work, the result was the creation of a song and music video.
They hope the song will travel to the moon with the soon-to-be launched Elon Musk SpaceX rocket.
The song, called Mission to the Moon (Doge1), started off as a 30-second Twitter video scribbled on a few scraps of paper.
John has always had an interest in Cryptocurrency and said: “I have been interested in the Doge coin, which is one of Elon Musk’s favourite currencies. He is sending a rocket to the moon called Doge1 with a satellite to orbit the moon, which I think will be a massive moment in history. This is the first rocket to be named after a cryptocurrency, Doge.”
Their song is a homage to the space mission and they believe it to be the only song being released covering the launch, which gives them a good chance of success.
After posting the video they found that a lot of influential people had watched their song and decided to release a music video and came up with the idea to have their song played on Elon Musk’s rocket to the Moon!
They have now gained funding to release an advert which will see John’s son Archie take a lead role. They hope that with enough publicity Elon Musk’s team will be sure to hear the song and for their dream of Mission to the Moon (Doge1) to be played on the Moon.
The video was filmed on Cabbage Hill and at John’s house in Wortley, also using Evoke Studios in Meanwood.
John wanted the video to feature local people and put a shout out on social media asking for local residents to feature in the video. Over 40 people volunteered to be involved.
John said: “It is very important to me. The idea for the video is for it to show my son, Archie and his dream. It is about local, normal people. I didn’t want to hire people as it just wouldn’t look right, I didn’t want a load of actors, just real people. What is better than our community?”
Dawn Tate, who lives opposite Cabbage Hill and was in the video, said: “I really enjoyed it. Thanks for inviting us to be part of it. The song sounds awesome.”
Lead singer Johnny Stott has since been offered an album contract for 10 songs and has been booked for live sets across the country following the success of the song.
The song has been downloaded over 400 times and John said: “I am so glad we did it, even if it goes nowhere. It’s a great feeling that normal people can be on television, on music channels and on the radio.”
The video can be viewed here and the song is available to download here.
