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Artist News Releases
RSPB to release birds into the UK charts
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 19 March 2019
The Royal Society For The Protection Of Birds has announced that it will release the first ever UK single to feature nothing but birdsong next month. So that’s fun. It aims to highlight the massive decline in some species of bird, which is less fun.
Titled ‘Let Nature Sing’, the two and a half minute track will feature 25 of the UK’s most endangered birds, including the blackbird, robin and nightingale. The RSPB says that the UK’s bird population has shrunk by 44 million since 1966, due to destruction of habitats, pollution and climate change. The number of cuckoos has dropped by around 50% since 1970, while the number of turtle doves is down 98%.
The different types of birdsong were recorded by the RSPB’s Adrian Thomas, and then combined into the single track by folk singer Sam Lee and music director Bill Barclay.
“Birdsong has been one of the biggest influences of English song, poetry and literature”, says Lee. “The loss of it should concern us all, because it is a signal that all is not well in the world. We should see birdsong as a barometer for the health of this planet, and hence of ourselves”.
Thomas adds: “Our track, as well as being a wake up call, is really an invitation to go and experience it for yourselves. You only have to step outside your door on a fine spring day and hopefully you will hear some birdsong, but the tragedy is that with each generation we are losing more. We need to cherish it; we need to save it”.
‘Let Nature Sing’ is set for release on 26 Apr, with the hope of breaking into the UK singles chart.
Birdsong has proven popular with the British public in the past. In 2009, people complained when a test broadcast of constant birdsong was shut off on the DAB radio network, ahead of the launch of music station Amazing Radio.
More recently, birdsong has been used to censor swearing and other content that does not meet BBC guidelines on Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s film review show on BBC Radio 5 Live. Which could mean this RSPB single sounds quite controversial to any fans of that show.
