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BRENTWOOD, Essex, 15 April, 2008 – Ford’sunique orchestra made up entirely of instruments constructed from Ford Focus car parts, was used in the company's latest TV advertising campaign. The Focus car parts orchestra has now recorded a charity track, played a gig in the Royal Albert Hall and is going on tour - all to raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
The Song
Teenage Cancer Trust, the Focus instruments and the Sunday Times have come together to record a charity track.
The song, called Six O'Clock, was written by Richard Watson and features Mike Rutherford (Genesis) playing the "clutch guitar" and Kenney Jones (The Who) playing the "wheel drums". Musicians from both The Academy of Contemporary Music in Guilford and the National Symphony Orchestra make up the other band members.
The track is downloadable from www.timesonline.co.uk/carparts and a link to the Teenage Cancer Trust allows listeners to make a donation.
The Gig
Band members from Travis played the Focus instruments live on stage at the Royal Albert Hall last week during the annual Teenage Cancer Trust gigs. Supporting the headline act – The Fratellis - Neil Primrose and Andy Dunlop from Travis, accompanied by musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra, performed two tracks including the charity single, Six O'Clock.
The Exhibition
A national exhibition tour, featuring the Focus car-part instruments from the TV ad, will take place at The Hospital, Covent Garden in London from the 17th to 19th April, the Fruit Market in Glasgow from 24th to 26th April and St George’s Hall in Liverpool from the 9th to 11th May.
The exhibitions, which are free, open from 11.00 to 18.00 daily and there will be live performances on the car part instruments at 13.15 and 17.15.
The Focus Music on the Move exhibition will give the public a one-off chance to view and listen to some of the instruments from the unique orchestra. The spectacular instruments, first seen in the new Focus TV commercial, will be on display with informative descriptions on how they work and from which part of the car they were developed.
The tour was inspired by public doubts that the instruments were real and that they were used to perform the music featured in the TV commercial.
Although entrance to the exhibition and performances is free, donations to Teenage Cancer Trust are encouraged. Six teenagers are diagnosed with cancer each day – over 2,000 every year.
TCT funds specialist teenage cancer units in NHS hospitals, with the aim being to give every young person with cancer access to a unit and improve survival rates – which means opening a further 14 units by 2012. TCT currently has nine units around the country.
At the end of the tour a number of the instruments will be auctioned to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust and musicians and celebrities who try out the Ford Focus instruments are being asked to sign them. Well known autographs secured already include Mike Rutherford from Genesis and Kenney Jones from The Who.
For further information on the tour and the Teenage Cancer Trust please visit: https://www.teenagecancertrust.org/focusmusiconthemove/
View the Focus Advert on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4y272NI7J8
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