Following some concerted vault digging, Concern have managed to unearth the ‘lost’ charity single that helped bankroll their Ethiopian and Sudanese famine relief programmes in 1985.
The brainchild of Gerry Ryan and Mark Venner whose managerial charge Paul Cleary wrote it, ‘Show Some Concern’ went straight to number one in the Irish charts where it remained for three weeks.
The Band Aid-style posse of celebs called, natch, The Concerned included Gerry and his RTÉ pals Dave Fanning, Pat Kenny, Barry Lang, Twink and Maxi, Maura O’Connell, Freddie White, Johnny Duhan, The Golden Horde, The Blades and, well, pick them out yourself from the video. Big hair and Krystle Carrington-style shoulder pads abound – and that’s just the boys!
This and their other musical connections – Bono, Bob Geldof, The Corrs, The Saw Doctors etc. – are being highlighted as part of the organisation's on-going 50th birthday celebrations. Sadly, the need for Concern to be active throughout large swathes of Africa remains with a report on the current crisis-hit areas in a coming issue of Hot Press.