Wogan sings on 'Togs' charity CD
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/wales/south_east/7708475.stm Version 0 of 1. A fundraising husband and wife are hoping to make the charts with a CD of songs featuring broadcaster Sir Terry Wogan for Children in Need. Hellen Bach and Norman Macintosh, from Newport, have produced the CD to raise cash for the BBC appeal. The pair have also enlisted other Radio 2 presenters, including Mark Radcliffe. The CD is the latest fundraising item to be sold by the pair on behalf of Togs (Terry's Old Geezers or Gals), a group of Sir Terry's devoted fans. After the Togs sold a small calendar for Children in Need in 1999, Ms Bach decided to approach Sir Terry to take the idea further, ready for this year's appeal on Friday, 14 November. "I went to see Sir Terry when he was signing books in Bournemouth," she said. "He said 'yes, if you are mad enough and have got enough time and money then I will support you'. So that's what I did." I went to Sir Terry and said I had an idea Hellen Bach They set up a Togs Calendar site to sell merchandise and, with the help of fellow Togs, have now raised around £3.5m for Children in Need. A celebrity calendar is still produced every year along with other Togs spin-offs including Janet and John story CDs, clothing and mugs. Last year the couple handed over £1.5m to Children in Need, mainly due to sales of the Janet and John CD. The CD earned Ms Bach and Mr Macintosh a gold disc after it sold more than 100,000 copies. Ms Bach, who used to work for an insurance company, said: "We gave our jobs up last year to do this full time. We were working every hour and we're still not on top of it. "We get an admin fee for what gets sold but everyone else who works for us is a volunteer." 'Wonderful speech' The music CD, Bandaged, is launched on Thursday, features children's songs including Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Puff the Magic Dragon. Sir Terry and Aled Jones have teamed up to sing Little Drummer Boy and Peace on Earth, which Ms Bach hopes could be a Christmas number one. Other songs include The Hippopotamus Song (Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud) by Sir Terry, My Brother by Radio 2 presenter Alex Lester and Right Said Fred by Mark Radcliffe. "I went to Sir Terry and said I had an idea. I said it was time we brought back some children's songs from years gone by," said Ms Bach. And Sir Terry, who has also been the BBC's Eurovision commentator since the 1970s, is proud of the efforts of his "old geezers". "He came to the [Togs] convention in Leicester in September and did a wonderful speech where he said he can't thank us enough for what we do," said Ms Bach. |