A charity single has been released by a seven-year-old girl after she starred in two unique lockdown shows on her Forest Town street.

Residents on Halstead Close put on two socially-distanced show from their individual drives to boost community spirit during the coronavirus lockdown earlier this year.
And young Poppy Hickman stole the show at both events.

Now organisers of the shows and local musicians, Russ Stevens-Drake and Bradley Knight, have written a song, Imagination, and helped Poppy to record it as a charity single in aid of the Rainbows Hospice for children and young people.

Russ and Bradley have performed all over the country and abroad as a duo for more than 25 years.

They have also written and produced music and theatre shows from their DPS Studio in Mansfield Woodhouse.

They said: “The March lockdown forced a temporary end to us performing in live music venues and seriously limited what we could do with the studio too.

“So, back in April, we decided to create something entertaining for the residents of our street.

“Rather than just standing on our drive doing our own show, we thought it would be a great idea to ask the neighbours to get involved from their driveways, which they did, and ‘Halstead’s Got Talent’ was born.

“Poppy sang and danced to a selection of songs from ABBA and High School Musical and everyone was blown away by her confidence and presence.

Russ Stevens-Drake and Bradley Knight pictured with Tom Scott, centre, at the Halstead’s Got Talent show.

“A month later and another socially-distanced street show, for VE Day, proved even more popular with residents. Once again, Poppy stole the show and at that point we promised that we would do something original especially for her.

“We came up with a song for her that is about dreams and a kinder, better world. It’s called Imagination.”

The success of the community shows has also lead to several residents from Halstead Close having music lessons at the duo’s DPS Studios. Poppy is also learning to play the guitar.

Russ and Bradley added: “Between lessons we worked on the song and lyrics until she was ready to record.

“The latest lockdown meant that we had to really rush through the last week of production to get everything completed but, ultimately, we are happy with the finished song and promotional video.

“After talking to Poppy and her parents, Mark and Hannah, she decided that she wanted to do something for other children and so we looked around and found Rainbows Hospice — it was a perfect match as Rainbow was one of our working titles for the song from the very beginning.

“We really hope that the song generates a lot of money and awareness for Rainbows Hospice as it is such a wonderful and worthy cause.”

The hospice said: “What an absolutely beautiful song, thank you so much for supporting us Poppy, you’re amazing!”

lThe song, Imagination, will be available to download from all major music steaming platforms from Friday, 27th November.

To watch a video of Poppy performing the song and to make a donation go to www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=161451225694012&id=108897154282753 or search for DPS Studios on Facebook.

To find out more about DPS Studios, go to www.dpsstudios.co.uk