The original 1959 hit song by Barrett Strong is a good description of the £10m the DCSF is spending with Youth Music, Abbot Mead Vickers, Faber Music and The Sage Gateshead to deliver on Sing Up, the Music Manifesto National Singing Programme. £10m may not seem a huge amount, but we suspect that if the DCSF had really wanted to get children singing then they should have beaten a direct path to the door of Simon Cowell and his hugely successful series The X Factor. There is still no indication of the role advertising agency Abbot Mead Vickers will play, but they are not known as an agency who specialise in either music or youth marketing. Music publishers Faber are more obvious partners but after spending the bank holiday weekend trying to unsuccessfully access the education section of their website, we simply can’t say. Whatever this unique consortia bring they have already proved they can sing for their supper – to the tune of £10m.

www.amvbbdo.com
www.fabermusic.co.uk
www.musicmanifesto.co.uk
www.thesagegateshead.org
www.youthmusic.org.uk