Corby poet's vinyl tribute to legendary Cottingham chimney raises money for foodbank

A limited edition 7" single paying tribute to a Corby village landmark is on the verge of selling out and making hundreds of pounds for a Corby food project.

Cottingham-based music project ‘the arthur park’ has teamed up with local wordsmith Chuck the Poet to produce a limited edition 7” single featuring Chuck’s poem ‘The Cottingham Stack’.

All profits from the single about a brick chimney in Cottingham, will be going to Corby Foodbank, which is supported by The Trussell Trust.

Chuck the Poet – aka Chuck Middleton – said: “I wrote the poem a few years ago after the Cottingham Stack ‘legend’ took off when someone created a Facebook page for it. Pete got in touch and suggested we record it and put it out as a single. He then went off to put the record together at home, with his partner Jane on sax, and it was sent out for cutting a few weeks ago.”

With five collections of poetry already published Chuck is no stranger to public attention regularly giving recitals from his works including ‘Beer, Bread & Biscuits’, ‘Jelly Toffee’ and ‘Large Fromage’.

The two-and-a half minute single features Cottingham music project the arthur park, headed up by Pete Bowman, backing Chuck while he reads the poem. The single has been hand lathe cut and produced in a limited edition of just 50 records.

Pete added: “The Cottingham Stack is a rather rickety chimney that can be seen standing proud on Corby Road. It has accidentally become a bit of a local landmark in the village, with people taking selfies from the decking at The Royal George pub and hits on the Facebook page coming from as far away as Tanzania.

“We wanted to keep everything local, so it seemed fitting that we should give the profits to such a valuable community resource as the foodbank.”

The arthur park is a studio based project led by Mr Bowman with assorted local musician friends from the Corby area.

Current members/contributors include Chuck the Poet (voice), Simon Shaw (vocals), Andy Hellaby (bass), Jane Smith (saxes) and Rob Cross (trumpet).

Previous releases have included a track on Fruits de Mer’s ‘Head Music 2’ compilation and the limited edition ‘Life of Stanley’ 7” lathe cut about Northamptonshire’s Stanley Unwin, also released on Fruits de Mer.

To purchase one of the last copies of the single for £10 plus postage, Stack fans can message Mr Bowman at thearthurpark.bandcamp.com.

Downloads are also available for just £1 with the proceeds also going to the foodbank.

You can visit the Cottingham Stack Facebook page by clicking here.