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Artist News
Bestival crash victim achieves posthumous chart position
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 7 May 2013
A song by one of the festival-goers killed in a coach crash as he returned from last September has charted, after getting support from the festival’s sister record label Sunday Best Recordings.
Three people, including the driver, died when the coach carrying 50 music fans back from the Isle Of Wight festival to Merseyside crashed in Surrey last year. One of them, Michael Molloy, was a songwriter and musician, and his song ‘Rise And Fall’, featuring vocals by his friend and bandmate Alex Evans, was released last week, charting at number 38 on Sunday.
Commenting on the release last week, Molloy’s mother Frances told reporters: “The release of Michael’s single will represent a small step in the long and hard job of rebuilding our lives. We will always be thankful for the fact that he was the happiest eighteen year old alive at the time of his death. He was fulfilled and full of hopes and dreams. One of those dreams was for his talent to be recognised”.
After hearing the song had charted on Sunday, she then told the Mirror: “I just broke down when they announced it on the radio. I wanted to scream with pride but also with pain. I sat with just Michael’s brother as we wanted to be alone when they went through the charts. Joseph was so emotional. He’s driven it all. I looked at him and thought ‘he’s done it’. Sunday afternoon was one of the proudest moments of my life”.
Commenting on his role in the posthumous release, Bestival and Sunday Best boss Rob da Bank told CMU: “It’s obvious to me that Michael was a young and rare talent and that music was an extremely important part of his life. I’ve heard he absolutely loved Bestival and had a great time at Bestival 2012 so I feel privileged to be able to help his family fulfil his and their ambition of getting Michael’s music out there”.
