The Trophy Boyz yesterday announced that all proceeds from their new single will be donated towards helping Michael Shields get justice.
Michael was arrested whilst on holiday in Bulgaria shortly after Liverpool had won the Champions League final. He was in the country because that was how he’d gone about arranging travel for the game. Like the rest of us he celebrated the night that saw Liverpool make history. Four days later he was arrested – wrongfully – after a Bulgarian barman had been attacked.
The real perpetrator of the attack has admitted that he did it, but Bulgarian authorities chose to ignore this fact. Now the 18-year-old from Wavertree in Liverpool has started a jail sentence of 15 years for attempted murder.
The Trophy Boyz are four Liverpool fans that were celebrating like the rest of us after the game. Whilst many of us were talking to friends about the game or posting on internet message boards, the Boys decided to turn their memories into memorable lyrics. Add the lyrics to an unbelievably catchy tune and you’ve got a song to remember.
The song was called Du The Dudek, and that’s because one of the most outstanding memories of that night was Jerzy Dudek dancing on the goal-line to put the AC Milan penalty-takers off. We all found out after the game that Jamie Carragher had told him to remember what Brucie had done back in Rome, and Dudek did this plus a little bit more.
The Boyz were in Liverpool yesterday promoting the launch of the single – it’s out now – and the plight of Michael touched their hearts like the rest of us. As soon as they heard that the Bulgarian authorities had taken this action the four members of the band decided on the spot to donate any profits they make to Michael’s family. This is an unbelievably generous act from the four, who’ve been working relentlessly to promote their first single as a band.
Neil Reed is a director of their record company, Diablo Records. He said yesterday: "We’d like to pledge our full support to Michael’s family and friends at this distressing time. The band are upset at the injustice of the case and feel it is really important that we try to help out in any way we can. We came to a unanimous agreement straight away that any profits from the single go towards the families legal costs or whatever other costs they might be incurring."
The band and their management travelled up from London to promote the single yesterday and saw just how welcoming the people of Liverpool can be. Neil said: "Since arriving in Liverpool today the people of this city have been brilliant towards us and we see this as a way of paying them back. If we can now get the people of Liverpool supporting this single then they will be supporting the campaign to free Michael Shields. We don’t know how much the single will make but if we can get it as high up the charts as possible then it will help raise awareness of Michael’s plight on a national scale."
The single was released on Monday, and is available in all of the big record stores, including HMV. It can also be ordered online through HMV or through the official site for the single – www.duthedudek.net. You can also see a clip of the video on that site.
The way record sales work in the UK is that sales are logged starting on Monday morning. This is the sales week for the chart that is announced for the following Sunday. So to help the record get as high in the charts as possible, you need to buy a copy of it this week. The higher it gets in the charts this week, the more publicity and air-play it will receive next week, which in turn helps it to sustain its place in the charts.
The single is out in two versions, if you can afford to buy both then you’ll be helping Michael even more. You’ll also be helping the record climb higher up the charts.
As we said yesterday, Michael’s plight will not receive as much publicity as it would if he’d been from a different part of the country and from a different social background. Getting the record into the public eye more will help to raise awareness of what has happened to Michael, and in turn will bring pressure on those with the power to sort this mess out.
The single itself is a good laugh and well worth buying on its own merits. Playing it loud at a barbecue this weekend will annoy your bluenose neighbours. It’s so catchy that they’ll actually find themselves singing it – well worth seeing!
The write of the song, Adrian Zag of the Trophy Boyz, explained what the song was about, and how it came to be written. He said: "It’s a song about that amazing night, one of the maddest games of football I’ve ever seen in my life. We got together and did a song to commemorate that amazing night and to remind us how we all felt."
He remember the night well, as we all do. He continues: "I was so deliriously happy after the match and I was looking on forums on the internet and a fan said, ‘When is somebody going to do a song about this night?’ I thought well I’m a songwriter and I’m going to do something about it."
With the proceeds now going towards helping Michael Shields, we’re sure many fans will echo what Adrian said next: "We want to get this song to number one in England and number one in Europe. It’s in honour of Jerzy Dudek for that double save and the penalties but everyone was a hero that night. Luis Garcia and Djimi Traore cleared off the line, Jamie Carragher made two tackles when he had cramp and Steven Gerrard stopped Serginho from getting any crosses in. Everyone was a champion that night."