The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
New Local Hero cancer aid song to air at match
Rock star Mark Knopfler will unveil a new version of his Local Hero theme in front of 50,000 Newcastle United fans today and said: “I want to be nervous but I’m too excited.”
The former Dire Straits frontman joined more than 50 renowned guitarists, including Bruce Springsteen, Ronnie Wood and Eric Clapton, on a reworked version of Going Home in aid of the Teenager Cancer Trust.
Going Home is the theme for the cult favourite movie Local Hero, which was shot in numerous locations across the Highlands and the north-east, with Pennan serving as the fictional village of Ferness, and The Ship Inn in Macduff featured as the village’s local pub, the MacAskill arms.
Having met young cancer patients at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, Knopfler said he felt “overwhelmed” by the care the staff provided and the positivity of the people there.
He told the PA news agency: “I was just talking to a young girl there who was told she wouldn’t walk again, and she was just standing there, talking to me.
“She couldn’t walk when she came into the hospital and she walked out of it.
“This is just the best thing. I can’t think of anything better than that.”
Knopfler will be on the pitch for today’s Premier League game of Newcastle v Wolverhampton Wanderers, when the new version will be aired.
Knopfler said he loved knowing his team ran out to his song, saying: “It’s fantastic, there’s nothing like that.
“I would be devastated if they ever were to say, ‘hey, they took your song off ’.”
The 1983 north-east favourite film, starring Burt Lancaster, was Knopfler’s first credit as a film composer and earned him a Bafta nomination.
Going Home (Theme From Local Hero) will be released on March 15 on BMG and is available to pre-order now.