Friday 12 February 2010

Help for Heroes raised £40 million

Posted by: Michelle Nielsen

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Mail on Sunday gives 5p from every paper

The Soldiers launch new album... and it's free with the MoS in support of Help for Heroes

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By CHRISTINE CHALLAND
Last updated at 10:01 PM on 30th January 2010

Not since the darkest days of the Second World War have the Armed Forces been quite so much at the forefront of our national life. So, perhaps, it is not entirely surprising that a group of serving troops should become one of the singing sensations of the year.

Following the double-platinum success of their debut album Coming Home, The Soldiers - Sergeant Major Gary Chilton, Sergeant Richie Maddocks and Lance Corporal Ryan Idzi - are now preparing for their first 23-date UK tour, which begins on March 16.

But their Army duties and band rehearsals have not prevented them going into the studio to record a special Valentine's Day CD of romantic songs which you will find free with this paper.

Hit parade: The Soldiers, from left, Ryan Idzi, Gary Chilton and Richie Maddocks, are in the front line of fame with a double-platinum disc

To coincide with the release, 5p of the purchase price of today's edition will be donated to Help for Heroes, which supports members of the Armed Forces wounded in conflict.

It's a project that excites The Soldiers. 'Getting back into a recording studio has given us the chance to say a special thank you to everyone who has supported us since we released the debut album last October,' says 41-year-old Gary, a Gulf War veteran who joined the Royal Armoured Corps after leaving school at 16.

'None of us ever imagined that The Soldiers would be so successful. And it's great to know the CD is making a difference to a charity like Help for Heroes.'

Possibly the best-known of the trio is the youngest member, Ryan, 24, who appeared on The X Factor in 2007 singing Lean On Me.

Ryan joined the 20th Armoured Brigade after leaving school at 18 and has served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a reconnaissance soldier. Ironically, it was an attack of stage fright that lost him a place in the programme's semi-finals, something that, thankfully, he's never had to deal with since.

'Being a part of The Soldiers is far more me,' he says. 'I was a bit too young and nervous on The X Factor, to be honest. But being with these guys felt right from the moment we all met up.

'Our day jobs are part of what we are and, hopefully, what we mean to people. The way we sing together and how we get a feel for the songs is pretty special.'

Ryan admits he's the one who is more inclined to let off steam if he's not happy with something.

'I can kick off big time,' he says. 'I'll start shouting the odds if something isn't going well or I'm tired and I've just had enough of going over the same song again and again.

'I'm learning to take a leaf of out Gaz and Richie's book. They're far more laid-back and mature about things but then they are A LOT older than me!

'The lads in my unit have been brilliant. We've all had our leg pulled a bit. When I went back to Germany last week, my sergeant major saw me and yelled out, "Hey, pop star, get that thermal top off, you big nancy!"'

Ryan, who grew up in Caerphilly, South Wales, was sent out to Iraq for six months just two weeks after arriving at his new regiment in Osnabruck in 2005.

During his second tour of Iraq in 2006, again as a reconnaissance soldier patrolling on foot and in military vehicles, Ryan was part of a troop seconded to Baghdad as a driver for high-ranking military personnel.

Free: The CD of romantic songs, released in time for Valentine's Day, comes with today's MoS newspaper

He and two other colleagues escaped injury when they were involved in a mine explosion, but two other soldiers died in the blast.

His final tour of Afghanistan last year, driving the Army's new Mastiff vehicle, ended when he was injured playing rugby. Ryan is now working in a recruitment post in Brecon.

Gulf veteran Richie, 37, who joined the Corps of Army Music as a 16-year-old trumpeter, is now a training supervisor at the Royal Military School of Music based at Kneller Hall in Twickenham.

'I come from a musical family,' he says. 'My father, who died six years ago, was a fine musician who played piano, guitar and was a great singer - he was a big fan of Tom Jones. My four brothers all play music professionally and my two sisters, Lisa and Shirley, are always singing along to something.'

Richie, who grew up in Failsworth near Oldham, started playing the cornet and trumpet at the age of 11. 'Later, I met someone who was a member of an Army band and I thought this sounds like it's for me and signed up,' he says. 'After that it was just a case of auditioning to prove that I had the ability to play at that level.

'As soon as I started playing for the Band of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment I absolutely loved it and knew I'd made the right choice.'

Richie was based with the band in Fallingbostel, Germany, for five years after an initial four-year posting at Catterick Barracks with his regiment. Since 1996, he has been a member of the Minden Band of the Queen's Division, which has involved a number of overseas tours with the Army band.

During a tour of the Gulf in 1991, he worked as a medic as well as entertaining combat troops on the front line with his band. In 2004, during a tour of Iraq with the Army pop group Mind 'n Soul, again entertaining troops, he was a reconnaissance soldier taking part in patrols on foot and in convoy.

'I feel proud nearly every day I'm in the Army,' he says. 'The comradeship and close friendships you form, being part of something which is so worthwhile, is a wonderful feeling.

'One of the best things about my job is that I get to have a giggle every day. I'll always try to find a positive in the situation, being a born optimist, but I'm very lucky to be surrounded by colleagues who take their job so professionally and whose first thought is always about other people.

'Life has never been dull since I joined up, and alongside the feelings of pride there is sometimes sadness. I can remember that when I was in the Gulf and was only 18, a little girl came up to me while I was on foot patrol and gave me a Kuwaiti flag - it's something I've never forgotten.'

The Army is proud of them, too. So much so that even General Sir David Richards, the British Army's new Chief of General Staff, has personally written to each of the boys offering his congratulations on their success.

'He said it was good to see the Army getting some positive feedback,' says Gary. 'Our units have been very good at allowing us the time to record. Our jobs as soldiers will always come first but I think we're all enjoying this chance to sing together.'

Their unique selling point is that not only have they all risked their lives serving on the front line for their country but they are all utterly grounded and devoted to their families and Army careers.

Even though they are still getting over the excitement of being recognised wherever they go, the boys admit they simply feel lucky to have struck such a chord with fans who appreciate the unique, heartfelt blend of their voices. And privileged at the way they have been able to share songs that celebrate the courage and commitment of their comrades who are serving, and the families of those who have been lost fighting.

'It's a tough time for all military personnel and their families,' says Richie. 'We're so proud to be doing our bit to help put the British Army on the map.

'We're still pinching ourselves, knowing there are more than 40,000 followers just on our Facebook page.'

And even though the boys are likely to be rehearsing on February 14, Gary and Richie have already vowed to make Valentine's Day extra special for their wives.

But Ryan, jokingly referred to by Gary as the group's eye-candy, says he's still looking for the perfect woman and keeps himself as fit as possible. 'I'm ready for love,' he declares.

Richie says: 'I'm always doing romantic things for my gorgeous wife Nicci, like buying her flowers and running her big, steamy baths and pouring her a nice glass of wine.'

Gary's idea of romancing his wife Christine, whom he's been married to for 11 years, involves choosing a favourite restaurant and having a good chat over a meal and a bottle of wine.

Having two young children, Aaron, ten, and seven-year-old Megan, who are both over the moon about their dad's new-found fame, Gary says life always seems hectic and so a night out with Christine is a rare treat they always look forward to.

Iraq inquiry: Short says cabinet misled on war legality

Tony Blair's cabinet was "misled" into thinking the war with Iraq was legal, ex-International Development Secretary Clare Short has told the UK's inquiry.

She said Attorney General Lord Goldsmith had been "leaned on" to change his advice before the invasion.

Mr Blair "and his mates" decided war was necessary, and "everything was done on a wing and a prayer", Ms Short said.

She quit the cabinet two months after the March 2003 invasion, in protest at planning for the war's aftermath.

In her evidence to the Iraq inquiry, during which she was highly critical of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, she said the cabinet had not been a "decision-making body" and called Parliament a "rubber stamp".

Ms Short, who was given a round of applause after her three-hour appearance, added that she had been "conned" into staying on as a minister until May 2003, despite her misgivings about the war.

'Want to be loyal'

The attorney general provisionally advised Mr Blair in January that year that it would be unlawful to invade Iraq without a further United Nations Security Council resolution.

But he changed his mind a month later after being persuaded to talk to senior US government lawyers and Britain's ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock.

A definitive statement circulated at cabinet on 17 March 2003, three days before the war began.

Ms Short said there was no suggestion given that he had had any legal doubts, and said that any discussion of the legal advice was halted at that pre-war cabinet meeting.

CLARE SHORT'S MAIN CLAIMS

Cabinet misled on legality of war

Iraq intelligence not given to UK aid officials

Ms Short persuaded to stay on with promise of UN involvement in reconstruction of Iraq

Cabinet sidelined and Parliament a rubber stamp in decision to go to war

Blair arguments on Saddam threat and possible terror links "historically inaccurate"

She had been "shocked" by the attorney general's advice was so late but was "jeered at" to be quiet by other ministers when she asked why.

Ms Short said that, when she repeated the question to Lord Goldsmith, he had replied: "Oh, it takes me a long time to make my mind up."

In light of the attorney general's "doubts and his changes of opinion" that have since emerged, Ms Short said: "I think for the attorney general to come and say there's unequivocal legal authority to go war was misleading."

She said: "I think he misled the cabinet. He certainly misled me, but people let it through."

Ms Short said that, after the failure to secure a second UN resolution, the government had put out "untrue" claims that France had vetoed it.

But she added that "I believed them at the time. You don't want to disbelieve your prime minister in the run-up to war and you want to believe the leader of your party. You want to be loyal".

Asked why she did not resign earlier, like her cabinet colleague Robin Cook, Ms Short said: "I was conned."

'Much better'

She told the inquiry panel that Mr Blair had promised the UN a strong role in Iraq's reconstruction and further action to resolve the Israel-Palestine situation.

Ms Short said: "I thought that if we got a Palestinian state and a UN lead on reconstruction, that will be much better...

"I took a lot of flak for it. I still think, if we had done those things, it would have been a heck of a lot better."

Ms Short also told the inquiry that she "was seeing the intelligence" to do with Iraq during the earlier stages of preparations for a possible invasion.

But, in late, 2002 she added: "We asked for a briefing... This just didn't come and didn't come... it became clear there was some sort of block on communications."

Ms Short, who now sits in the Commons as an independent MP, eventually quit the government over the lack of UN involvement in the reconstruction effort.

Mr Blair told the inquiry last week that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had been a "monster" who, he believed, "threatened not just the region but the world".

He said British and US attitudes towards the threat posed by Iraq "changed dramatically" after the terror attacks on 11 September 2001, since they highlighted the dangers of potential links between failed states in possession of weapons of mass destruction and terrorist groups.

'Difficult to handle'

But Ms Short told the inquiry Mr Blair's evidence was "historically inaccurate", adding: "There was no evidence of any kind of an escalation of threats."

She also said: "We could have gone more slowly and carefully and not have had a totally destabilised and angry Iraq."

"The American people were misled to suggest that al-Qaeda had links to Saddam Hussein.

"Everybody knows that is untrue - that he had absolutely links, no sympathy, al-Qaeda were nowhere near Iraq until after the invasion and the disorder that came from that."

During an earlier hearing, former head of the armed forces Lord Boyce suggested officials from Ms Short's department had refused to co-operate fully in the immediate aftermath of the invasion because of their opposition to the war.

Mr Blair's former spokesman, Alastair Campbell, told the inquiry that Ms Short had been "difficult to handle" in the run-up to the invasion and suggested there was a fear she might leak things she did not agree with.

But, in his evidence, former Cabinet Secretary Lord Turnbull said such criticism was unfair and Ms Short and other more independent voices in cabinet had been effectively sidelined.

Hilary Benn, who succeeded Ms Short as international development secretary, will also give evidence on Tuesday.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8492526.stm

Posted By: Lottie Mather