“Time For Ocean Aid” was released on 2 February, World Wetlands Day. My song features synth and piano by Crum, who has played in Shockhead, Hawkwind, and The Moonloonies, but now fronts STARRATS. His keyboard wizardry gives my acoustic protest song a space-rock and psychedelic flavour. Psyche-folk is a new genre for my music. Daz, also from STARRATS, has created the music video for “Time For Ocean Aid.” I had recorded the basic acoustic track with the help of Ricardo Verdelho at his VerdelhoStudio in Quinta do Conde in Portugal. The lyrics for “Time For Ocean Aid” were included in my new book, Saving Mother Ocean, which was published on 26 November, 2021, by Moon Books. It tells the story, not only of “Time For Ocean Aid,” but also for my song “Where Does All The Plastic Go?” and how I responded to the call to action I felt. In my songs and book I am hoping to motivate many more people to take action in any way they feel, to help save not only the oceans but the environment, wildlife habitats, and life on Earth! The lyrics are:
We've got to save the birds, we've got to save the bees, We've got to save the forests, we've got to save the seas. When I look at all the mess we've made, I think it's time for ocean aid. Micro-plastic pollution, it's bound to make you think, it is even in the air and the water that we drink. The Amazon has burned so much, Australia's been burning too, Wildfires are the new normal, so what are we gonna do?
We've got to save the birds, we've got to save the bees, We've got to save the forests, we've got to save the seas. When I look at all the mess we've made, I think it's time for ocean aid.
There's an insect Armageddon, a sixth great extinction underway, But keep the economy growing, There's more jobs I hear them say.
We've got to save the birds, we've got to save the bees, We've got to save the forests, we've got to save the seas. When I look at all the mess we've made, I think it's time for ocean aid.
Where are the real world leaders? Please tell me where they are. The ones in the media are just talking more blah-blah.
We've got to save the birds, we've got to save the bees, We've got to save the forests, we've got to save the seas. When I look at all the mess we've made, I think it's time for ocean aid.
“Time For Ocean Aid” is part of my much bigger, in fact mind-bogglingly massive, “Ocean Aid” project. You see, I am hoping that one day there will be a stadium-sized “Ocean Aid” concert, or concerts, with many internationally famous rock and pop acts taking part. It is an international campaign too because the oceans are under threat worldwide. Plastic pollution, overfishing, seabed mining, oil spills, nuclear waste, “dead zones,” coral bleaching, military testing and sonar, as well as, last but certainly not least, climate change, are all taking a heavy toll on marine life and the health of the oceans. I want to raise funds for Sea Shepherd and was honoured by having Captain Paul Watson, who founded Sea Shepherd, endorsing my book Saving Mother Ocean. My message is finding media coverage around the world but I need it to keep on doing so. So far I have been in Filippo Solibello’s book SPAM Stop Plastic A Mare, published in Italy, I’ve been featured twice in The Portugal News, been on the radio in Spain, Ireland and the US, been featured in the GONZO Weekly in England, given coverage in The Wave magazine of the Rotary Club of Wyndham Harbour in Australia. In Wales, the country I was born in, I am delighted to have the full support of Mike Kennedy, who runs SWND Magazine and the SWND Records label. “Ocean Aid” has been featured in a 2-page article in the SWND Magazine.
Please help me spread the word about “Ocean Aid!” It is certainly time for helping to save the seas!
“Ocean Aid” has been an idea, an aim, a developing international project, and now a song. I have talked about “Ocean Aid'' in books, in magazines, a newspaper, on websites, on podcasts and on the radio. “Ocean Aid” has been featured in articles or interviews with me, in Italy, Portugal, Wales, England, Ireland, Spain, Australia, and the USA. Like, I said it is an international project. Italian radio host and author, Filippo Solibello, gave me a 4-page chapter in his book SPAM Stop Plastic A Mare.
He was touring Italy promoting his book and also telling people about my song and ideas. I was looking forward to going over to Italy to join him at some point but then the pandemic struck. Despite lockdowns and restrictions I have kept working doing what I can online and in any media that will give me a platform to spark out on. I am reaching out to people all around the world to take action to help save the oceans and the marine life in them. The idea for “Ocean Aid” originally came to me when I wrote my song “Where Does All The Plastic Go?,” which I recorded and released in 2019.
Everyone will remember “Live Aid” and the massive concert that went under that banner, with many internationally famous acts performing for the event. I thought that ideally a concert of that sort of magnitude could some day take place at a stadium sized venue somewhere. The aim would be to raise awareness of the threats to the ocean, as well as raising funds for a charitable organisation like Sea Shepherd, an organisation that is already working hard at reversing the terrible damage to the seas and marine life in them. I chose Sea Shepherd because I believe it is the organisation most committed to saving the seas, and that it is treating the matter as a top priority. Captain Paul Watson, who founded Sea Shepherd has said: “If the ocean dies, we die.” I started my new book Saving Mother Ocean with this quotation from Captain Paul. It shows how urgently we should all be thinking about what we can do to save the ocean. It is a call to action, as is my book, and songs. I use the plural “songs” because I wrote another, with the title “Time For Ocean Aid.” I have been playing it live and online, and opened an Ocean Aid concert that was performed in Feb, 2021 with the help of the regular singers and musicians from Rew Starr’s ReW & WhO? Show from New York. We raised some funds for Sea Shepherd, and I had seen my idea become an actual reality, even if on a small scale. Since then I have been telling musicians and promoters to organise their own “Ocean Aid” concerts. I want to see this type of event taking place all around the world, because saving the seas really should be a priority around the planet. I recently recorded my song “Time For Ocean Aid” at the Verdelho Studio, in Quinta do Conde, in Portugal, where I am based.
My good friend Crum, formerly of Shockhead, Hawkwind, and the Moonloonies, and now with a new band called STARRATS, very kindly added his keyboard wizard skills to overdub some piano and synthesiser. This has really added to my song and given it a space-rock feel which works well with the basic acoustic protest song. Daz, also from STARRATS, has created a music video to go with it. I will be releasing “Time For Ocean Aid” on 2 February, which is World Wetlands Day, and which seemed an apt time to do this. It really is TIME FOR OCEAN AID!
My protest song about plastic pollution entitled Where Does All The Plastic Go? has had some great media coverage, but it needs a lot more. The song has been featured in a national newspaper in Portugal and in a recent book from Italy. It would be wonderful if the British mainstream media would report on it too.
The Portugal News
Last September, The Portugal News included an article about my song after I was interviewed by Kim Schiffmann, who is one of the newspaper’s writers. There was a photo of me on the front page too and a caption which said: “Singing Against Pollution p11.” The Portugal News is a national newspaper in the English language and read by many an expat.
My song also received airplay in Portugal on Roque Duarte’s Sonic Fine Cut show on esradio.pt (Eclectic Sounds Radio) and Nação Sónica.The video for Where Does All The Plastic Go? had been made in Portugal by Filipe Rafael, and the song is included in my album Songs of The Now and Then, which is available as an environmentally packaged CD with a recycled egg box CD tray, or as a digital release on bandcamp. On Facebook, the video has had over 19,000 views.
Where Does All The Plastic Go? is also available for streaming and downloads at Reverb Nation.
SPAM: Stop Plastica A Mare and Ocean Aid
Meanwhile in Italy, Where Does All The Plastic Go? Has received some wonderful publicity thanks to Filippo Solibello, who is a top radio presenter and author there. He has included an entire chapter about me and my song in his book SPAM Stop Plastic A Mare, which he has been touring extensively to promote. He even got a copy of his book to Pope Francis.
Filippo has been showing the video of my song to audiences in Italy and also spreading word about my idea for an Ocean Aid concert to raise awareness on an international level, and as a fund-raiser for charitable organisations that are working to save the oceans and marine life in them. I think some very famous names would want to be involved if a massive concert could be organised, like Band Aid and Live Aid but this time it would be Ocean Aid. Many stars from the world of music, such as Ed Sheeran, Mick Jagger, Kanye West, Cerys Matthews, Chrissie Hynde and Brian May, have spoken out about plastic pollution but I think I am leading the way when it comes to songs on the subject.
Music Interview Magazine
I am very grateful to Music Interview Magazine for publishing an in depth interview with me in which I explain about how I became alarmed about the ongoing threat from plastic. I mention David de Rothschild and how he sailed The Plastiki across the Pacific Ocean back in 2010. This was when I started following his work as an environmentalist and learned how bad the plastic pollution problem really is. Sadly, in the years that have gone by since then the size of the problem has multiplied on a mind-boggling scale, and we really do need to find ways of stopping it getting any worse and of getting as much of the plastic that is out there in the oceans out of them. Plastic is now everywhere. As micro-plastics it is in the air, soil and water. The environment worldwide has been contaminated by plastic pollution and plastic has entered the food chain which goes right up to us. This is why I sing: “Plastic kills the turtles and is eaten by the fish, plastic’s in the food chain and the dinner on your dish!” Please help me spread the word about my song and idea for an Ocean Aid concert. Plastic pollution affects everybody!
Please help me spread the word about “Ocean Aid!” It is certainly time for helping to save the seas! 
