Derbyshire's popular Heights Of Abraham spurs music legend to write song

John’s song is called On The Heights of Abraham and he is not only the composer, but sings on it accompanied by the children’s choir Wi’Kid Singers.

A video for the film shows John playing guitar in a cable car, going down a cave and meeting a couple of historical re-enactmetnt characters at the popular visitor destination.

John said: “We have lived on the hillside next to The Heights of Abraham since 1973 so I’ve known the place very well before and after the cable cars were installed. We can see the cable cars from our house. Our house was bedsits which we lived in as student teachers before we bought it off the landlady.

"I've recently done a series of gigs for the new live music events at the ‘Heights’ and thought it would be nice to write a song for them. I wrote the song in a couple of hours on a Wednesday in May and then performed it in a show up there two days later. It’s quite a busy song with lots of lyrics so although it didn't take long to write it took quite a time and several performances to arrange, rehearse and tweak before I felt it was finished. It's got a bouncy seaside feel which, of course, suits Matlock Bath!"

David Thornton, head of marketing at The Heights of Abraham, said: "John has been performing on our amphitheatre stage on many occasions this year, and our visitors love him. When we heard the song he'd written about the cable cars we couldn't resist the temptation to make our own video of the song. We had great fun filming on a very warm day in June, and we're looking forward to welcoming John back again during the summer holidays".

John said: “The last song I wrote in this idiom was for a song competition ‘Write a Song For Scarborough’ in 1980. It took me 20 minutes to write and I won £500 with it after performing it in the finals with a 32-piece orchestra. Not a bad return for my 20 mins!

"I am now 73 and finally getting around to some of those things I never had time to do as a professional musician! I don’t seem to be very good at this retirement lark! My wife Anne thinks I'm not trying hard enough...”

John has written songs for much of his life and was 12 years old when he made the school bully cry when he wrote a song about a dying dog. He said: “I suppose I was tapping into that early 60s fashion for pathos songs like Old Shep and Nobody’s Child. When I wrote the dying dog I didn’t realise that songwriting might becone a way to earn a living!”

Throughout his career John has taught and produced music but is probably best known as the frontman with Please Y’Self, the skiffle band he founded with his brother Rob, who plays tea chest bass, and their sister Chris, on keyboards, 51 years ago.

John said: “Please Y’Self were filmed by ATV Today in summer 1985 in the cable cars and on the river (in a rowing boat) miming to our single Surfing UK which we were bringing out just before we did a tour of 'the freezing Falklands'.”Please Y’Self have graced four different stages at Glastonbury, done gigs with Dire Straits and The Clash and twice toured with Jools Holland.

Among the many strings to his bow, John runs music nights at The Fishpond in Matlock Bath on the second Thursday of the month under the title The Garage Show with John Gill and Friends.