A PANTO star, a pair of comedy siblings and the frontman from Black Lace tonight kick-started a series of recording sessions for a new version of You'll Never Walk Alone.

The football anthem is being remade to help mark the 30th anniversary of the Valley Parade fire disaster.

Billy Pearce, the Chuckle Brothers and Dene Michael lent their voices to a recording of the song at Voltage Studios in Bradford.

Money raised from sales will go to the Bradford Burns Unit, which was set up in the wake of the tragedy.

Organiser Lloyd Spencer, a lifelong Bradford City fan who started a campaign in January to record the song, said it was exciting to finally get going.

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"We have got the music down and have been doing it over the last couple of weeks," said Mr Spencer, who hopes to repeat the success of 1985 when a charity version of the number was recorded in the wake of the fire, which killed 56 people.

"Now this is the start of it. This is when it starts to get exciting. Getting in the studio and putting some vocals to it is exciting.

"Hopefully it might make the charts, you never know.

"We are hoping to make as much as we can."

Mr Spencer said there were four or five recording sessions to come over the next few weeks.

He also hoped to get players from Bradford City and Bradford Bulls involved, and to get a recording of fans singing at Valley Parade.

He said: "We are trying to get normal people involved, normal fans."

Despite starting the project, Mr Spencer admitted that he wasn't actually a fan of the song, given its links to the disaster.

"I have to be honest, I do not like the song because of what happened and the reason why it was released," he said.

"It is raising money for a good cause and hopefully putting it back in the spotlight. The Bradford fire always seems to be pushed to the back. It was only this year the FA and Premier League have done something."

Mr Spencer was at Valley Parade on the day of the fire, in the stand opposite where the blaze was, and has friends who were injured.

He remembered: "It was really weird, a really numb feeling. You had seen it happen right in front of your eyes.

"It was like a movie."

  • The single is set to be released at the end of May.