Prose team up with the Manchester Survivors Choir on charity single A City United

A year after the devastating terrorist attack in Manchester which killed 22 people, Manchester band Prose have teamed up with the Manchester Survivors Choir for the charity single, A City United. 

The song was written last year by Prose, who were asked by Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham whether they would be interested in releasing it as a charity single. The song then came to the attention of the Manchester Survivors Choir, who collaborated with the band.

The release is the first for the Manchester Survivors Choir, which was initially formed as a support network for those who were in attendance at the Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena on the night of the attack.  

The choir said: "When we saw Andy Burnham’s tweet about the single, we knew we had to get in touch with Prose. We loved the song, the lyrics and everything it stood for and really hoped we could be part of it. They were singing about us, so it just felt right."

Continuing, they added: "It has been an amazing experience for the choir to collaborate with the lads from Prose. The young people in the choir were so excited to get the opportunity to go to a professional recording studio. It was wonderful to see them all smiling, laughing and having the confidence to sing and be recorded. It is a tough song for us to sing, the lyrics are so moving and take us back to that night."

Prose's Mike Murray said that the song initially came about when he and bandmate Lee Royle were in the studio the day after the horrific attack. 

"Like everyone, we felt devastated after the Manchester bomb attack. The following day we were in our studio and there were still a lot of people searching for missing family members and we were talking about how awful it must be for the families of the victims," he said. 

"The whole city was in complete shock that something like this had happened here and at a music concert with so many innocent people just trying to have a good time. We both felt very emotional and just started expressing how we felt. Lee started playing the piano, I started singing and without realising it we had the basis of a song, but we didn’t know what to do with it!"

Prose and the Manchester Survivors Choir's song A City United is available now. All proceeds go to the Manchester Emergency Fund and Peace Foundation. Both acts will perform the song at the Manchester’s Parklife Festival next month.