Local musician, music teacher and founder of the GOlive open mic platform, Mark Bleasdale, has released a song to raise funds for this online music community.

Recorded and produced at his Helsby studio, 'Stay in Tonight' is a veritable one-man show, the drums, bass, guitar, keyboard and vocals all being performed by Mark himself.

Written during this latest lockdown, the song captures the mood of our times, of a world stalled and lives hanging in the balance.

"How did it ever come to this?" Mark sings. "Too many gone, too many more due.

"It's plain and simple now, all know what we need to do.

"Just one more push, and try to remember: time marches on and the science will save us.

"We'll all get by if we all stay in tonight."

'Stay in Tonight' has already proved to be hugely popular, reaching an amazing No.2 in the iTunes singer/songwriter charts this morning.

With a little help from the people of Frodsham and Helsby, we might see it reach No.1!

All proceeds from the track will go into developing Mark's online platform, GOlive music, which, he explains, "has been the home for Kash22's Acoustic Jam night every Monday since March 2020.

In that time, it "has gone from reaching 20 to 1000 views per week," and now, Mark wants to take it to the next level.

"We are aiming to set up a live-streaming studio that will allow local musicians to play live and stream to their audience."

"Hopefully we are coming to the end of this pandemic and nothing would please me more than for GOlive not to be needed anymore," says Mark. "But we are not there yet and even when we do get to go out and see live music again, it would be great to have this still in place for the local musicians to use."

'Stay in Tonight' is available now on iTunes, Apple Music and Spotify.

You can watch and interact with GOlive open mic performances by joining the platform's Facebook group.