Radio DJ’s, kings of the charity record in the late 80’s/early 90’s, what happened to Pat Sharp and Mick Brown next?
In 1975 London’s Capital Radio founded the Help a London Child (later renamed Help a Capital Child) to help disadvantaged young people with in the city, supporting children and young people affected by abuse, homelessness, disability, poverty and illness. The charity provides small grants to hundreds of local projects and groups located throughout London, who provide support and opportunities for these young people.
Capital DJ’s Mick Brown (born 1957) and Pat Sharp (born 1961) decided one way to raise money was through music and in 1988 they teamed up with hit songmakers Stock Aitken Waterman and recorded their version of the Michael Zager Band’s 1977 hit “Let’s All Chant“.
The song made it to No.11 on the UK singles chart, selling over 60,000 copies and raising awareness of the charity nationally. One year later they went back to the Hit Factory, this time to record Gonzalez’s 1979 hit “I Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet” and, this time, reached No.9 on the UK singles chart!
And so every April, the pair graced the charts with a re-worked cover and ‘helped’ a London child, eventually raising over £500,000 in doing so! In 1990 they covered Odyssey’s 1980 hit “Use It Up And Wear It Out”. In 1991 it was Jimmy “Bo” Horne’s 1975 hit “Gimme Some”.
The following year they recorded Peaches & Herb’s 1978 classic “Shake Your Groove Thing” and in 1993 it was Arrow’s steamy 1983 hit “Hot, Hot, Hot”. The singles stopped coming after that, but what happened to Pat and Mick?
Alongside his Djing, Pat Sharp co-hosted ITV’s alternative to Top Of The Pops, The Roxy in 1987 and 1988 and hosted the children’s TV show Fun House for ten years from 1989. He won the Worst Haircut award at the Smash Hits Poll Winners party three years running (1987, 1988 and 1989)! He joined Heart FM in 1997 and Smooth Radio in 2010. In 2011 he appeared in the 11th series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!. He continues to DJ and also co-hosts many 80’s music festivals, most notably Let’s Rock.
Mick Brown left Capital FM in 2007, after 29 years with the station. He has also hosted a number of TV shows including Video And Chips, BMX Beat and Night Network.
In 2011 it was announced that Capital FM had raised a total of £1,586,340 that had been awarded to 431 charities and voluntary groups through all our London grants programmes, benefiting over 84,000 of the Capital’s disadvantaged and most vulnerable children and young people.
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