BRIGHT RED - PRESS RELEASE

Cornish Singer/Songwriter releases single inspired by Desecration of Beautiful Carbis Bay for G7 Summit.

ENTERS ITUNES CHARTS AT #1
FEATURED IN THE TIMES, BBC R4
NUMEROUS MEDIA APPROACHES

Single Release Date: Tuesday June 1st 2021.
Video Release Date: Wednesday June 2nd 2021.

St. Ives based singer/songwriter Bailey Tomkinson, like so many fellow Cornish residents has been deeply disturbed by the destruction of the Cornish Coastal Headland by the G7’s venue’s hosts The Carbis Bay Hotel and the wider issues of poverty and lack of opportunities in the local area. In fact, she was so incensed she felt inspired to pen a new release and video support drawing attention to the issue.

It’s an issue that has clearly struck a chord with the single topping the iTunes Singer/Songwriter charts upon its release, and creating a significant amount of media attention including features in The Times, Cornwall Live and on BBC Radio 4.

Bailey, who made national headlines in February 2020, when as an unsigned, unmanaged artist, she outsold Dua Lipa and The Pussycat Dolls to reach number one in the iTunes Video charts, wanted to encourage people to look beyond the superficial veneer of the prosperous holiday town to see the real picture.

The result, co-written with Devon-based Luke Simpkins (who has cuts with The Vamps and One Direction) is a powerful, bluesy riff, highlighting local anger at “The paving of the bay”.

Bailey, who actually worked at The Carbis Hotel for a short time in her teens, said: “I wanted to use whatever voice I have to encourage people to look at the real lives of people in the area. I’m sure that the news around the G7 coming here will focus on the beautiful beaches and our golden sunsets, but one in three children in St Ives and Carbis Bay are born into poverty, the average house price is 10x that of the average income and it’s a situation that is getting worse.

The rich can’t keep taking from Cornwall. From the land and from the people. Second homes put the chance of buying property out of the reach of Cornish youngsters. The profits going outside of the county is like blood leaving the body, if you lose enough, the body withers and dies”

The actions of The Carbis Bay Hotel have drawn widespread local criticism after they bulldozed areas of the Carbis Bay headland, destroying trees and animal habitats without planning permission to make way for ‘meeting rooms’ they claimed were needed for the G7 Summit. A planning application had been rejected 3 years ago for those works and a new application which will be heard the day after the G7 Summit ends. Carbis Bay Hotel proceeded with the work regardless.

Says Bailey: “We’ve seen basically a leveraged buy-out of Cornwall. Speculators coming in, often at the expense of the local environment and we are rapidly becoming an area where not only can ordinarily people not afford to live, but soon normal people won’t be able afford to holiday here either. There are properties here costing £7.5k a week to stay in. It’s not sustainable, in every sense of the word.”

“I love my home and we need to protect it from those who would take from it, but not give back.”

Bailey’s single Bright Red is released on June 1st and will be available on all platforms. She will be performing at a number of festivals this summer including Cornwall’s Rock Oyster Festival, The Great Estate and Boardmasters.

Contact Sarah Woodward (Manager) on 07866 772136

The song can be found on https://ffm.to/baileytomkinson-brightred