IT’S 20 years since Dave Cherry’s song about Stairfoot roundabout shot him to stardom and changed his life.
On the evening of Saturday, August 14, 2004, the 78-year-old sat down at his home and began to write the hit song and it only took him ten minutes to create the majority of it.
He finished the rest a week later but he had no idea it would ‘change his life’ and subsequently raise more than £20,000 for Barnsley Hospice.
Dave said: “It’s got so many views now that I’ve lost count I’d say it’ll be in the millions now.
“It only took ten minutes and it became a cult classic.
“We only made ten copies of it but it was mad how many people wanted to get their hands on one.
“Everywhere I go people know I’m the man who made ‘the roundabout song’.
“Someone mentioned it to me when I was in Lanzarote.
“It’ll be put on my grave stone ‘Here lies the Stairfoot roundabout man’.”
Twenty years on and work is currently taking shape for a revamp of the roundabout due to congestion issues but he’s not planning to change the lyrics any time soon.
“I changed the words for songs about Birdwell Roundabout and Cundy Cross,” he said.
“But with the Stairfoot song everybody knows it. It’s changed my life.
“It propelled me into another life and I’m really proud of it.”