Irishman singing all way to No 1 in UK top-selling Christmas single chart

An Irish musician was celebrating last night as the single he sang on became the Christmas number one in the UK this year.

Tiz McNamara from Cork is delighted that Justice Collective’s version of The Hollies’ hit ‘He Ain’t Heavy — He’s My Brother’ has been confirmed as the top-selling single for Christmas.

The Justice Collective featured the likes of Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, Mel C, Beverly Knight, and Mick Jones, as well as producer Guy Chambers, a collaborator of Robbie Williams.

“I have been playing music from a really young age and to have sung on a No 1 single with Paul McCartney and many, many more amazing musicians has been beyond my wildest dreams,” he said.

The single will help raise money to cover legal costs for the families of people who died at Hillsborough in 1989.

The star-studded single pipped X Factor winner James Arthur’s version of ‘Impossible’, not that the laid-back singer minded too much. On Friday he tweeted: “Platinum single baby! Not a bad start.” He thanked all those who bought his single and then urged people to make sure that the song for the Hillsborough families got to No 1.

Tiz McNamara has been based in Liverpool for the last year as he attends Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), which was co-founded by Paul McCartney. The head of music at the institute personally asked Tiz to sing on the single.

After living in Liverpool since Sept 2011, the musician is very aware of how important the justice campaign was in the city.

He describes studying at the LIPA as a “fantastic experience” and has been taught by the ex-Beatle.

“In May last year Paul McCartney came into the college to teach third year songwriters and in the afternoon we had a class with him where he gave advice, talked about his songwriting partnership with John Lennon and took questions from us.”