A MUSICIAN who wrote a jaunty song in praise of Pyrford has produced a follow-up, listing the delights of towns and villages across Surrey.

Surrey Song by Ian Wishart is in a similar style to his Pyrford Song, which has raised about £2,500 split between Woking Hospice and NHS Charities Together.

The News & Mail reported in May how Pyrford Song proclaims that there is “no other place in Surrey that I’d ever wanna be,” and was already a local hit, having been written a couple of years ago and sung at various venues by Ian and Mark Hanington in a pub singalong style similar to Chas and Dave.

The follow-up is subtitled “an apology from the Pyrford Song … sort of” and includes reference to 57 town and villages, some of which were gently mocked in the first song.

Ian sings: “We were only joking in poking fun at Woking. We’re happy to agree, Surrey has a lot to see.”

He adds that, “it’s often that my feet walk the streets of West Byfleet” and that “now and again I tend to end up in Send.”

Some of the compliments are a little backhanded, including: “New Haw, New Haw, so good they named it . . . once!” but then adds that “there’s the Clandons and the Horsleys, Cranleigh and Bramley. And we all get along cos we’re really like a family.”

Ian said he was pleased with the second song, which is a combination of pub song mixed with a little of the Only Fools and Horses theme with a touch of Gilbert & Sullivan.

Viewers of Surrey Song are being directed to donate to Woking Hospice, which has suffered from fundraising events being cancelled because of COVID-19 and its charity shops having to close.

Ian said he enjoyed finding lyrics to match for Surrey places, even if the modern boundary is a little stretched in the song.

“I know that Croydon, and a couple of other rogues, hasn’t technically been in Surrey since 1965, but why let facts get in the way of a cunning rhyme?”

Ian said that some people had asked him if he was going to write more songs for other towns and villages, but he was not keen.

“I feel like I’ve done it now,” he said.

To watch Ian perform Surrey Song, visit  https://youtu.be/GEcWFn9edts.