Nine years on from Viola Beach tragedy Gold Discs arrive in recognition of 100,000 album sales

AS the ninth anniversary of the tragic loss of Warrington indie band Viola Beach approaches later this week, the families of the young band members have received a special Gold Disc.

One of those who received the Gold Disc in recognition of more than 100,000 sales of the Fuller Beans album ‘Viola Beach’, Ian Piers Dakin, the father of drummer Jack Dakin, made a rare post on social media in recognition of the award.

He said: “As a Family unit, we ALL tend to find that February, is our $h1tt1€$t Month of the Year.
“Today, however, I hope we have finally turned an incessant corner; as we have just received, by special delivery, our very own personal copy of the Viola Beach Gold Disc.
“Our initial intention, when we first heard of the Gold Disc, was to loan the disc to the British Music Experience museum, which is located at the Cunard Building, Pier Head, Liverpool and is where Jack’s Gretsch Broadkaster drum kit and portrait, are on proud display.
“But instead, we have now decided to next visit Liverpool and collect our copy of the Viola Beach silver disc, that we had previously loaned to the B.M.E. and we will be proudly displaying, both the Silver and Gold discs in our “Legends Bar” at home, alongside memorabilia to Musicians and Legends, such as John Lennon, George Harrison, Freddie Mercury, Richard Wright, David Bowie, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Brian Jones, Bon Scott and of course Viola Beach and many, many more………”

Pictures Paul Jackson

Families were notified the album had reached Gold on the 01/09/2023 – The delay in receiving the Gold Discs had been due to Covid, the war in Ukraine and a worldwide shortage of vinyl used for pressing LPs, meaning there is a significant gap between the high demand for vinyl records and the limited capacity of pressing plants to produce them, resulting in long wait times and difficulty obtaining certain albums on vinyl.
Ian added: “Personally, I couldn’t thank SJM and the record companies enough, for all the effort and the constant updates, support and empathy they have given to all the families, whilst we have been awaiting the discs.
“For us, the disc could not arrived at a better time.
“We would also like to thank the British Music Experience Museum, which is located on the ground floor of the Cunard Building at the Pier Head in Liverpool and is where Jack’s Broadkaster drumkit and one of his portraits are displayed, in the drum section of the Museum.
“We regularly visit the B.M.E. and all the Staff are truly amazing and treat us all with an incredible amount of love and empathy, that they make us feel like we are part of the family.”

The display at the British Music Experience Museum

Viola Beach band members Jack Dakin, River Reeves, Kris Leonard, Tom Lowe and their manager Craig Tarry sadly lost their lives while on their first overseas tour in Sweden on February 13th 2016.
The band had been due to play a homecoming gig at the venue on returning from their first European concert.
But they tragically died when their car plunged from a bridge in Södertälje, Sweden on February 13, 2016 – a tragedy that made headline news around the world.
An inquest in December 2016 said the exact facts of the tragedy might never be known, but all five young men died as a result of a road traffic collision.
The tragedy occurred after the band had performed at a music festival near Stockholm when they were returning to their hotel.
The tragedy captured the hearts of the nation as the band’s single Swings and Waterslides reached number 11 in the charts, followed by the band’s self-titled posthumous album reaching number one.
In 2016 Cold Play paid tribute to Viola Beach by performing a cover of their song “Boys That Sing.”