Merry Christmas (Make Amends)
Mental health organisations are campaigning to push a Derbyshire musician’s Christmas song up the charts to champion men’s mental health after Mikey Heald, a pillar of the community in South Derbyshire, died by suicide in October 2025.
In 2024, HorthWorld, a Derbyshire-based band fronted by singer-songwriter Andrew Horth, released their Christmas song Merry Christmas (Make Amends).
Now, HorthWorld are re-releasing the song and a new music video with the support of mental health the National Charity Mind, local charity Derbyshire Mind, men’s mental health group ManClub and South Derbyshire MP Samantha Niblett. They are also working closely with Hope Collaborative CIC who are pulling together a community map of mental health organisations in Derby and Derbyshire. ITV are covering the filming of the music video. The production team of the music video included local Burton and South Derbyshire College students, and Nathan Thaker of Icons Talent and Events Ltd.
This comes after Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting announced the UK’s first men’s mental health strategy on International Men’s Day. Whilst the strategy is being implemented, for Samantha, raising money for Mind “felt like the right thing to do to improve men’s mental health provision both in South Derbyshire and across the country”.
Profits from sales of the song on Bandcamp will go to Derbyshire Mind.
What is Merry Christmas (Make Amends) all about?
Horth feels that Merry Christmas (Make Amends) is an “uplifting song tinged with melancholy, about maximising the limited time we have with loved ones we only see during the holidays.”
Horth, who grew up listening to Christmas classics by Slade and Wizzard in the 1970s, feels Merry Christmas (Make Amends) is an old-school style Christmas banger with rock guitars, a brass band, choir and tubular bells.
The song is about community and includes Melbourne Town Band from Horth’s village with string arrangements by Simon Nobbs in nearby Burton.
The choir includes members from Castle Gresley based Vocal Zone Voice Studio with vocal arrangements by Adam Hepkin. The producer and sound engineer Natt Webb hails from Chellaston.
During the writing process, the lyrics ‘Merry Christmas, see you again next year’ provoked the feeling that time during the Holidays is sacred as we often don’t find sufficient time to meet family members throughout the rest of the year. Christmas reminds us to check on our loved ones more often and hope they do the same for us.
HorthWorld is the brainchild of singer-songwriter Andrew Horth, based in Melbourne, Derbyshire. Pairing infectious melodies with lyrics that range from humorous to heartbreakingly candid, Horth weaves a diverse range of influences into a distinctive Alternative Rock sound, blending elements of indie, pop, power pop, punk, shoegaze, synth, and folk.
Listen Here !
All proceeds raised go to Derbyshire Mind
All profits from this single will go directly to Derbyshire Mind, enabling us to support more people in Derby and Derbyshire with their Mental Health and Wellbeing.
A donation will also go to National Mind to assist in promoting the need for Mental Health support and services to be a priority for Men’s Health in the UK
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Melbourne Town Band
The song is about community and includes Melbourne Town Band from Horth’s village with string arrangements by Simon Nobbs in nearby Burton.
The choir includes members from Castle Gresley based Vocal Zone Voice Studio with vocal arrangements by Adam Hepkin. The producer and sound engineer Natt Webb hails from Chellaston.
A few words from Samantha Niblett MP for South Derbyshire
“I’ve had the pleasure of championing a wonderfully uplifting project recently: supporting the promotion of Merry Christmas (Make Amends), a fabulous festive collaboration by Melbourne-based band HorthWorld, the Melbourne Town Band and Vocal Zone Voice Studio Ensemble based in Castle Gresley.
This single is a testament to the creativity and talent we are fortunate to have here in South Derbyshire. I’m using my platform as MP to try and get it as much coverage as possible in the run up to Christmas.
We have forged a partnership with Derbyshire Mind as we want to use the song to also help raise awareness for men’s mental health. Last week saw the government launch the first ever Men’s Health Strategy of which mental health is a key part and I’m delighted this Christmas song project has the support of Wes Streeting too.
As we head into the festive season, it’s heartening to champion something so rooted in community spirit and artistic collaboration, with an important message about support for men’s mental health, the song is set to hit the airwaves from Monday with a video to follow soon!”
Important Information
More men under 50 die in the UK by suicide than for any other reason
74% of all suicides are male
Approx 14 men die by suicide in the UK every week
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Suicide is the main cause of death in young people under the age of 35 in the UK.
In 2023, 1,840 young people under the age of 35 took their own lives in the UK.Around three-quarters of them were boys or young men.
On average, around five young people take their lives each day.
Over 200 teenagers are lost to suicide every year.
Research shows that with appropriate early intervention and support, suicide by young people can be prevented.
Information from Papyrus
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5717 suicides were registered in 2024*. This is 61 more than in 2023.
Males aged 50-54 years were found to have the highest suicide rate (26.8 per 100,000).
Data from Office for National Statistics publish suicide data for England
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