LOCAL singer-songwriter, businessman and author, Mark Leen, has just seen one of his songs featured in a movie which received its premiere in London last week.

‘Rise Of The Footsoldier 3’ is gangster movie starring Larry Lamb and Craig Fairbrass (both formerly of Eastenders) and Shaun Ryder of the Happy Mondays. Mark’s song, ‘The Old East End Tonight’, sung by Gary Driscoll, features prominently.

The whole thing came about when Mark was watching a TV show where two chefs, ‘The Hairy Bikers’ were travelling around Britain and visiting famous pubs.

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This particular programme focussed on London establishments made famous by the Kray Twins and other gangsters and featured a singer, Gary Driscoll, who is a crooner and actually sang at Reggie Kray’s funeral.

Mark loved Gary’s voice and was inspired to write a song with a ‘big band’ style backing in mind, about the East End. He wrote a draft of the song, contacted Gary, who immediately liked it and they set about recording ‘The Old East End Tonight’.

“Some movie producers heard the song and wanted it in not one, but two feature films. Kelvin Crumplin directed a fantastic video for Gary to go with the song,” said Mark.

Last week saw the premiere of ‘Rise of The Footsoldier 3’ in London and the song features prominently twice in the movie with Gary featuring in a scene singing the tune.

At the end title sequence, the song is played again. Both Mark and Gary’s name feature in the credits. The movie goes on wider release in the UK from November 3 and Mark hopes it gets an Irish release. Here’s a trailer for the movie which, clearly, isn’t for the faint-hearted…