An Irish soul and pop singer is heading to schools in Burton and Swadlincote as part of a nationwide campaign to stamp out bullying.
Sion Hill will be performing at Granville Sports College, in Midway, and Paulet High School, in Stapenhill on Wednesday, September 20, to raise awareness of the issue.
He will sing for thousands of young people over the next few weeks before sitting down to open up about his personal experiences with cyberbullying and discrimination.
As part of the schools' tour, the singer will also be performing new single Beaches from his latest album Elephant, which is now available to buy and stream on all platforms.
Sion said: "With the evolution of social media, our attention spans have become shorter than ever. Rarely do we do anything without needing to film or document it on our smartphones.
"Beaches is a call for a revolution of the self; to step away from the online world for a moment and think about what is really important,concentrate on real relationships and read something that's longer than a page long article on college times."
Jo Kingswood, principal of Granville Sports College, said: "We take our anti-bullying work incredibly seriously and because of this, incidents of bullying are very rare at Granville. However, anything that supports us to be proactive rather than reactive is something we would always want to explore so the opportunity to have Sion was not something we wanted to miss.
"Young people today live in an online society and unfortunately, that presents real and ever present dangers to them. We hope this workshop will reinforce to them their own responsibility for how they behave in the online world, their responsibility towards others and measures they need to take to keep themselves safe.
"We have seen in the past the impact that having visiting speakers and performers to our school can have and we are confident Sion will deliver the messages in a contemporary and exciting way."
Who is Sion Mill?
Sion Hill is an Irish soul and pop singer who is currently touring Europe with his new album Elephant.
The singer was picked up by Germany-based Indie label Clouds Hill after years of gigging in Irish pubs. He recorded his debut album Elephant after impressing producer and owner of Clouds Hill Recordings, Johann Scheerer, in the studio.
Sion Hill's debut album features 12 tracks, which were penned by the himself, and are described as bursting with a mix of soul, pop, gospel, country, folk and funk.
His influences include Louis Prima, Elvis Presley, The Frames, Paddy Casey, Eminem, Leonard Cohen, John Mayer, Amy Winehouse, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks, Coldplay, Paolo Nutini and Bob Dylan.
