The Marsh Family are an English family musical group. The group consists of parents Ben and Danielle Marsh and their children Alfie, Thomas, Ella, and Tess Marsh. The family live in Faversham, a town in Kent. The Marsh Family uploaded a parody of “One Day More” to Facebook in March 2020, satirising life during COVID-19 lockdowns. The video went viral, reaching over seven million views in three days. It led to the family’s earning international news coverage and appearing on ITV’s This Morning and BBC Breakfast. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the family parodied numerous songs to describe their experiences. After the group’s parody of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” went viral in February 2021, Isabella Kwai wrote in The New York Times, “This six-voice choir, with its sweet harmonies and the occasional wobbly note, is creating songs that dramatize the mundane moments of lockdown life, from too much screen time to the horrors of remote learning.”
Ben (the Dad) usually gets the ball rolling with lyrics and arrangements, but everyone brings something to the table – song choices, instrument preferences, video ideas, and different kinds of energy. Ella brings the sunshine and warmth but is capable of occasional monumental strops. Tess, in spite of being the youngest, probably brings the most professionalism once the tape is rolling, and is always ‘on it’. Danielle (the Mum) has a voice that can deliver amazing vocals but also very loud instructions to keep people coordinated. Alfie has incredible musicality and versatility, and Thomas brings character and humour and much-needed patience. So it takes a team effort, and the mix is a bit unconventional, but a lot of it comes from just enjoying working together on projects.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the family released many parodies of songs. They created their YouTube channel in April 2020. Using a recording device they acquired during Christmas, the group performed a cover of the song “Under Pressure” without changing the lyrics as they felt it was appropriate for the pandemic. Moved by Black Lives Matter’s overturning a slave trader’s statue in Bristol, they created their own version of Amazing Grace”. To commemorate the safe completion of the children’s grandfather’s surgery in 2020, Ben Marsh composed the original piece “The Prostectomy Song”. With “cheeky lyrics”, the song included the verses, “With no prostate, //You can celebrate //You can contemplate, //You can weeeee!” Danielle Marsh’s father, John Burn, had received a prostate cancer diagnosis in 2018.
In December 2021, they released “Mack the Knife (Prostate Cancer – Facts of Life)” to raise awareness about prostate cancer which Danielle Marsh’s father had recovered from after surgery. Written by Ben Marsh, the song parodies the Bobby Darin song “Mack the Knife”. Filmed at the Moth Club in Hackney, the music video showcases employees from Prostate Cancer UK and Danielle Marsh’s parents, John and Linda Burn. The Marshes made the video to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK.
As for the future: Ben Marsh says “We asked ourselves this question on New Year’s Day! We reckon we’re going to reach a tipping point soon where we need to either fully commit to a vision, set some objectives, and take ourselves a bit more seriously – for instance by doing some livestream gigs or even live gigs if we can get the right support, and seek to make our music and activity financially sustainable. OR we decide that the experience has been a great part of navigating this phase in our lives, and we’ve got lots to be proud of, but we can treat it as a weird kind of musical photo album of the kids’ adolescence – and potentially a platform for one or two of them to jump off if they wish to in the future. I guess we’ll partly be guided by what listeners think of our original music and what we’re producing!”
