A seminal dance track recorded in a Leytonstone two bedroom house has been re-released to raise money for a war veterans charity.

Paul Hardcastle’s ‘19’ had huge international success in the charts going to number one in the UK and a host of other countries in 1985.

Hardcastle was inspired to create the song after watching Vietnam Requiem, an ABC American documentary that claimed the average age of an American combat soldier in the war was 19, as compared to the Second World War’s 26.

It was initially released on the tenth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War which gave him worldwide media exposure with local TV anchors re-recording the songs message in French, German, Spanish and Japanese.

30 years on the pioneering record, one of the first to use sampling technology, has been re-released with proceeds going to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) charity Talking2Minds.

The original video for Paul Hardcastle's 19.

In 1985 Paul Hardcastle was working as a Hi-Fi salesman in the day and busy staying up late to record '19' on a basic 8 track.

The Guardian went with him back to his old house in 98 Grove Green Road, Leytonstone, where he lived with his supportive mother.

“It must have been a nightmare for my mum, I took over the front room and managed to convince her that people these days watched TV in the kitchen,” he said.

“We had a 96-year-old woman living next door who would keep on banging against the wall when it was too loud.

“It used to annoy me but I realise now it was probably half my fault.

“She must have thought I was a lunatic with all that stuttering n-n-n-nineteen"

On the inspiration behind the song, Hardcastle said:

“I was 25 at the time, when I was 19 I was going out having a great time with my friends riding motorbikes not getting shot at in the jungle.”

“My record label thought I was coming from another planet when I showed it to them. But a young Simon Fuller (who went on to manage the Spice Girls and create Pop Idol) believed in it.

“He thought it was either going to be a massive flop or a massive hit, luckily it was big.”

However, the record had a muted response in America only making it as high as 15 in the billboard charts.

“It didn’t get to number one in the USA because radio bosses thought it was Anti-American, which it wasn’t,” Hardcastle commented.

“They were scared and I don’t think they wanted to remember the war.”

Now 30 years later, Hardcastle says he has done all he can with the record he envisioned as a musical documentary on the effect of war.

“I am proud of the legacy of the song and to have launched the anniversary edition at the House of Lords with the country’s decision makers,” he said.

“If you are going to send kids to war to protect us then you need to respect them when they are back.

“I met one soldier who developed PTSD 15 years after returning from the Falklands and it is clear people are still fighting the war in their heads.

“That is why I’m re-releasing the record for the last time, I want to get the last bit of good out of it.

Returning to his old two bedroom house in Grove Green Road Hardcastle noticed an empty space on the outside wall.

He said: “I would love a plaque here, Damon Albarn has got one on his home in Leytonstone, where is mine?”

Early Channel 4 TV footage on the release of Paul Hardcastle's 19.