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On Saturday evening In front of an audience of around 600 enthusiastic teenagers 11 bands from drawn from various local schools competed in an extravaganza of mainly rock music for a first prize of £500 and recording studio time to cut a demo CD.

 

Taking part were ‘My Robot Tongue’ from Barton Court and Chaucer Technology School who say they found their ‘sound’ in discordant punk, ‘Cherry and the Bakewells’ an Indie rock band from the Langton Girls School, ‘Sunset Leopard’ from Herne Bay High a group of musicians who initially met when they got together at a school carol concert and are influenced by bands as diverse as Black Stone Cherry and the Beatles.

 

Also from Herne Bay High came ‘Supernova’ with their variation of alternative rock and the second entry from the Langton Girls was the ‘Dani Groombridge Band’ who with their ‘soul’ influence contrasted with their rock inspired competitors.

 

Hard core rock came in the form of ‘Rise For Every Fall’ from Canterbury College who have apparently a large local following whilst from the Archbishops school’s came  ‘Johnny and the Monitors’ who were runners up last year and have played at Lounge on the Farm. Herne Bay High’s third entry was ‘Rose Above Thorns’ a recently formed band influenced by the Rolling Stones and Kings of Leon.

 

‘Twisted Biscuit’ was the only entry from the Langton Boys School to make the final and have been playing together since 2007 whilst a group drawn from various Thanet Schools ‘Keep Method’ are described as ‘screamo-rocker’s and are inspired by bands such as Fall Out Boy and Enter Shikari. Finally Langton Girls provided ‘Covered In Ketchup’ a three-piece Indie rock band who did well last year and have also appeared at Lounge on the Farm.

 

 

As the bands pumped out their individual sounds ear defenders were defiantly the order of the day for some of parents who had attended the event and members of the Rotary Club who had volunteered to assist.

 

On the Kings Hall floor the enthusiastic audience showed their support for the bands with the apparently traditional act of ‘moshing’, jumping and bumping into others as the 11 bands fought out a keenly contested competition that saw the band ‘Rise For Every Fall made up of pupils from Canterbury College emerge victorious.

 

Guitarist Josh Courtice (17) speaking on behalf of winning band ‘Rise For Every Fall’ said ‘It was brilliant event. We had a lot of support from Herne Bay High School, where we all met, but when we heard the other bands doing their sound checks in the afternoon we realised there would be a lot of good competition."

 

Our current line-up had only been together four months although the boys entered the contest last year with a different singer under the name of Blood Shaft. Our line-up also features a new singer, Jake Presley, Jacob Hunt on bass and Jamie Ironmonger on drums.  Jamie is still at Herne Bay High School, Jake and Jacob are now both at Canterbury College and Josh has now left school.

 

Whitstable Rotary Club’s Robb Webb who organised the event said ‘this was the second time we have staged the event and like last year the evening was ‘an experience’ the energy and passion shown by the bands and the audience was fantastic and what was amusing and gratifying was that despite the ‘angry’ nature of some of the bands music they all came off stage and very politely thanked me asking if we are staging the event next year. That however is at the moment under debate as we are concerned about the ‘moshing’ and at times over enthusiastic displays in the audience. Fortunately nothing serious occurred but we will be talking with all those involved about any future event’.

 

 

Mr Webb continued ‘our thanks go to our sponsors Kent County Council, Cllrs David Hurst and Mark Dance, to compare local DJ Bob Le Roi, Herne Bay music shops ‘FSC Music’ and ‘Music Bay’, ‘Art Projects for Schools and New Perspective’ ‘Chaucer Insurance’ and to ‘Herne Bay High School’ for all their help. I am please to say we have risen in excess of £2500, which will be shared, between the top two competing schools, which were Herne Bay High, and Simon Langton Girls with remainder going to Rotary supported charities.

 

 

On Sunday the tempo changed as the club staged it’s 13th Annual ‘Charity Gala Concert’ at the Whitstable Playhouse featuring the students of Kent Music

 

The association between the Rotary Club of Whitstable and Kent Music (formerly known as the Kent Music School) is one of which the club is justifiably proud and goes back 13 years over which period of time the concert held at the Playhouse has seen hundreds of Kent Music’s students perform and in the process raise several thousands of pounds for charity.

 

This years programme featured the Concert Band who played arrangements by their Director, Christos Andreou of the Righteous Brothers ‘Unchained Melody’ and the theme tune to ‘Hawaii’ Five O’ by Morton Stevens and there was an excellent interlude from piano soloist 16-year old Jessica White Pearson from Faversham who performed three items including Debussy’s ‘Clair De Lune’.

 

The Youth Choir under Director Kerry Boyle and accompanied by Pianist Esme Humm performed a medley from ‘My Fair Lady’ the popular musical by Lerner and Loewe and during the interval the Clarinet Ensemble entertained in the bar.

 

The highlight of the evening is always the ‘Proms style finale with the Youth Orchestra under Director Steve Wassel. This year their programme included a splendid rendition of Leroy Anderson’s ‘Bugler’s Holiday’, Andalucia’ by Ernesto Lecuona, a selection from ‘Les Miserables’ by Claude Michel Schonberg, Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No1, Henry Wood’s ‘Fantasia on British Sea Songs’ which featured soloist Carrie Patterson an 18-year old performing arts student singing ‘Rule Britannia’ all of which was accompanied by the usual audience participation, flag waving and trumpet blowing and of course Parry’s Jerusalem to  end the evening on a traditional note.

 

Speaking afterwards Kim Foster who has organised the concert throughout its 13-year history said ‘this was probably one of the best evenings we have had. Each year the performances seem to exceed the previous with all the students excelling themselves and we had some magnificent performances from the soloists. Our thanks go to Kent Music and its students, to the Lindley Players and their stage and lighting crews who worked tirelessly overnight to prepare the playhouse and to our ever loyal audience who have made this one of Whitstable Rotary Club’s most important and popular events. This year our audience of over 150 have helped us raise a net total of around £1500 which will be shared between Kent Music and the ‘No More Landmines’ charity’.

 

Summing up the weekend Rotary Club President ‘Roger Baker said’ it has been an extremely busy period for our members with two contrasting music events. Both have proved very popular with performers and audience’s alike and we are delighted that the weekend has raised around £4000 for good causes and provided two diverse musical experiences for young people in our area’.

 

For Kent Music Students Meridyth Dickson and Clarice Goff it too was a busy weekend, for on Saturday they formed part of the band ‘Cherry And The Bakewells’ at the Battle of the Bands, a total contrast to their performance with Kent Music on Sunday. No doubt they would say variety is the spice of life!

 

 

 

 

Weekend of Musical Contrasts for Rotary Club

 

 

It has been a weekend of musical contrasts for the members of the Rotary Club of Whitstable when they staged the second ‘Battle of the Bands’ at the Kings Hall, Herne Bay on Saturday evening (March 7th) followed on Sunday by its ever popular Charity Gala Concert featuring the students from Kent Music, two days of events that have seen 114 performers and audiences totalling in the region of 750 people and in the process raising around £4000 for various causes.