Bow Boys Strike Success at Battle of the Bands

Last night saw the 4th annual Tower Hamlets Battle of the Bands hosted at Morpeth school in Bethnal Green.

The year 10 band (who had previous success performing Viva La Vida by Coldplay at this year's celebration of achievements evening) threw their hat in the ring and competed with a band arrangement of Royals by Lorde.

There were eleven bands representing five schools in total, with line ups from singer and accompanist to 7 part full rock bands, and band names as obscure as Purple Noodle, What's Eating Dexter Morgan and Psycho Muffin!

MC Vulcan compered the event and introduced the acts one by one. A band from Morpeth and one from Raines Foundation were up first and second, and the Bow band were called up third.

The band arrangement was a little different from the original song, they had listened to the original and carefully decided how they were going to put their own spin on it. Miss Jones had repeatedly said that it was quality and not quantity the judges would be looking for, so it would be better to perform a simpler song very well than a difficult song badly.

Jakub played a Glockenspiel in place of the synthesizer and Hamsa skillfully beatboxed his way through the verses and bridges before Paulo took over on Drums during the choruses. Damian anchored the performance together with a rhythmic guitar part and Farhad bought a sense of 'cool' with the bass guitar during the bridge and choruses.

Alfie would have been on keys but didn't manage to find the venue in time for the performance - a real shame!

The performance was great - the audience were drawn in very quickly and clapped along to Hamsa's beat boxing, girls from other schools whooped to show appreciation for his skill. The performance passed in an instant and the boys came off stage exhilirated and buzzing from the audience's reaction to their performance.

The other acts performed one by one and once they had all taken their turn the judges left the auditoruim to deliberate their winners. Trevor from CM stepped up to the mic to praise the bands as the standard of competition was very high. He showed us a video of the mentoring program the winning bands would be offered, the pupils were awestruck at how excellent an opportunity it was.

Finally the judges returned and gave their verdict. First outstanding female performer went to Lucy from Morpeth for her rendition of Turning Tables by Adele, secondly outstanding male performer went to Gilbert from Morpeth for his pivotal roles on drums and guitar in both the bands he played in.

Then for the big one...

 ...............drum roll please...............

And in reverse order, in third place were BOW BOYS!!! The boys were flabbergasted to be placed, and stumbled to the stage to collect their certificates and have their photos taken with the judges.

Congratulations also to the bands from Morpeth who placed in first and second, particularly to Psycho Muffin for winning first place with their very funny original song about a shaving a friends moustache! The audience participation in the middle was easily the most entertaining part!

Thank yous were said and the crowd filtered out of the auditorium, it was only then that the pupils appreciated the scope of the prizes on offer... for placing in this competition they will receive three excellent opportunities...

 Some recording time in a local studio to put together a track or short EP                                            The exclusive opportunity to perform at Music Space Live on the 25th March (more information here http://www.cmsounds.com/news/)An audition with CM to secure a place on their Music Space courses which helps to develop young bands in Tower Hamlets

(more information here http://www.cmsounds.com/courses/music-space)

CONGRATULATIONS to these pupils from the Music department, good luck with all the future events and keep practising your instruments as it clearly pays off!!

Thanks to Mr Robinson at Morpeth for organising this event and to Morpeth for hosting, and to Raines Foundation, Morpeth and Langdon Park schools for providing worthy adversaries and raising the standard of the competition. Thanks also to THAMES, Digital Village, and CM Sounds for judging the competition.

ROCK ON!!

Follow the music department on Twitter: @BowSchoolMusic