Leeds Primary School choir Triumph in BBC Music comp

By Swapping Liszt for Lennon


This weekend at the hallowed ‘Maida Vale’ studios in London Meanwood Church of England Primary School from Leeds triumphed in the BBC 6 Music Weekend Breakfast Show’s unusual competition to find the best choral version of a rock/pop song.



The 53 strong choir from Meanwood Church of England Primary School stole the final with their tearjerking performance of ‘Saltwater’ by Julian Lennon. Weekend Breakfast Show presenter Natasha Desborough said; ‘ Saltwater did well in my eyes! It was a brilliant performance. The kids were amazing’.



The famous studios in Maida Vale – scene of recordings by The Beatles, Stones and Kaiser Chiefs - was packed to the rafters with excitable school kids who’d been up since 2am in order to travel considerable distances from Halifax, Dorset and Leeds, to make it to the studios for the live breakfast performance and to raise the roof with their choral rock songs.




The idea for the competition was sparked by a choral version of the Kaiser Chiefs hit ‘I predict a riot’ given the full choir treatment by Warrington based choir - The Cheshire Chord Company. The song was given to the ladies choir by the mother of a Kaiser Chief’s roadie. Natasha Desborough – the presenter of BBC6 Music’s ‘Weekend Breakfast Show’ heard the spine tingling version and launched the competition to find the best kids choral version of a classic 6 Music Song.



This is Hardchoral – the UK wide competition has really caught the public’s attention and looks set to change the way choirmasters recruit in the future!



Natasha says; ‘The response to the UK wide competition was brilliant, we had entries from all over the country, and it looked like Kaiser Chiefs fans from Yorkshire voted in their droves, beating off stiff competition to blag two final places for TWO Yorkshire Schools. Cross Lane Primary School, from Elland, nr Halifax and Meanwood Church of England Primary School, competed with The Funky Little choir from Christchurch Dorset. And it was only fitting that the three choirs should get to perform and record their choral ‘rock song’ live at ‘Maida Vale’.





BBC6 Music listeners – known for their credible music tastes deluged the studio with their texts and emails in response to the competition which aired three unusual versions of 'let is Be' (Cross Lane), 'Saltwater' (Meanwood Primary) and 'Sweet Child of Mine (The Funky Little Choir). Natasha Desborough says; ‘the response was wonderful and I’m thoroughly surprised at how wussy the 6 Music listeners really are – our listeners do have a heart!’





The final was judged by Ross Millard from the Indie band ‘The Futureheads’, Shaun Keaveny (seasoned XFM and BBC6 Music DJ) and by Denise Lines, Musical Director of the Cheshire Chord Company – the originators of the ‘hardchoral’ genre. Natasha says; ‘I nearly cried three times, all three choirs deserved to win and I’m glad it wasn’t me who had to make the final decision. In the end the judges unanimously decided that the passion shown by the Meanwood Choir was worthy of the trophy and the prize – something that tons of bands would love to have - two weeks airplay on BBC6 Music.’





IMAGES AVAILABLE FROM vikki@presscontact.co.uk 01322 866293 / 07886 673412



Notes to editors:

1. These links might be of interest – ‘why boys do not join choirs’ : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6434409.stm

£10 million package to boost singing in schools http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6264899.stm - £10

Labels: BBC, choirs, choral, Kaiser Chiefs, music, The Beatles

The Following cuttings aren't the definitive portfolio, I'm still waiting on a couple of cuttings to come through - including the Evening Standard's 'pick of the day' featuring Tom, butt naked but for his loin cloth on the top of Ayers Rock!

Voting is underway for the BBC6 Music Weekend Breakfast Show competition: 'This is hardchoral'; the search to find a kids choral version of a BBC6 Music song.

Ten schools, from across the UK, are fighting out to make it down to the final three.

The Reuters piece by Paul Majendie on The Simplified Spelling Society was pick of the day for 'Oddly Enough' and editors choice on Reuters. It also became pick of the day at Yahoo News, Tiscali News and MSN News, it then went on to become Yahoo! News: Most Emailed - Odd News of the day.




The story winged its way around the globe and led to radio appearances on BBC5 Live, Spin1038, Meridian TV and Australian ABC.









Papers across the globe picked up the story including: Cape Times, The Australian and The Daily Mirror.






The Simplified Spelling Society celebrate their 99th birthday AGM on SAturday 21st April at Birkbeck College, London.



Press & Publicity for the society managed and obtained by Vikki Rimmer and Press Contact www.presscontact.co.uk

A great picture of Will Jordan's amazing steel 'Baobab' or 'upside down tree', set within the grounds of Tom Hart Dyke's 'World Garden', makes it into The Independent. Tom and Will are chuffed

(FAST PITCH PRESS) Date Released: 04/10/2007
Natasha Desborough and her team at BBC6 Music' Weekend breakfast Show will have their hands full on Saturday 28th April with a studio full of kids vying for the big prize in the culmination of ‘This is Hardchoral’, the Weekend Breakfast Shows search to find the best kid’s choral version of a 6Music song.

The competition has been running for the past six weeks and was initially inspired by a choral version of the ‘Kaiser Chiefs’ hit ‘I Predict a Riot’ given a choral twist by Warrington based choir; ‘The Cheshire Chord Company’.

Tash and her team have spent the last six weeks asking Music teachers ;'Are you the Master of an alternative choir?' and parent; ' Are your kids in the coolest school choir around? Do they prefer singing Maximo Park to Mozart?'

Tash says; ‘We wanted parents to encourage their kids, we wanted music teachers to jump on board – it’s a great way of making music accessible to kids who are probably more interested in singing Maximo Park than Mozart. We wanted tracks from the current crop of bands we’re playing on the show ; The Kaisers, Razorlight, Snow Patrol, The Arcade Fire, or ifrom classic tracks like;, Hendrix, Stones, Led Zep, Radiohead or Oasis’.


The competition has received some really diverse entries from across the Country, sent in by kids keen to show their rock choral pedigree. Entries include a fantastic choral version of Gnarls Barklay’s ‘Crazy’, a tear-jerking junior school version of Julian Lennon’s ‘Saltwater’, a spookily good (Don’t fear)The Reaper’ Blue Oyster Cult and a slew of Beatles numbers.


Entries will be posted on the 6Music website over the weekend of 15th April. Listeners then vote for their favourites and the top three choirs will be singing live in the studio for a panel of ‘esteemed’ judges.

Every weekend ‘Tash’ wakes her listeners with a mixed grill of a breakfast, piling the plate high with comedy, great music and features including ‘Emo corner’, ‘Mortasha Queen of Darkness’ a debate over rock star hair do’s: ‘Mullet Over’ and fantastic music.

Presenter/ Natasha Desborough, Producer/ Mick Meadows, Somethin’Else BBC 6 Music

From The Sunday Times April 8, 2007

Going for a song
Interview by Vikki Rimmer

Tom Hart Dyke on Always Look On The Bright Side of Life/Monty Python

It’s always been about the plants for me. Plants and adventure. It’s in the blood. My two great-uncles — Boyd and Claude — were the first explorers to map the Nile region in Chad. Both, unfortunately, lost their lives in search of adventure, and lie buried in Chad. I was luckier than Uncle Boyd and Uncle Claude. I made it out of my “adventure” in one piece.

In 2000, I was kidnapped on a plant-hunting expedition that went spectacularly wrong. I was held hostage with my travelling companion, Paul Winder, in a remote region of South America called the Darien Gap. It is a place of legend, the only break in the Pan-American Highway, which runs from Alaska to the tip of South America. It is impregnable — a strip of swamp and jungle that was our home for nine long months.

Our captors were crazy. We never really worked out who they were, and they were extremely suspicious of us — at one point, they thought we were the CIA. We tried everything we could to persuade them that we were just Tom, a plant-hunter, and Paul, a bad skier and adventurer. In an attempt to sound like average Joes, we had promised to dance and sing for them. Not long into our ordeal, we were persuaded that we could put it off no longer. Paul suggested we sing Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.

As we limbered up, Paul even toyed with the idea of shouting a rock star-style “Hello, Colombia!”, except we were never really sure of our location in the jungle. Instead, I said in Spanish, “This is the national anthem of Great Britain.” Then I turned to Paul in a slight panic and said, “I don’t know the verses.” Paul told me not to worry. He would sing them. He started in a wavery baritone and I joined in when we got to “Always look on the bright side of life / De-doo-de-doo-de-doo-de-doo”.

We were rubbish at whistling, so we sang the “doo-de-doos” while kicking our legs in the air and flinging our arms upwards at the same time. I began to improvise and bring my knees up to meet my chin. “If life seems jolly rotten,” Paul sang, I kicked, “there’s something you’ve forgotten” — knees up — “and that’s to laugh and smile and dance and sing.” Paul screamed at the guerrillas to join in. Everyone was laughing; tears of laughter were rolling down the cheeks of a young female guerrilla. That was until I brought my foot down hard and accidentally crushed her little perrico bird, which had been perched behind me. There were 10 seconds of silence, then the whole camp exploded into laughter. Whenever I hear the song, I’m instantly transported back to what was the strangest period of my life.>



Tom Hart Dyke’s new book, An Englishman’s Home: Adventures of an Eccentric Gardener, is published by Bantam (£18.99, hardback); he can be seen in the BBC2 documentary series Return to Lullingstone Castle on Mondays at 8.30pm
Interview by Vikki Rimmer

Along with your birth weight, your name is the first piece of information your loving parents impart, on your behalf, to the world. Usually, this piece of precious news is delivered just to your family and their close friends, however, new parents Michael and Karolina Tomaro, have seen their special news bounce around the world. The couple from Sweden, recently hit the headlines worldwide with their court room battle centering on their choice of a name for their daughter Metallica. The state – in the form of Sweden’s National Tax Authority – say that ‘Metallica’ is ‘inappropriate’.

Little Metallica’s parents say that they checked in with the state first, and there was already precedent for the name. Metallica was duly baptized, but then tax officials stepped in. Under Swedish law, both the first name and surname of the child need to win approval from the authorities before being used. The couple declared to reporters; ‘we’re being driven to the frayed ends of sanity’ by the ordeal. (Apparently the band are being supportive - Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said he would consider calling his next child 'Budgie' by way of protest.)


This is not the first time the Swedish court has had to settle an argument over the naming of the country’s children - the names Ikea and Veranda have also been rejected in the past by the Swedish authority. Many liberals may see the naming of your child as an essential human right. But could it be a human wrong?……….

Back in the day, you could rely on your Grandparents to be the ones to provide you with a name that made you snigger. My Grandfather’s moniker ‘Edgar Horace Rimmer’ gave my brother and I hours of entertainment – and boy did we need it, for with a name like ‘Rimmer’ we knew all about playground ridicule. However, the recent proliferation of ‘Britney’s, ‘Mercedes’ and even a ‘Bently Coupe’ on the national register of names, has taken the sublime to the truly ridiculous, and has led to my quest to find out ‘what’s in a name?’ And why don’t the authorities care? Are we literally branding our children – it’s a hot topic that needs consideration for it would seem that as a nation we have no shame when it comes to names.




A quick trawl through the top ten names for boys and girls reveals little change in respectability over recent years – ‘Jack’ has occupied the top spot for the last 16, but, if you dig deeper – oh my!

My research material has centered on the shiny ‘get a life’ and ‘chat to me and play with my anagrams’ periodicals that proliferate and breed at a rate similar to their average reader. But my bible of choice, is the indispensable ‘Take a Break’. The letters page is pure gold dust, and once, (oh glorious memory) the magazine did a feature on readers names, with a chorus line of dancing Pepsi’s, Candi’s and Crimson’s while the boys were heroically geographical: ‘Indiana’, Leeds and Derby (I kid you not). The pages of this fabled issue are now as thin as rice paper due to over handling.

But what’s in a name? well, your name means everything – it’s who you are, it’s your own personal brand. ‘Metallica’ has her own label for a start! ‘Pepsi’s have a head start on merchandising with their own personal logo – with trade restrictions of course.


Will Bently Coupe and Pepsi be leaders in their fields? And will ‘Metallica’ suffer by association with a 90s rock band obsessed with death metal and ‘sandmen’.

Diana’s and Sarah’s are ‘passive and idealistic’

Is it possible that our characters are shaped by our given names? An extensive trawl of the internet yielded a scientific periodical of sorts http://www.kabalarians.com. ‘Kabalarian’s believe that your name is a mathematical equation – something that will reveal your personality, and will shape who you are.’ Wait a minute, I hear you say, ‘Kabalarians?’ aren’t they that lot that encourages you to drink their branded water costing £5 a bottle, then force you into attending Madonna gigs?

Well, maybe, but no one can deny that their most famous follower has a name that inspires brand loyalty, and it would take a brave man or woman to ridicule ‘Madge’.


The Kabalarian Philosphy teaches us that ‘The quality of one's mind—thoughts, desires, opinions, likes, dislikes, reactions—can be measured by the linking of the most personal form of language, one's name, to mathematics.’
Bingo! (please god that ‘brand’ name ONLY be considered in respect of four legged creatures!)

Maths AND science! I have the proof needed to back up the ‘name and shame’ thesis. And if further proof were needed, the Kabalarians take their brand ideas to pseudo scientific heights; ‘When language is used to attach a name to someone, certain specific forces of conscious intelligence are combined. They constitute the nucleus of mind, from which all thoughts and experiences flow. By representing the conscious forces combined in your name as a mathematical formula, ones' specific mental characteristics, strengths and weaknesses can be measured.’.

There’s even a handy name calculator at www.kabalarians.com And ‘Metallica’ was listed…..

• Although the name Metallica creates an interest in the deeper aspects of life, we emphasize that it limits your versatility and scope, tuning you to technical details.

• You have, also, a flair for creative expression with your hands.

• You take life seriously and can be easily and deeply hurt and go into moods which can be quite extreme at times, causing much turmoil and unhappiness


And despite this sounding every bit as scientific as a horoscope, I was intrigued to learn that Kabalarians believe ; ‘With an understanding of the basic principles of language and mathematics, the characteristics of any name can be calculated to reveal the mind of that person.’ There’s even some fairly accurate postulations: Barbara’s and Glenn’s are traditionally ‘reflective’ characters , while Diana’s and Sarah’s are ‘passive and idealistic’. But what of ‘Metallica’s state of mind, and how will it affect her destiny?
• This name, when combined with the last name, can frustrate happiness, contentment, and success, as well as cause health weaknesses in the heart, lungs, bronchial area, and elimination system
So, it would appear that the kabalarians and the Swedes are on the same page of the name book in their belief in the idea that the name you assign your child has real implications, not just in terms of associated character traits but also in the way your character is perceived by those around you. Should parents have the freedom to call their child whatever takes their fancy?

In the making of this article: no names have been changed to protect the innocents
by Vikki Rimmer

Digital Dial: Rick Shaw
It’s easy to get carried away by a Rick Shaw vehicle. No really , this rock radio demi-god knows how to put together a package that literally accelerates the mid morning. Rick’s been presenting his Sony award winning show on Kerrang! (exclamation compulsory) since the rock music station launched back in June 2004.

Despite its famous brand name, the station stands separate from the magazine beloved of teenage rockers and Rick Shaw’s audience is made up of mid-morning listeners keen for either a distraction from work or home, or those looking for some Living Colour on a drab work day.

Rick’s a radio man with a pedigree. He’s got Sony awards and everything! But more than that he has ‘the nouse’. He knows what works between 9-12. He’s the master at making a ‘brunch time’ snack – sandwiching comedy in between the music – the bread and butter of the mid-morning slot. It's an unwritten rule in RADIO that music must take precedent over speech at this time of the day. The Breakfast show is speach heavy with 70% of the airspace taken up with the spoken word. And while other stations fiddle with the music format and offer 'listeners choice' in various formats, Rick sticks to his guns and interacts with his audience on a level beyond asking for their top tunes.

Rick told me: 'Kerrang!is different in that we don't take ourselves too seriously, we are able to poke fun at ourselves and often we do which I think endears us to the listener even more and galvanises our relationship'.
by Vikki Rimmer

The 6Music Weekend Breakfast Show are hoping to do for this decade’s music what Hans Fenger did in the 1970s with The Langley Schools Music Project from British Columbia, who performed their favourite 60s and 70s hits in choral style. The resulting album ‘Innocence And Despair’ by the Langley Schools Music Project is a cult classic.

Monday 19th March 2007
News release: No Embargo


THIS IS HARDCHORAL
Are you the Master of an alternative choir? Are your kids in the coolest school choir around? Do they prefer singing Maximo Park to Mozart? Is your child more ‘punk’ than ‘choirboy’?

BBC6 Music’s Weekend Breakfast Show are scouring the UK, looking for the best choral version, by a kids choir, of a 6 music song. Natasha Desborough, presenter of the Weekend Breakfast show, says; ‘ it can be from the current crop of bands we’re playing on the show ; The Kaisers, Razorlight, Snow Patrol, The Arcade Fire, or it could be a classic, Hendrix track, or something from the Stones, Led Zep, Radiohead or Oasis’.

Alternative choirmaster, Natasha says; ‘We want parents to encourage their kids, we want music teachers to jump on board – it’s a great way of making music accessible to kids who are probably more interested in singing Maximo Park than Mozart.’ The competition is open to Kids across the UK, Natasha says; ‘ if you’re at school and you want to have a crack at this - get a load of mates together and get rehearsing.’

The idea for the competition was sparked by a spine tingling choral version of The Kaiser Chief’s ‘I predict a riot’, which has been given a new treatment by a Warrington choir: ‘The Cheshire Chord Company’. The song was taken to the choir meet by the mother of one of the Kaiser Chief’s roadies.
Entries so far include a spookily good rendition of ‘(Don’t fear) The Reaper’ (The Blue Oyster Cult) sung by a Cambridge junior school.

Entries via CD or MP3 will be accepted up until the closing date of Friday 13th April. For details on how to enter visit Natasha’s page on the 6 music website. www.bbc.co.uk/6music

All of the entries will go on the 6 music website, then over the weekend of the 15th April the 6 music listeners will vote for their favourite, the three with the most votes will come in the following weekend (21st) and sing live in front of a panel of judges with the winners getting what thousands of bands in the UK would love to have: two weeks of airplay on BBC 6 music.

Look out boys, the girls are coming.
By Vikki Rimmer
In the world of Rock Radio it used to be ‘a man’s man’s world’, and although it’s taken nearly forty years it looks like the sisters are really starting to do it for themselves on the big music stations. Until fairly recently female presenters were sidelined, awarded the late shift, travel or weather, that is until a feisty bunch, led by Jo Whiley and including Lauren Laverne at XFM, Natasha Desborough at 6 Music, Emma Scott and Rachel New at Kerrang! grabbed the mic and the wrestled the spotlight away from the boys. Rachel New gives Ugly Phil a run for his money in the Kerrang! breakfast studio, and her rock credentials are strong – she recently led a record breaking attempt for ‘most TV’s thrown out of a window’, live on air. Kerrang!’s the kind of station that requires an exclamation mark – it’s loud, it’s often heavy, but contrary to popular opinion, Rock Radio’s no longer the preserve of the boys, with many a male listener enlightened during drivetime by Emma Scott’s lively take on the day’s issues. In the 60s and 70s Bra burning wasn’t a feature of music radio, where the boys definitely had it covered, leaving the girls with just enough studio space at the mic to giggle as the presenters patted the butt of their jokes. And with the exception of Annie Nightingale, over the years, female music DJ’s have sounded dangerously like grateful groupies, cooing at the rock gods invited in to the studio. Thankfully this new bunch of girls are keen on flashing their music credibility, and with the likes of Lauren Laverne at XFM displaying wit and an encyclopaedic knowledge of rock music, girls are no longer between Rock and a hard place, they’re ‘taking the mic’ and leading from the front.

The Shaun Keaveny Show: 10.00pm – 01.00am BBC 6 Music (Mon-Thurs)Be prepared to make friends with new 6 Music host Shaun Keaveny who began touting his ‘Dream Ticket’ to gig fans six weeks ago, encouraging them to climb aboard this most eclectic of radio vehicles to ride shotgun with him as he replays sessions cherry-picked from the BBC archives. Monday night revisits the Kaiser Chief’s Nottingham gig – September 2004 - while Wednesday night’s rare Rolling Stones session from August 1965 celebrates what would have been Brian Jones’ 65th birthday. Live music comes courtesy of The Earlies this Wednesday and across the UK listeners will text in their live gig reviews. Keaveny’s made the show his own with quirky features including: ‘Roadies' Lives’ and ‘Festival Focus’ where this week you can revisit Reading 1992 minus your muddy wellies. Warning: if you make friends with ‘Keavo’ he’ll keep you up into the early hours flexing your texting thumb.
By Vikki Rimmer for Radio Times

Press and Publicity for KEO Films 'Return to Lullingstone Castle' BBC2 was a really great job - an excellent challenge that provided good results for both Tom, Keo and for me too. It was brilliant to see my pictures (my press release) included in so many diverse publications and on line.

The Daily Telegraph did a lovely piece on Tom Hart Dyke for page 3 on Monday 19th March - all pictures taken by Vikki Rimmer for Press Contact.

The big TV feature was The Weekend Daily Mail's full page on Tom Hart Dyke and his World Garden story and kidnap. The images used were taken by Vikki Rimmer for Press Contact

TV Picks of The Day were achieThe Daily Mirror,
The Sunday Telegraph, The Saturday Telegraph magazine, The Daily Telegraph (Monday), The Times Monday, The Times 'Knowledge', The Times' Bricks & Mortar', The Evening Stanrdard, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, THe Observer, The Guardian.

Pick of The Day in 'The Radio Times' and a full page feature with photographs taken by Vikki Rimmer for Press Contact

Television:
Through The Keyhole
to coincide with episode 3 of RTLC


BBC South Today :
Tuesday 12th – breakfast, lunch, dinner
Monday 19th March

Online:
Reuters
BBC online piece on Tom and the programme,
Feature on ‘The Reckless Gardener’ website
Gardeners World Website
Lullingstone website
Wikipedia
Tiscali Travel
Cosmic Gardening
Essex Online
Answers.com (brother to Wikipedia)
Burnham on Sea gardening club (rock and roll!)
Tescos.com books

After a visit from Reuters, to coincide with the 2nd week of transmission of BBC2's Return to Lullingstone Castle, Tom’s story flew around the globe and was included in ‘The Scotsman’ as well as dozens of online newspapers and periodicals.
The story was placed in India, New Zealand, The Gulf, South Africa and Europe.