Listen to 4th year band, Tuesday Hangover, as they performed live at the Plugged Christmas Party at the Pyramid in Warrington on 18th December.

Tuesday Hangover

Vocals: Emma Howe
Guitarist: Will Marshall
Bassist: Matt Williams
Drums: Alex Lewis

E-mail: tuesdayhangover@live.co.uk

Become a fan of Tuesday Hangover on Facebook.

Watch their performance at the recent King’s Battle of the Bands at Vimeo.

Three King’s pupils were selected to compose new works based on a four note motif penned by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. These works were then given their premiere performances by Ensemble 10/10 at the Royal Northern College of Music in November 2009.

Thanks to one of our saxophone teachers for bringing this to my attention: jazz bagpipes!

30th November – Chasing Sheep is Best Left to Shepherds by Michael Nyman

See a performance of a live recording conducted by the composer himself on YouTube:

Michael Nyman has composed a lot of film music and this piece of music was for the film The Draughtsman’s Contract, one of many he worked on with Peter Greenaway. Nyman’s minimalist style music is based on Purcell, to add to the period setting of the film.

A very good question…or as I was asked yesterday in a rehearsal… “who is she?“

Courtesy of the mighty Wikipedia:

Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors and baby dolls, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock.

Alice Cooper was originally a band consisting of Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith. The original Alice Cooper band broke into the international music mainstream with the 1971 hit “I’m Eighteen” from the album Love it to Death, which was followed by the even bigger single “School’s Out” in 1972. The band reached their commercial peak with the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies.

Furnier’s solo career as Alice Cooper, adopting the band’s name as his own name, began with the 1975 concept album Welcome to My Nightmare. In 2008 he released Along Came a Spider, his 18th solo album. Expanding from his original Detroit rock roots, over the years Cooper has experimented with many different musical styles, including conceptual rock, art rock, glam metal, hard rock, new wave, pop rock, soft rock, experimental rock and industrial rock. In recent times he has returned more to his garage rock roots.

Alice Cooper is known for his social and witty persona offstage, The Rolling Stone Album Guide going so far as to refer to him as the world’s most “beloved heavy metal entertainer”. He helped to shape the sound and look of heavy metal, and is seen as being the person who “first introduced horror imagery to rock’n'roll, and whose stagecraft and showmanship have permanently transformed the genre”. Away from music, Cooper is a film actor, a golfing celebrity, a restaurateur and, since 2004, a popular radio DJ with his classic rock show Nights with Alice Cooper.

On VH1’s “100 Greatest artists of Hard Rock”, Cooper was ranked #20.

Thanks to Emma Walker for sending the following link, featuring the incredible Paul ‘Harry’ Harris playing the Harry Potter theme in (almost) every style known to man!

Watching it reminded me of a CD I discovered years ago with Dudley Moore performing the Grieg Piano Concerto. The last few tracks were some of the best musical parodies I’ve ever heard, and there are some of them available on YouTube:

 

23rd November – Somebody to Love by Queen

Suggested by Dave McIlroy, here is one of Freddie Mercury’s great songs! Find the original 1976 version at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxbFLYa0_bw, and here is a great live version:

Why not also check out a couple of different a cappella versions by the Yale Spizzwinks(?) (the ‘?’ is part of their name!) and some kids at Brandeis University:

Thanks to Dave for the suggestion – if you have any comments or ideas, please get in touch!

16th November – ‘Round Midnight by Thelonious Monk

This is a very chilled and skilled piece from a total jazz genius! It also features some superb examples of improvisation.

7th September – Galileo by the Jewel Tones

Find them on www.myspace.com/jeweltones.

This is a lovely cover of a song originally by the Indigo Girls – also worth exploring!

14th September – Dolphins make me cry by Martyn Joseph

Check it out through iTunes or YouTube:

21st September – The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams

This is a really beautiful piece, well worth exploring. Look for it on iTunes, Naxos Music Library (ask your Music teacher for the username and password) or YouTube:

28th September – The Goodman by Kate Rusby

You may have heard Kate Rusby singing the theme music for Jam and Jerusalem. Look for this song on iTunes or YouTube:

5th October – Autumn Leaves by Eva Cassidy

A real classic, just right for this time of year. Sung and played by many, many people; Eva Cassidy has a beautiful voice. If you like this, look for her album, Songbird.

All pupils in the main school assembly this week will have heard Ellie Sowden giving an amazing performance of a track from the album – I Know You By Heart:

12th October – Autumn from The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi

Another seasonal piece! This violin concerto is one of a set of four – each representing different aspects of the title season. Look for this piece on iTunes, YouTube or Naxos Music Library (ask your Music teacher for the login details).

2nd November – The Pretty Pride of Russia by Tom Hickox

The latest single release by Tom Hickox – available in iTunes or listen to it at www.myspace.com/tomhickox.

Tom has a very rich sound and writes complex lyrics – you can read reviews from The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph on his myspace page too. 

9th November – Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo performed by the Grimethorpe Colliery Brass Band

The solo part (originally written for guitar) is played by a flugelhorn. The photos accompanying the video are from the 1984-85 miners’ strike, and this arrangement of the piece was used in the 1996 film, Brassed Off:

Compare the brass band arrangement with the original version: