Drumming Workshop with Stevie Shanks

Castlereagh Arts was proud to offer his residents a great opportunity to improve their musical dexterity and have a bit of fun on a drumming taster session with Stevie Shanks!

Stevie Shanks is the drummer for Flash Harry, the UK and Europe’s best known Queen tribute band who has been playing for more than 20 years to audiences from Belfast to Atlantic City and Dublin to Dubai.

He came to Castlereagh to give our drum aficionados some hot tips and a valuable insight into drumming. He explained the aspiring drummers the basics in playing the drum, and then everyone gave it a try…

Mabel was very enthusiastic and didn’t want to leave the seat to the next participant, Sean, James and Betty were brilliant, and even our very own Arts Assistant Priscilla gave it a go! The participants didn’t want to leave the Civic centre…they all agreed that one-hour taster session was too short and they suggested to have another drumming session which would last at least two hours! We’ll see what we can do, and we’ll keep you posted…

                               

A School that Rocks!!

Another year, another great Rock & Pop School! Every year Castlereagh Borough Council in partnership with Castlereagh Community Safety Partnership and SEELB offers young people the opportunity to be involved in music classes with professional musicians and tutors. Now on its 9th edition, the Rock & Pop School proves to be an enriching experience and a great opportunity for young aspiring musicians!

The first week was dedicated to the Advanced group, a group of young experienced musicians who formed 4 bands and wrote and recorded 2 songs each! The second week was Beginners’ week, for the less experienced musicians…they formed 3 bands and recorded one song each…this year we had also one group from Dreamscheme taking part in the second week, they were great! The tutors from Making Music Workshop, among whom we had John Wilson, Linley Hamilton and Simon McBride, did a great job helping out the bands in writing the songs and stimulating them in practicing continuously in order to improve and perform better.

After two weeks of hard work, the big day arrived: the bands had to perform on Friday 5th August at Belvoir Players Studio. There was some nervousness, stage fright and excitement in the air! The Mayor of Castlereagh thanked everyone for their efforts and for having put so much in the Rock & Pop weeks; Linley Hamilton was the official compere of the afternoon, introducing the bands and telling the audience some funny jokes about the Rock & Pop weeks. Here’s the line-up of the concert:

- Acoustic Haze with Clear your Mind and Robot

- Greedy Eye with But it’s You

- Swallion Battalion with Life isn’t Easy

 

- Elemno P with Good Day

- No Vacancy with Don’t and My Downfall,

- Switch it Off with Tonight and Cos you Said,

- The Royal Scam with Fire and Hypnotized

 

 

 

In addition, one of the talented young musicians, Chris Rooney, surprised us all with a cover song by Rory Gallagher, one of his favorite musicians.

The concert was a great success, all the young Rock & Poppers performed brilliantly like professional musicians! The audience was really impressed and couldn’t stop clapping! Everyone left Belvoir Players super satisfied and with a smile on their face, still humming some tunes they listened to in the concert…