Kids in London – London Military Festival

This must be the most unexpected success of the year in terms of music quality and sheer family entertainment value. A free outdoor concert at Kneller Hall – the home of military music nestling in the shadows of Twickenham Rugby ground – that was part of a three day recruitment fair to persuade youngsters of the merits of a military career.

Apologies if my skills as a music reporter leave a little to be desired but the event really does merit detailed comment.

Although it had started at 7pm, we turned up about 8pm equipped with rugs, a picnic and lots of jerseys in case it got cold. Big mistake – the hoards (maybe 5,000 people?) had all taken along portable chairs – and there were plenty of stalls selling drinks, eats and – happy kids – a variety of light treats (as well as light sabres and flashing bunny ears there were some awesome oscillating sceptres and things that looked like UFOs). Plus the weather was incredibly mild – no need for those extra jerseys.

Anyway, there were three stages. A large central stage and two smaller stages on either side. The format for the evening appeared to be three numbers for each “act”. Now bearing in mind all the acts were composed of young people currently employed in the British Army the variety of music genres and the quality of singing and musicianship was mind blowing. Simon Cowell eat your heart out - the X factor was here!

As we arrived we caught Chango Mutney, fatique wearing rockers with a credible female on bass, playing out with “I predict a riot” on one of the small side stages. The presenter mentioned a few people who had travelled down from Scotland for the gig, talked a bit about the popularity of “Rhythm Force” and mentioned that a ten year old had selected the second London Military Festival as the venue for his birthday celebrations. Event sponsors – Harlequin Events – got a well deserved plug too. Then – on the central stage – was the “Army Big Band” – a large orchestra with a significant brass contingent. The sort of music you’d expect from the army – but played with more style and vigour than you can imagine.

Then we were entertained by “Funky Monkeys” who did some pretty good covers of favourite Blues Brothers numbers such as “Sweet home Chicago” and “Try a little tenderness” and then a James Brown classic. Then there were another three guys – didn’t catch their name but it sounded like “Drayton Frank” who did excellent covers of some Artic Monkey numbers.

I have to say at this point that the audience was about as varied as you can imagine – from toddlers to grandmas in age range and reasonably representative of the cultural mix of west London. And quite a few were dancing along – to the big band numbers as well as the ballads and the modern rock numbers.

Then the “Rock Hill Boys” came on. These were gurkhas who had flown in from the Himalayas. They did a sort of rock-ska number – with a very lively front man doing all sorts of dance moves and jumps – and then a Nepalese love song which had a great sax solo. I think it was these guys that had backing dancers doing what looked like martial arts moves but with very sharp knives. I have to say that we felt it was in danger of going a bit “Eurovision song contest” at this point but this thought was rapidly dismissed as a girl singer attacked some jazz and soul numbers with a powerful rendition of “Take another little piece of my heart”.

As I waited in line for the loos (my only minor complaint was that there didn’t appear to be enough loos) I could hear the “Blarny Boys” (flown in from Ireland) performing the “Irish Rover” and “Whisky in the Jar”. Couldn’t work out whether I was jigging with the music, or cos that loo queue was so long! Then the big band did another set – and a female vocalist belted out “River deep, mountain high”.

And then Rubicon – the only all girl rock band in the British army – did some Kooks covers and some of their own material. Brave. But good.

The next band got everyone dancing with covers of Scissor Sister and Mika numbers. The final band of the evening – Live Wire – hit the big stage and had us all singing along to Kaiser Chiefs, Fratelli and Razorlight numbers. For the finale, all the bands came onto the three stages and sang the Roxy Music number “Let’s stick together” whilst fireworks erupted into the sky.

This was an unbelievably well organised and high quality family event – appealing to those in families as well as “have to be be seen to be cool” teenagers. It was truly excellent PR for the British Army. I was sorely tempted to return the next day with the kids to have a look at the numerous exhibits they had including an assortment of tanks and other military equipment and assault courses – but we had made alternate plans.

But this will become a firm fixture in our annual calendar – we can hardly wait til next year!

:hyper: :cool: :o :)