We Will Rock You at Ladymead Community School, Taunton

SELL-OUT crowds were awe-struck by a performance worthy of a professional theatre by Ladymead students last month.

The cast, band, choir, staging/backstage crew and staff of Ladymead joined together to create a superb show filled with spectacular talent.

The production is a nationally recognised show, where the music of Queen has been long lost and forgotten.

The mission is to release the legendary, sacred sounds and instruments into the futuristic world where the Bohemian Rhapsody is but a myth, and from the opening sounds of Innuendo to the closing chord of the greatest popular song ever written, Bohemian Rhapsody, the crowd spent two and a half hours singing, clapping, laughing, crying and dancing to the wonderful performances given by the students.

Songs such as: Radio Gaga, I Want To Break Free, Somebody To Love, Killer Queen, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Who Wants To Live Forever, Fat Bottomed Girls, Hammer To Fall, We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions were all performed to a professional standard.

Principal cast members, who were all aged between 11-16, included: Sam Baker, Claire Crocker, Jess Chaffery, David Wooldridge, Ashley Merchant, Abby Lewis, Holly Salter and Matt Cline who all acted and sang beautifully, with clarity and conviction, oozing talent.

The professional, well-practiced band, who were all GCSE Music students were faultless in their performances throughout the show with many audience members convinced the musicians were using backing tracks, such was the quality, reproduction, respect and attention to detail that was given to the songs.

They were none less that vibrant and kept the crowd energetically entertained. Using Brian May Endorsed Red Specials, the band recreated the exact sound of Queen. Band members included: Dan Varley, Max Powell, Rob Spurway, Sam Buller, Alex Miles, Calum Meenan-Fry, Jack Hellier, Aidan Knott, Jack Daly, Harriet Foster, James Williams and the musical sensation, Head of Visual and Performing Arts, Huw Weston.

The multi-screen graphics were as close to the West End as could be thanks to 13 year old Wesley Williams.

Dance scenes and sketches were fantastically costumed and propped. Characters included: Rock Chicks, GAGA Kids, Yuppies, Police, Bohemians, Teen Queens, a teacher, Galileo, Scaramouche, Britney, Meat Loaf, Killer Queen and Khashoggi.

The standard of acting reflected the highly successful and popular subject area of drama, led by the brilliant Kayleigh Ashton.

Huw Weston, Head of Music and the faculty for Visual and Performing Arts said: “Nothing prepared us for the extraordinary performance that we witnessed at our school given by our pupils. From the West End styled graphics, to the sublime acting, to the Queenesque sound reproduced, it was a night where the whole audience felt they were at the theatre watching the actual show at the West End, not in a school hall transformed into a wonderful concert venue. The final show was my fiftieth occasion to perform this production and I have never seen it produced and performed so professionally or sound so close to Queen.

“It was an honour to be part of this and seeing so many areas of a school come together along with the hundred plus cast and musicians, it made us all proud to teach at Ladymead school.”

The show was so successful that the school has decided to give one more special performance some time in June with all proceeds going towards the Haiti appeal.

Congratulations to all students and staff for recreating a musical phenomenon so wonderfully.

For more information on We Will Rock You or Visual and Performing Arts faculty, click on the Related Link below.

By K O’Connor