Rock The Boat
Rock The Steam Boat, 2007
More than 100 youngsters packed into Boat of Garten Village Hall on Friday 20 July to hear rock band Stereoglo play at the latest Rock the Boat event, which was part of the Steam Fair weekend. The trio from Skye were supported by the local winners of Rock the Boat Progression held in May – Loose Cannon, Arcane and Rachel Sermanni – who had taken part in workshops with Stereoglo during the afternoon.
Our local young musicians work very hard throughout the year and we are extremely impressed by the progress they have all made during the course of the Rock the Boat Project.
We would like to thank our main funder, Highland 2007, which has enabled us to run such an ambitious and successful programme over the last 18 months, Fraser Stone for arranging Stereoglo to run the workshops and give us such a wonderful gig and, of course, all the performers. We mustn’t forget their long suffering parents, either, who by ferrying them around for practices and performances are giving huge support to the project.
The next Rock the Boat event will be during the Boat of Garten Winter Festival in December.
Rock The Boat Progression, 2007
Youngsters flocked to Boat of Garten on Saturday to take part in the May Festival events. The Village Hall rocked when eight local bands and one soloist played in front of a panel of three judges and 120 young people at Rock the Boat Progression.
Local musicians Bill Richardson, Allan Bantick and Pete Carson judged the entries and were very impressed by the standard of performance from all who took part. The winning acts were ‘Loose Cannon’ (Best Band), ‘Arcane’ (Best Act) and Rachel Sermanni (Best Original Song) and they will have a workshop session with Scottish rock band Stereoglo on Friday, 20 July, and be the support acts for Stereoglo at the gig that evening.
All entrants received a Rock the Boat T-shirt, printed specially for the project by Silverleaf Clothing.
Rock the Boat is funded by Highland 2007.
A few pictures are available in the gallery - if you have any more, please let us know!
2006
Following the successful Rock the Boat Raw Talent Contest at Boat of Garten’s Summer Festival at the end of May 2006, the project received funding from Highland 2007 to run a further six events.
The second event was held on Sunday 23 July 2006 on the Playing Field, as part of Strathspey Railway Company’s Steam Fair, when the winners of May’s contest performed as paid supporting acts for Amplifico, an piano/acoustic driven, jazz-tinged alt-pop/folk/rock 4-piece from Edinburgh. In addition, a number of young bands also had the opportunity to play.
This was a very successful event, with over 350 people of all ages coming along to enjoy the music and rounded off the community activities, which included the parading of the giant osprey created by artist Pete Gunson, circus perfomers, story telling, music by Gilly and a number of stalls.
At the gig at the end of December, it was evident that the young performers, bands and soloists, had all made tremendous progress with their musicianship and their song writing.
Many thanks to: all the performers for taking part; the bands who allowed the others to use their kit; all those who helped with all the work in setting it up, running the sound and clearing away afterwards; all of you who come along to support the bands and enjoy yourselves; the Community Council who made a cash donation to the project and to Highland 2007 who are funding most of the costs.
If anyone would like to help with the organisation of the next events, please contact Anna Barton on 831325 or at anna.barton@tiscali.co.uk
