2018 School Songwriting Competition
255 children from 9 schools performed at the White Rock Stage and wowed a wonderful audience with some lovely heartfelt songs about flying together.
It was a tough choice for the judges who were evenly split between two primary schools, so we had Joint Winners for the first time. While in the Secondary category who student from William Parker was a real trooper and went on stage after breaking his leg the day before – the show must go on!
Collaborative songwriting is an excellent way of bringing children of all abilities together. Performing their song on a huge stage – the White Rock Theatre – brings enormous confidence.
Although we run it as a competition to add a little extra excitement, the real winners are every child, as they learn so much from creating, learning and performing their own songs – which will last in their memories forever.
Thank you to all the schools who took part – the teachers and pupils who make it all happen: The Baird, Christ Church, Guestling Bradshaw, The Hastings Academy, Robsack Wood, Sandown, Silverdale, Westfield and William Parker.
Primary
Joint Winners
Guestling Bradshaw CE Primary School
Silverdale Primary Academy
Secondary Winner
Kadootje, The Hastings Academy
Best Lyrics
St Thomas – Good use of adjectives and imagery throughout. Westfield – A song with great sentiment. Ore Village – Really good rhymes, structure, and words over a day in the life of a camp trip. Purely Grey – The rhyming, scanning and metaphors between the beach/relationship were great.
Standout Lyric Lines
Cold Hearted – “Seagulls nick my doughnut”. Ore Valley – “Creatures crawling up my knees”. St Thomas – “Wouldn’t it be horrid if they just weren’t there”. THA – “Sunflowers in Black and White”
Best Arrangement
Westfield – Great groove and funky appeal. Guestling Bradshaw – A big range of notes with good melodic interest, rhythmic breaks, a good ending, and good contrasting sections. The Baird – We liked the drum intro and the graded entrance phrase. It was a nice touch for the bridge to change the emotion and add a bittersweet feel. Silverdale – This was a good pop style song with a great summer feel and catchy chorus. Cold Hearted – Good instrumental breaks and chorus hook
Catchiest Chorus
Guestling – A very jolly and happy chorus. Christ Church – ‘54321 we’re having fun’ was very catchy. Robsack Wood– A gorgeous melody and tight rhythms. The Baird – A great message and a nice two-part arrangement in the last chorus. Ore Valley – We liked the contrast between the long notes in the chorus and the quick verses.
Best Performance
Christ Church – A really good catchy and melodic song with a great performance full of great props and costume co-ordination. The percussion breaks and chanting ‘54321 we’re having fun” made it special. Guestling Bradshaw – “I felt I was at the beach”. A confident, energetic, jolly and happy performance with good routines, added interest with a beatboxer, nice shouty bits, and a zany pianist. Westfield – “This performance felt like a ‘clan’.” The dance moves, gymnastics, breakdancing and funky backing were great. Silverdale – This was a really good all-around solid and fun performance by the whole class. We really liked the hand moves, the good summery feel, and the great drummer. Cold Hearted – They put in a performance which had the audience rocking in their seats. The drummer was a great speaking/singing lead producing hilarious punk, with good instrumental breaks and chorus hook.
The Judges
Eddie Lewis
Eddie Lewis
Eddie is bass guitarist with local band Kid Kapichi
Sister Susie
Sister Susie
Susie is an excellent local rhythm and blues singer and plays in her band, Sister Susie and the Right Band.
Georgia South
Georgia South
Georgia is bass guitarist in local band the Nova Twins
Andy Croft
Andy Croft
Andy is bass guitarist with local folk punk band The Disparate Folk.
Sponsors
Hastings Lions
Hastings Lions, organisers of the Hastings Half-Marathon have supported us from the very beginning and we are very grateful for their continued support. They enabled us to pay for schools who want it to have their songs recorded.
Hastings Round Table
Hastings Round Table
They host the Hastings Beer and Music Festival and we are very grateful for their donation which helped provide free tickets for families in need.
Magdalen & Lasher Trust
Magdalen & Lasher Trust
The Magdalen & Lasher Trust funded songwriting support into schools for the first time. It enabled schools to participate and feel very proud of their achievements.
Brewers
Brewers very kindly donated a large tin of paint to the raffle.
Trinity Wholefoods
Trinity very kindly donated a food hamper.
Falrlight Hall
Fairlight Hall very kindly donated a hamper to the raffle.
Source Park
Source Park very kindly donated 6 free entries as prizes
Compere
Jonny Morris, Principle, Silverdale Primary Academy
Poster
