It was the World’s Largest Beatbox Choir… I think!
Saturday was an amazing concert, and one of the proudest moments of my career. It was great to perform again with my Vocal Orchestra, but the highlight for me was our ‘Beatbox Chorus’ – 25 kids from a range of backgrounds in South London. Jes and Zani, two beatboxers from my choir, have been working with these young people since the beginning of the year, firstly at the Beatbox Academy that we set up at BAC, and then at Southbank for the weeks before the show.
It was incredible to see these youngsters get up and beatbox in front of a sold-out QEH (about 1,000 people). Some of them had no musical experience whatsoever, and performing on a stage of that scale was a first for all of them. Someone said to me after the show that they loved the performance, but that maybe we should have got some kids who couldn’t already beatbox. I was exasperated: the kids had learnt their skills from scratch, in an amazingly short time. Maybe people didn’t understand how much work had gone into the project, and that drive came mostly from the kids themselves.
The “Beatbox Chorus” looking as mean they can!
BBC Radio 4 tomorrow
Tomorrow (Monday 11th May at about 8.45am) I’ll be going on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 to talk about beatboxing and choirs. My sole aim of this exersize is to get Mr John Humphries to beatbox. Wish me luck. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/
