Some of the finest young musical talents will converge in Chichester’s Minerva Theatre for the Ovation Rock Show on Saturday, January 20 – an evening of live music featuring children and young people aged up to 18 from local schools, Chichester Music Academy and Ovation Music
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MusicTranscript
00:00 Yeah, sure. Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex
00:05 Newspapers. Great to speak again to Nick Davidson. Nick, you are masterminding a
00:09 fabulous thing in the Minerva, Minerva Theatre Chichester, on Saturday January
00:14 the 20th and this is the Ovation Rock show. What is it? You've got a fabulous
00:20 lineup. Tell me how it works. Okay, hi. So yeah, it's kids, children, young people,
00:26 school children from local schools who attend music sessions at the Music
00:32 Academy, now at the Chichester Boys Club and through Ovation Music, which is a
00:36 music charity. Really bringing kids like-minded, others, meeting like-minded
00:41 others, if you like, to come and perform together, rehearse together, write
00:45 together, ages 10 to about 18. The Ovation Rock show is an annual event. It's, this
00:52 year it's a one night only, it has in the past been two or three shows over two or
00:56 three days, giving those children and young people the opportunity to play in
01:01 a professional theatre. Also work on sound and lighting and tech and support
01:06 us, so we, it's a sort of, you know, there's some work experience opportunities as
01:10 well within that. I was saying, from your point of view, you tend to stand on the
01:13 sidelines thinking of all the things that could possibly go wrong, but the
01:16 fact is they rise to the moment, don't they? They always have. I'm touching wood
01:21 as I'm sitting here. They always have to, in the past, we've done seven or
01:26 eight of these Ovation Rock shows at the Minerva now, along with numerous other
01:30 stage events, festivals, summer festivals in the Chichester area and some pubs and
01:35 gigs and things and City Sounds recently, so there's a lot of stuff we've done.
01:40 I, yeah, I always go in a little bit nervous because I think, you know, these
01:43 kids meet once a week on a Saturday morning to rehearse for an hour and we
01:48 then say, can you go and play at the Minerva Theatre? And yeah, they do,
01:53 they raise their game. They're playing on a professional stage with professional
01:58 context and backup and they meet that challenge. Completely. They do and it's fast
02:04 turnarounds, you know, they're on and off in 45 seconds, 60 seconds tops, you
02:09 know, they've got to be on it and yes, we hold their hand. But they're not real rock stars, are they?
02:13 Well, the real rock stars can't do that. No, but they play like them. I mean, yeah, come to the show.
02:21 I mean, anyone can, it's an open show, well, it's a ticketed show. I mean, it's a charity
02:24 fundraiser for our activities. It's a great show, it's a family show, it's fun.
02:31 And they get a great deal from it, don't they? They get a lot from it, it's something you'll always
02:35 remember. I certainly would if I'd done that aged 10, 12, 15, whatever. I think I
02:40 would definitely go back and they do. We've got several repeating, you know,
02:46 two or three years down the line now who are sort of headlining, who were younger
02:49 three, four years ago, obviously. So it's in the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, on
02:53 Saturday, January the 20th. I hope it goes brilliantly. Congratulations, Nick. Thank you.
02:58 Thank you. Thank you very much.