On Friday 14th June the Bistro at St. John’s school became a hive of activity as SJR showcased its first ever Live Lounge!
Dreamt up by SJR Station Manager Mr Stephenson and SJR’s Live Event Manager Ryan Robertson, the live lounge was a gig for the St John sixth formers to let their hair down during the busy and stressful exam season, enjoying some excellent live music.
The Live Lounge began during break on the Friday, as Mr. Morton and his band of technician geniuses invaded the Bistro. The transformation from sixth form grub hub into fully operational recording studio was by no means an easy task with Ben Wigham, Dan Lawson and Alex Best running around like seasoned roadies.
The setup which should have taken at least a few hours to prepare was built and fully functioning in just over an hour. Period 3 descended into a hodgepodge of electric guitar wails, clashing symbols and scratching vinyl as the 6th form area prepared for its first ever live music gig.
Dinner time and SJR presenter Chloe Wearmouth took to the mic to open SJRs Live Lounge presenting like a pro she introduced the Pocket Snakes to a tirade of woops and cheers
Playing through enrichment the gig was headlined by 6th form band “The Pocket Snakes”- made up of Daniel Hodges, Josh Hoggart, Callum Merrington and drummer Joe Gallagher, who unfortunately had an RE exam having to be replaced with Head of Sixth Form Mr. Dunn! The band played all their own tracks, stopping every so often for fun and high jinks with SJR presenters Chloe Wearmouth, Jack Rivers, Rowen Coulthard and Megan Hutchinson.
The Pocket Snakes were then followed by an Upper vs. Lower 6th DJ battle with lower sixth’s Ryan Robertson and former SJR programme controller, James Hamilton-Trewhitt representing the absent upper sixth. Playing out to a packed bistro they rounded off the gig in style with Ryan winning comfortably (albeit as upper sixth have left).
Rowen, Jack, Megan and Chloe then rounded off the gig with a big thanks to the Northern Echo for promoting SJR and Bishop FM who broadcast the Live Lounge later that day. The afternoon then lent itself to band practise with The Pocket Snakes getting out acoustic guitars and doing poplar covers for all the sixth formers who were lucky enough to be free that period, passing guitars and mics around as other six formers tried their hand at the live lounge.
The recording went down with few technical glitches and the broadcast on 105.9 Bishop FM bringing the excellent gig to the whole community.
Impressed with the professionalism and quality of the gig, Bishop FM is hoping to work more with SJR including broadcasting future gigs and shows. All that remains now is (finding/identifying) who is going to (will) headline the next 6th form Live Lounge.
