Northampton Academy's Beat Boyz Visit London

On Friday 13th November, the Beatboyz spent the day in London. When we first got down there, we visited the Royal College of Music, where Mrs Fitzjohn conducted a tour. The boys – who are all in year 8 – enjoyed listening to the music which was coming out of the practise rooms as we walked down the corridor. We saw statues of famous composers (and posed alongside them!), and had a good view of the Royal Albert Hall which was the next place we visited. Here, we were given a tour by a member of staff. She showed us around the whole building. We went right up into the top floor, learnt about the history, and watched a bit of the rehearsal for the evening concert from above. The lady also took us into the Queen’s private lounge and showed us her seating area. Everyone was keen to find out why her room smelt so bad, until we realised there were some dead flowers in their since last time she was visiting!

We then had a mad rush to get over to the RCM building in Shepherd’s Bush where the boys took part in a Gamelan workshop. They learnt about the instruments from Indonesia, and had the chance to play them all, and make up their own pieces of music. Some of the boys played the biggest gong in England! The last stop was back to the Royal Albert Hall, this time to watch the concert in the evening. It was a James Bond themed night, where we heard all the theme tunes played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with two singers to add the vocal parts. The lights were also quite spectacular. In the interval the group met two of the trumpet players from the orchestra. They asked him questions about his tuxedo, and he told them it was a uniform just like theirs, and commented on how smart they looked! We had a James Bond style photo with them, and then they had to go back in – but they did wave from the stage!