On February 7th 2023, family, friends and teachers alike gathered at Dame Alice Owen’s School for the highly anticipated Soul Band Evening, one of the most unmissable events on the school calendar.
This year was no different and saw over 50 students from both Junior and Senior Soul Band showcase their talent, performing a repertoire of some of the best soul, motown and pop songs.
The atmosphere in the main hall was one of excitement and eager anticipation as the opening chords of Junior Soul Band’s rendition of the Blues Brothers classic, cleverly adapted to ‘’Gimme Junior Soul Band”, reverberated around the hall.
The setlist took the audience through the joyful melodies of Aretha Franklin’s ‘I Say A Little Prayer’, to the acapella opening of ‘Empire State of Mind’ which transitioned into a performance highlighting the talent of the entire musical ensemble. Their encore song was the universally loved ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’, guaranteed to get the crowd on their feet.
Senior Soul Band and their talented musicians started with a bang with the legendary ‘Superstition’ by Stevie Wonder, followed by a superb rendition of ‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley. The highlight for Ella Connolly, the lead vocalist for the ‘Young Hearts, Run Free’ performance, was the closing Chaka Khan number of ‘Ain’t Nobody.’ She said “Everything came together perfectly: the crowd really got behind us, it was heartwarming to see them dancing in the aisles and clapping along!”
Mr Ward, one of the teachers in attendance, summed up the thoughts of the audience saying “It was a fantastic evening and the kids were brilliant. It’s the first Soul Band Evening we’ve had since Covid and it is great to see that normality is returning. Events like this are always the highlight in anyone’s calendar – a wonderful thing only our school can produce!”
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