Here's something you might be interested in.
"I'd heard from the School of Rock in Denver that they'd been able to get some of their kids on stage with Roger Waters, so I started looking around for contact information." Tyler Ward is the general manager and music director of the San Diego School of Rock in Golden Hill. He called everyone he could think of, but says that his attempts to get through to the Waters entourage came to a dead end.
"But then Waters' people contacted the Joan Kroc Center in La Mesa. I don't know, maybe they called Joan Kroc because they saw pictures of children on their web site. As it turns out, we've been good friends for a while. The School of Rock has done a lot of shows there. So when Waters' production people called them, they said to call us."
Founded as a single school in Philadelphia, PA in 1998, the School of Rock has become an international franchise with schools in the U.S. and Mexico. As it turns out, several of the students enrolled at the San Diego school are also die hard Pink Floyd fans.
"At least 20 of our students are working on performing Dark Side of the Moon from top to bottom. They're using, like, iPads to play back some of the sound effects sequences." The age range of the kids that got tapped to perform as the children's chorus on stage at Valley View Arena during The Wall tour stop here was from 10 to 15.
"We hung out in our green room area. Then, when Waters got there, we went out and watched them rehearse and try out some of the special effects." Waters taught the School of Rock kids their parts and showed them their marks on stage. "He was really sweet to the kids. He spent time with them, and after, he posed for pictures." The kids, Ward says, were star struck.
"When Waters was finished rehearsing, he just walked through this little hole in the wall into no man's land. It was so weird. They made this little hole in the wall he could walk back and forth through and talk to the band and give direction, and when rehearsal was over he just walked back to wherever it was he came from."
Ticket prices for 41-date Wall tour are reportedly extravagant. "The production value of that show is absurd. There's an airplane that flies overhead. There are all kinds of effects. They started building the stage at 5a.m. the day before the show to have it ready for sound check the following afternoon. There were dozens of trucks and trailers outside the arena in the parking lot." But the School of Rock kids performed pro bono and in the end, Ward thought it a fair trade.
"Most of our kids couldn't afford to go. They're 10 years old. They don't have, like, $300 dollars for a ticket."
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/may/15/24473/
"I'd heard from the School of Rock in Denver that they'd been able to get some of their kids on stage with Roger Waters, so I started looking around for contact information." Tyler Ward is the general manager and music director of the San Diego School of Rock in Golden Hill. He called everyone he could think of, but says that his attempts to get through to the Waters entourage came to a dead end.
"But then Waters' people contacted the Joan Kroc Center in La Mesa. I don't know, maybe they called Joan Kroc because they saw pictures of children on their web site. As it turns out, we've been good friends for a while. The School of Rock has done a lot of shows there. So when Waters' production people called them, they said to call us."
Founded as a single school in Philadelphia, PA in 1998, the School of Rock has become an international franchise with schools in the U.S. and Mexico. As it turns out, several of the students enrolled at the San Diego school are also die hard Pink Floyd fans.
"At least 20 of our students are working on performing Dark Side of the Moon from top to bottom. They're using, like, iPads to play back some of the sound effects sequences." The age range of the kids that got tapped to perform as the children's chorus on stage at Valley View Arena during The Wall tour stop here was from 10 to 15.
"We hung out in our green room area. Then, when Waters got there, we went out and watched them rehearse and try out some of the special effects." Waters taught the School of Rock kids their parts and showed them their marks on stage. "He was really sweet to the kids. He spent time with them, and after, he posed for pictures." The kids, Ward says, were star struck.
"When Waters was finished rehearsing, he just walked through this little hole in the wall into no man's land. It was so weird. They made this little hole in the wall he could walk back and forth through and talk to the band and give direction, and when rehearsal was over he just walked back to wherever it was he came from."
Ticket prices for 41-date Wall tour are reportedly extravagant. "The production value of that show is absurd. There's an airplane that flies overhead. There are all kinds of effects. They started building the stage at 5a.m. the day before the show to have it ready for sound check the following afternoon. There were dozens of trucks and trailers outside the arena in the parking lot." But the School of Rock kids performed pro bono and in the end, Ward thought it a fair trade.
"Most of our kids couldn't afford to go. They're 10 years old. They don't have, like, $300 dollars for a ticket."
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/may/15/24473/