Musical stars of the future

Brits always talk about the weather, and boy it was hot today! There you go...

We had a fantastic evening yesterday with all the senior musicians who I have been working with at RGS (my school). We got together at lunchtime and spent the afternoon putting together a performance of all our favourite songs, which ranged from songs from shows such as Avenue Q, Rent and West Side Story, and a great selection of classics by Dylan, Stevie Wonder, The Carpenters, my main man Billy Joel and even some Jason Mraz. We then performed them all to a warm and slightly moist audience of about 180 yesterday evening.

I don't think any of these students follow my blog (yet!?) but it was such a lot of fun and such a great opportunity for me to work on a concert with guys who undoubtedly have got such bright musical futures ahead of them. Despite their only being 18 or thereabouts they performed with so much confidence and talent, and whether singers or drummers we had no weak links and no worries about anything not going smoothly. It was a long day, but it was really satisfying.  

Miley and Kylie

Late on a Saturday night after a warm UK day! MJ really has died, and with my band we played three of his songs in our set last night, ending with 'One Day In Your Life' which I don't think I've properly listened to since it was in the charts when I was a kid.

I'm working on some new material at the moment - two songs with fellow writer Matt B. One, 'Fly With Me', is a dancey euro-pop tune in the vein of Kylie's "Spinning Around" or maybe an Empire of the Sun song (have you heard them? They are really good).

The other, which Matt wrote the bulk of, I'm quite excited about as it's our first foray into the huge market of 'tween' pop/rock along the lines of Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers etc. It's called 'With You' and Matt's daughter Jas is proving herself a very useful and worthy guide vocal singer.

People are signing up for the free downloads I'm offering but there's plenty of space for more names on my mailing list - so if you're reading about me for the first time why not click here to go to my website and sign up - no catches, nothing to lose, but four free new songs to gain. Go on.....!

Tomorrow I'm performing with some really talented students at the school I teach at, and I'm really looking forward to it. Happy days :-)

Enjoy your Sundays folks.

x

Welcome to my new blog! Today I'm going to be shameless and publicise the fact that I'm giving away FOUR free downloads of my own songs (from recent years) to anyone who simply signs up to my mailing list at www.simonrushby.com

Why?

Because I write songs, and songs need to be given wings, and the only way that can happen is ifpeople listen to them and let themselves be entertained, affected, moved or repulsed by them.

So I'm hoping that lots of people will help themselves to four of my songs and, perhaps, like a little of what they hear.

As I write this, unconfirmed reports are emerging that Michael Jackson, often dubbed 'King of Pop' is dead. If this is true, the world has lost a unique and extremely talented artist.

Jackson's personal life, such as it was, has always been controversial in a myriad of ways, but underpinning all of this was the immense skill of the man, as a singer, songwriter, dancer and all-round entertainer.

Michael Jackson was a private man who nevertheless lived his entire life in the public domain. If he is indeed dead, as it seems he is, then we have a legacy of storming songs to remember him by.