Parents and children rock out to Queen

Did we want to see Tom Jones at the Larmer Tree Festival or go to the Lion King at the Mayflower in Southampton?

We’re lucky in the press, as we get review tickets to go to all sorts of things – although these do include the utterly dire as well as the astoundingly brilliant.

These two were always going to fall into the latter category.

Obviously, no one would turn down the opportunity to see either of them, and being a small editorial team at the Journal, pretty much everyone who was free that night could go to one or the other event.

The excitement in the air on Wednesday was palpable.

So what did I see? I saw the Year 6 production of We Will Rock You at my son’s school.

Crammed into the stifling heat of the school with all the other proud parents, I awaited my son’s moment of fame as a Ga Ga kid.

The moment had been a long time coming; the kids have been rehearsing hard all term, and many a parent has had to endure Queen’s Greatest Hits on a loop in the car CD player for months.

My boy was on for all of five minutes. But it was a good five minutes.

He only told me in the car on the way to school that he and the other children had choreographed their own dance, or ‘made it ourselves’ as he put it. Despite this, he managed to forget a bit in the middle and was facing forwards when all the other kids had turned to the side.

But that didn’t matter - what made it for me was the look on his face. He laughed all the way through, having a brilliant time he’d worked hard for with all his friends around him.

We laughed as well. I knew nothing about the Ben Elton musical before this performance, other than audiences loving it a lot more than the critics did - but it’s a great show, full of laugh out loud moments as well as great music.

And there were lots of lessons for the kids about the value of music that isn’t manufactured, a style that is all your own, and a life in reality rather than cyberspace.

The children did it proud – from the excellent acting to the brave souls who belted out the solos and the back stage crew to the extras, chorus and dancers.

Ok, so it wasn’t a Welsh superstar rocking the stage, or a smash hit West End show, but I know where I’d rather have been.

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