News > Review by Amy Wallington

Under Siege 2009 at the Rochester Castle Gardens

This year I was invited along to the second Under Siege concert, a free music event that takes place once a year in Rochester Castle Gardens. I arrived at about 11am and was greeted by Geoff Waters, Andy Willetts and the rest of the organising team. There were already lots of people arriving, eager to get their place at the front. Bands were getting ready and calming their nerves before being allowed to go backstage. Andy and I got our wristbands so we could go backstage and meet some of the musicians and chat about the event. I was very excited about the concert and meeting the performers. This year there were 14 performances to get through so unfortunately I didn’t have time to talk to everyone. All the bands had their own marquee which was like a dressing room. There were clothes rails and mirrors so they could get ready. Most of the bands were practicing and chatting.

The first band I spoke to was the newly formed Black Light Function. They are a group of five people aged 17 to 19. They are a group of friends from college and got together mainly for the Under Siege concert although some members of the group had also performed individually at other gigs including Butlins in front of 4,000 people and another gig in front of 300 people. The band listens to a range of different music and is at the moment doing covers of songs from different genres. They performed two songs at the concert: One by Mary J Blige featuring U2 and Sex On Fire by the Kings of Leon. Their performance was very enjoyable and the crowd loved it and were jumping and singing along. The rain didn’t bother anyone because everyone had such a great time during their performance.

Another band I talked to was Room 636, a slightly younger band of four people. Room 636 have been together for about a year and started up as a school band. They are a punk/rock band and have been influenced by the likes of Green Day, Sum 41, Blur and many others. They chose to perform two songs: one of their own called Falling and American Idiot by Green Day. As I watched Room 636 perform, I was amazed at their songwriting skills. Falling was a great song and really got the crowd going. For young people like themselves, I thought they were fantastic. When I spoke to some of the crowd after the performance, they also mentioned that this band was really good. It was their first time performing to such a big audience and they said they were really nervous but also feeling very excited.

I was also lucky enough to interview two solo performers. The first was Shannen Turner. Shannen has just left school and is now going to college to study acting and music. She was very different to the other bands and performers I had spoken to because she was into musicals. The particular song she was performing was a song from the stage show Les Misérables. Shannen has done a lot of shows and won lots of awards. She has been performing since the age of 12 and has been singing for two years. Shannen’s performance was brilliant. She sung every note perfectly and the crowd loved her. She looked like she had a lot of fun and enjoyed her performance. She mentioned she was very nervous because it was the biggest audience she had ever performed to but she looked confident and it definitely showed in her performance.

The second solo performer I interviewed was 13-year-old Phoebe Peek. Phoebe has been singing since the age of eight and now writes her own songs. She has chosen to perform one of her own songs, Stay That Way in which she also plays guitar. She has performed many times to family and friends but has never done anything as big as this. She practices in her own time and has done some school performances. She is interested in pop/folk music and sometimes a bit of rock. The performance she gave was fantastic. The crowd thought it was amazing and you could really tell Phoebe loved every minute of it. Her guitar playing and singing were excellent and everyone really enjoyed her performance.

Jordan Parkinson is a 16-year-old who performed at the show this year. He is very talented and has already performed to large crowds and has said he enjoys it very much. Jordan is influenced by soul and Motown music mostly. For the concert, he performed Black and Gold – originally sung by by Sam Sparro. Again, his performance wowed the audience and he had everyone singing and clapping along. It was a very enjoyable performance and it showed how much talent Jordan has. He has been singing since the age of nine and performing to big audiences for about a year after his singing teacher suggested some venues to him. I loved his performance and thought he was great and very talented and the crowd loved him too.

This year there was a variety of genres of music played from pop and rock to jazz and some classic and modern instrumental pieces. The crowd were acting fantastically to all the performers and were very impressed. I spoke to some people in the crowd after the concert had finished and they told me that they had a great time and will definitely be coming back next year. Some have even been influenced to perform in the concert next year. I spoke to one person who said they were looking forward to the concert next year but would also love see all of this year’s bands and performers do something like this again because they were all amazing. The typical English weather didn’t put anyone off even though it poured down at the start. But it soon became brighter which made everyone even happier.

At the end of the concert, all the performers gathered on stage to sing Let It Be by The Beatles. Thank you’s were given to the organisers and everyone who made the concert happen and to the performers and the audience. Everyone said they had had a great time and the crowd was brilliant. They gave a lot of support to all of the nervous performers who ended up putting on a great concert. I really enjoyed myself and am really looking forward to next year’s Under Siege and other events.

Review by - Amy Wallington

Back to latest news >>