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Some 150 students from Wentworth Music will recreate the animated game in Rock Hero Live!, which includes 20 classic hits featured on the popular interactive game. Students are excited about living the rock-star dream for two hours at the Kelowna Community Theatre, says Noel Wentworth, who teaches music at the family-owned business. “They‘re enthusiastic about it,” he says. “And they want to work hard for it. You get into the waiting room with the kids that are in the show and it‘s what they talk about. “It‘s just crazy to see that kind of enthusiasm spread.” The students dress in rock-star costumes and use real instruments to play songs like Pat Benatar‘s Hit Me with Your Best Shot and Elton John‘s Saturday Night‘s Alright (For Fighting). In the game, created in 2005, players strum guitar-shaped peripherals in time with the music while pressing buttons to match notes that stream across the screen, much as in karaoke. Vocalist Katia Wells-Green, 12, has been wearing out her family‘s old Journey album as she practises Don‘t Stop Believin‘ for her fifth rock concert with Wentworth. “I get a rush,” says Wells-Green, who dreams of being a star when she‘s older. “It‘s really exhilarating.” A special feature of Saturday‘s show is an appearance by Nancy Nash, who will help out with Livin‘ on a Prayer, the 1986 Bon Jovi hit for which she sang background vocals. She still recalls meeting the band at a Vancouver recording studio. “As the song started, I could hear this unique grungy sound where a human voice sings through the guitar,” she says. “It hooked me right away. “In those first eight bars, before I heard a verse or chorus, before I sang one note, I knew … this was a hit record.” Nash, who now goes by the name Sazacha Red Sky and runs a private animal sanctuary near Vernon, also sang back-up vocals on Loverboy‘s hit, Turn Me Loose, and many Bryan Adams songs. “She seems to be this unsung hero,” says Wentworth. “She‘s an incredible singer.” Neversoft, the company that developed Guitar Hero, likes the concert‘s concept. “I got the impression that we were the first people to do something like this,” says Wentworth, who was invited to California for a tour of the company‘s facilities. He went home with two video games, Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero 3, which will be auctioned on the K96.3 radio website. Bidding on the $1,200-package, which includes an Xbox 360 game console from Microsoft and a guitar-and-amplifier package from Fender Music, continues to Monday. Proceeds from the auction and concert will be donated to the children‘s ward at Kelowna General Hospital, topping up the $20,000 Wentworth has raised since 2008. Rock Hero Live!, which is sponsored by Interior Savings, is the latest in a semi-annual concert series that has included tributes to KISS, the Rolling Stones, Bryan Adams and The Beatles. Wentworth says he started the concerts after seeing the movie, School of Rock, which tells the story of an aspiring rock star who poses as a teacher and turns his class into a rock band. “I turned to my wife at the end and said: ‘That‘s what needs to happen. That‘s what I have been talking about.‘ We started the music school shortly after that.” Wentworth began with small performances, but in 2006 decided to rent the Mary Irwin Theatre for School‘s Out, a major production featuring a variety of rock tunes. “We ended up selling it out twice – that‘s over 600 people. And people went nuts. It was just great.” Wentworth says the concerts have become his passion and he dreams of touring the show or packaging it somehow so students elsewhere can join the fun. “We just want to provide something that I wish I would have had when I was a kid,” he says. He promises a fun night out. “We want the kids to experience what it would be like on stage to live the dream.” Quick hit: What: Rock Hero Live! Who: Kelowna music students When: 7 p.m. Saturday, March 6 Where: Kelowna Community Theatre Tickets: $15.75 adults, $8.75 students, at ticketmaster.com Info: wmec.ca Top of Page |
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September 7, 2010, 6:20 am |