Rocking away to success

A group of St Christopher’s Senior School pupils rocked their way to success in a music contest staged in Qatar … which proved a swansong for all bar one of the members and the teacher who inspired them.

St Christopher’s rock band RGCAC, an acronym made for the band members’ initials, scooped the top prize worth around BD1,000 in the competition by beating nine other GGC-based bands in a packed theatre at Doha College.

The group comprised of Robyn Durnford, 16, guitar and vocals; Gabby Liandu, 15, lead vocals and guitar; Chris Egan, 13, percussion, Ali Jasem, 18, drums, and Callum Haggarty, 17, on bass guitar.

After the summer holidays Robyn will be starting sixth form college in the UK, Chris joins a top Irish school, Ali prepares for life at the prestigious London School of Economics and Callum joins his teacher dad, Ken, in Thailand, leaving Gabby to drum up support to form a new school band.

But memories of their musical success will live on. Together they performed a riveting rendition of Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People, which impressed the judging panel made up of leading musical and media figures.

Mr Haggarty, former head of music at St Christopher’s School, said: “RGCAC prepared seriously for Battle of the Bands.

“They took care to polish their performance, to work on the arrangement of the music and to make sure they communicated with the audience. They went over to Doha to win it, and they did! It was a great lesson in being prepared and being creative.

“The final was very well organised by Doha College and well attended. The home support for bands from Doha was massive but the judges did well to resist that pressure and give the award to a band from Bahrain – they made the right decision.”

Robyn, from Riffa Views, said: “I enjoyed travelling to Doha and seeing the other talented young musicians. It gave us an incentive not to come back to Bahrain empty-handed.

“I enjoy having fun on stage with the other band members because if you have fun, it comes across to the audience.

“We couldn’t have achieved anything without the help and guidance of Mr Haggarty and other teachers.”

For some of the band members, music is in their blood. Gabby, from Juffair, said: “I have a very musical family, so growing up with that definitely made me feel comfortable expressing myself through music.

“There are different directions I imagine my life going in, but they all involve music. Being on stage is one of the places I’m happiest and I don’t get nervous, just excited!”

Chris, who used to live in Saar, also has nerves of steel when performing and says he enjoys the buzz from the crowd when he’s on stage.

He said: “I listen to all sorts of music, which gives me ideas on how to play differently and I try to work those influences into my performances.

“Aside from music, sports is my other passion, mainly football and rugby, and I wouldn’t mind a career in either.”

The band had been playing together for a year and all agreed that preparation and planning paid off in the end.

Nick Wilson, head of St Christopher’s Senior School, said: “I was delighted that RGCAC won the Battle of the Bands contest. It was just reward for the commitment, talent and ability of these exceptional musicians.

“It was also great to observe students from Years 9, 10, 11 and Sixth Form working together to produce fantastic music. They were a real credit to St Chris and we were all very proud of their achievement.”

The prize money will go to the school and a portion of it will be used to buy musical equipment and the students will receive the rest, to cover their costs and some summer holiday pocket money as well.