Rochester Castle Concerts a Huge Success

The recent concerts at Rochester Castle were a huge hit with the audiences, especially with such a variety of acts catering for all ages and tastes. 

The opening night featured Ian Broudie leading the Lightning Seeds in pared down acoustic versions of their best known songs, such as Lucky You and The Life of Riley, before Squeeze rocked the crowd with their familiar repertoire including Black Coffee in Bed, Cool for Cats and Take Me I'm Yours. 

A packed castle grounds on Thursday night - mainly women, let's be fair (with Dan in the middle, see this gallery!) were in fine voice to scream at Peter Andre, who had us all moving with his own dance-tastic hits from albums Accelerate and Revelation, plus some favourite club anthems from the 80sand 90s. Warm up came in the shape of Paradise Point and X-Factor finalists, The Reason4, and both were also given an excellent reception by the crowd. There will be galleries appearing soon! 

N-Dubz headlined on Thursday, with three very different acts preceeding them: Rappers Bigz, boy band Encore and girl band Stooshe, again all very different, although drawn from the same genre and creating a huge buzz in the audience for N-Dubz. I'll be honest, N-Dubz aren't a band whose career I've followed - I couldn't name you one of their songs - BUT - they were  much much more musical than I believed they were and I thoroughly enjoyed them. 

All the bands were full of energy and put on fabulous concerts for their fans which, I have to say, were completely surpassed by the Proms on Saturday night! Seriously, if you haven't been before, make it the one you see next year! The atmosphere is incredible, the musicianship and vocals totally on the money and the stirring finale saw everyone on their feet, waving their flags and singing their hearts out - when they weren't gasping at the fireworks! Massive congratulations for solo performers Jo Appleby and Jonathan Ansell, accompanied so beautifully by the Royal Philharmonic Proms Orchestra and the wonderful Hertfordshire Chorus. A special mention too, for Graffiti Classics, who brought slapstick and comedy to their music!

Capping off a memorable five days was the Under Siege concert on Sunday (again, galleries to follow!) with young performers from across Medway coping admirably with the difficult conditions to entertain a sopping wet crowd, whose enthusiasm was undiminished by the weather. My pick of the bunch was Fred Clarke, who seems definitely set to go all the way. Beautiful tone to a wonderfully strong voice, he composes, owns the stage, plays to the crowd, has sorted his merchandising (CD out, with free postcards!) and has a mass of screaming girls already at his feet! The free event gave many of these artists their first ever taste of performing live on stage alongside a professional crew and it was clear they were making the most of the opportunity!

Medway Council's Assistant Director for Customer First, Leisure, Culture, Democracy and Governance Richard Hicks said: 

"This year's concert series was one of the most diverse and exciting ever. Many thousands of people enjoyed the four days of fantastic entertainment and we've received excellent  comments both from Castle Concerts regulars and visitors who've travelled here from far and wide.

This year's Under Siege concert was also a resounding success despite the rain - the young performers showed true professionalism as they gave it their all, and the event attracted a very large crowd who were clearly having a great time".

Make a note for your diaries now - mid July next year, watch this space!