Cranfield school band wins The Beds Band Factory

A school in Cranfield came out on top at The Beds Band Factory school music competition held at Redborne Upper School on Wednesday, March 4.

The band from Holywell School created and performed their own version of the smash-hit song, 'Where is the Love', the Year 7 pupils called themselves White-Eyed Peace, having been challenged to create a one-off band specifically for the competition.

The Beds Band Factory school music competition is run by Central Bedfordshire Council’s Inspiring Music service.

Student Casey-Mae added: “It was different to performing in school. It was really special, especially competing against the Year 9 students. The crowd was really supportive, particularly when Dilan was doing his rap.”

Twelve-year-old Dilan said: “It was really fun to do – when I did my fast rap section it felt really overwhelming. It was amazing that the audience were screaming in response to the lyrics that me and my brothers had written.”

The Holywell students are now onto the next challenge; however, they all want to continue to do something outside of lessons.

All of the schools who participated in The Beds Band Factory won a Cajon drum from Inspiring Music and Holywell and the two runners up also won a recording session.

The recording sessions were sponsored by local web company TT Rockstars, who have been using Rock Music as the basis for supporting children in 14,000 schools worldwide in practising their times tables.

Dilan's dad, Sushil Nahar, said: "It was great, I was not expecting it, he has been working really hard. I knew he was good, but to see him on stage and performing like that, it knocked me for six.

"It really was amazing, he has been on cloud nine ever since. I am so proud of him."

The Beds Band Factory is an annual event, also supported by the Music for Bedford Borough hub, to give schools a chance to promote popular music performance.