There is nothing creepier than to be the honoured guest in the hall of a girl’s school you spent your adolescence walking by every day (usually with some glancing in over the fence.) The thought did occur to me that if I’d been cought on the grounds when I was 15 I’d have been severely reprimanded by nuns… Scary enough at the best of times…

Very smily teachers these – we never had that kind…

Last Friday I was a guest – a judge at a battle of the bands for the end of the Arts Week at the Assumption Secondary School in Walkinstown and a mighty night was had by all. My fellow judges and I sat shrouded in shadow at the back of the hall I once sat in for a school performance of The King & I 16 years ago. We realised fairly quickly that metal was the order of the evening and settled down…

The eventual winners were head and shoulders above everyone else there both in terms of style (they had it), music (their original was better than their Frames cover) and the sheer terrifying fact that it was their first gig. I’ve seen supports at the Olympia that weren’t as good…

For the moment they’re called “Changin Faces” with Ritchie guitar / singer, Alan on Drums, Danny guitar / piano and Owen on Bass. I’ll be very surpried if they don’t do something substantial with the talent they have.

And I wasn’t expecting to see that at a school Battle Of The Bands on a cold Friday night in January let me tell you!

R