Ian Waller leads a learning trip to that university of rock and roll, Komedia Bath
Today in class, children, it’s time to put away your books, pick up your air guitars and discover the history of rock!
And so we took the class – my 13 year old son and his mate – to Komedia Bath to continue their cultural studies, led by a live band presenting a carefully curated collection of rock classics from AC/DC to Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd to Guns n Roses, and loads more in between.
Front of the class was the History of Rock live band, posing, shredding, singing and rocking their way through an evening of the best rock around, and the result was a hugely enjoyable.
Across a sell-out crowd taking in a wide range of ages from youngsters to grey-haired rockers complete with fading gig T-shirts and an encyclopaedic knowledge of lyrics, we were all soon tuning up those air guitars and playing ‘guess the opening riff’, as the band played faithful renditions of classic rock tracks which took us on a Highway To Hell, via a Paint It Black, Freebird and loads more too.
OK, there were a couple of tracks that perhaps would have struggled to prove their definition of rock classics, but throughout the performances are near faultless, with the individual musicians each given the chance to show off their skills, and a couple even taking off for a stroll around the audience, riffing wildly as they went.
My favourite moment? A little piece of family history to be that was the selfy film of my youngest and I duetting along to Zepplin’s Rock n Roll, probably the greatest rock track ever written (in this old rockers opinion, that is…).
All-in-all, this was a cracking Friday night at one at a wonderful venue, with calls from the kids to find more gigs that they can attend.
For more information on upcoming gigs at Komedia Bath, go to www.komedia.co.uk/bath/