Video Games Live: London 2007

The day after the London MCM Expo, I was off to another geeky event. However, this time it wasn't a social gathering. It was more of a concert. The video gamer's equivalent of Glastonbury. Taking place at the Royal Festival Hall, Video Games Live came to London, performing in England for the second time ever.

VGL was co-founded by Tommy Tallarico (Composer (Spider-Man, Metroid Prime, Mortal Combat, Timecrisis, Earthworm Jim, Advent Rising)) and Jack Wall (Composer/Conductor (Myst III & IV, Jade Empire, splinter cell)) and is now touring the world. Tallarico presents the show complete with cutting edge video-screen visuals, state-of-the-art lighting and lasers, while Wall conducts whatever fantastic orchestra is at his disposable in real time with whatever activities are going on on-stage or on-screen. The music performed changes every concert, thanks to about 25 constantly changing segments.

Basically, it's a concert of video game music. Hardcore, isn't it?



On this particular occasion, segments included music from:

-Bioshock (fantastically creepy with the on-screen video)
-Metal Gear Solid music (some of the best music there)
-A medley of classic arcade games (wonderful comedic imitations of the "bleeps" and "bloops" as -Tallarico liked to call them)
-Liberi Fatali (Final Fantasy 8), One Winged Angel (Final Fantasy 7), Simple and Clean (Kingdom Hearts) (sadly, Square didn't allow VGL to use footage from their games, so we were stuck with Disney animation for Kingdom Hearts (wonderful, but not quite the same mood as the game) and a blank screen for Final Fantasy)
-Starcraft 2
-World of Warcraft
-Tron
-Harry Potter 5
-Civilization IV
-Sonic (great music for some great clips)
-Mario and Zelda (Koji Kondo's masterpieces performed at top quality by a symphony orchestra really were awe-inspiring)
-Halo (I doubt they've ever done a concert without this segment)

There were plenty of special guests, including:

-Martin Leung (The Video Game/Blindfolded Pianist - he started out as a video on YouTube, now he's touring the world with some of the biggest names in video game music and their massive concert - he played his brilliant Final Fantasy medley, the Tetris theme(very fast) and Super Mario World)
-Martin O'Donnell (Halo composer - he gave away a little too much about how to find one of the skulls using his music)
-James Hannigan (Harry Potter Video Games composer - he was greeted with a few boos actually... come on England! when did we stop being proud of Harry Potter?!)


Thanks to Microsoft's generous sponsoring (this announcement was greeted by more than a few boos!), there were twenty or so Xboxes in one of the Exhibition rooms. Halo 3 was quickly swamped by the über-nerds, but Ace Combat 6, Viva Piñata: Party Animals, a couple of racers, and Spiderman: Friend or Foe were all demoed there. There was a Guitar Hero competition as well, with Microsoft related prizes.

While we were queuing up for Xboxes and drinks there was some decent cosplay going on. Not as much as at the Expo the previous day (thank God), but still enough for a nice line-up before the concert. Purple Tentacle (from Day of the Tentacle) won, with Samus, some guy dressed in an awesome Wolf Link costume, and Midna as runners up.

Quite worryingly, I recognized several people from the Expo the day before... But then again, I was probably just reading too much into the categories of geek myself and my friend thought up (old geek, wannabe geek, fat geek, geek with geek girlfriend, geek with cute girlfriend wondering what she's doing there, Japanese geek, geek trying to look cool, etc...)

During the concert, there were two opportunities for members of the audience to get up on stage and play some games for prizes. One guy (wearing a "ninj4" T-shirt) had to wear a T-shirt with the space invaders ship on the back (he initially tied it round his head in a bandanna), then had to hop left and right on the stage, as they tracked his movement on screen, pressing a button he had been given to fire. Another two were called up to play Frogger. The prizes give to each winner were an Xbox 360, a copy of Halo 3, and some random animé/manga tat... Just for playing a game! In fact, the guy who played Space Invaders lost, and the Xbox 360 was a consolation prize. Don't get that much free stuff at normal concerts, do you?


From the beginning poem (Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF) to the finale aided by the geek equivalent of waving cigarette lighters in the air - waving phones, DSes, PSPs, even laptops in the air ("hang on, hang on, the PSPs are still booting up"), VGL managed to create a fantastic atmosphere for such fantastic music. Next time it's in England, I'm definitely going! An interesting fact. VGL was the first sold out concert for the Royal Festival Hall, one of the biggest and best concert halls in England, since it's refurbishment 4 or 5 months ago. That tells you all you need to know!

London MCM Expo 2007

After a half hour train journey, fifteen minutes on a jam packed tube and a short ride on the DLR, myself and my friend Jack arrived, equipped with our savings and a video camera, at the sheer enormity that is the ExCel center. Upon entering, my eyes were first drawn to the World Fruit and Veg Showcase on one side of the gigantic hangar, and then to the Pie shops and Costa Coffees scattered in various strategic places everywhere. Fortunately, they weren't what I was there for, and my attention shortly turned to the queues in one of the halls off the main hangar.

First impressions... well, I was quite pleased. Having spent most of our school lives thinking we were incredibly geeky, it was nice to know that compared to most people in that massive hall, we were probably the most normal. I got some good film of some people in cosplay (I'd say more than 50% were in cosplay) and a lot of random leaflets people were handing out.

Thanks to our Fast Track tickets (they were cheap as well: £10 for fast track entry to the entire day) we were shortly being marched out of the hall and back down the main hall, past the pie shop, past the World of Warcraft convention, and into...

It's massive. An amalgamation of the senses... Colour and noise overwhelms you... and then you realize that you're staring at a massive hangar full of Japanese tat and cosplayers who should not be cosplaying.

The walls were lined with such a ridiculous quantity of animé plushies, key rings and necklaces. Photo and poster stands were everywhere, and weapons and wallscrolls were being oggled at, but only bought by those with a lot of money. Moving towards the center, there were racks of manga and masses of animé DVDs being sold cheaply (and probably illegally). Food stores (selling pocky and super sour sweets) and cosplay weapon checks were bustling, while Warner Bros. HD previews and (dubbed *growl*) animé clips played on big plasma screens. A generous number of Xboxes and the occasional Wii or PS3 made up the gaming section, with plenty of pre-releases for us to play. Legions of nerds sat playing Star Wars and Halo trading card games and Magic:The Gathering, while the more athletic sportsmen/women played Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero while it was projected onto the wall so everyone could see your success or epic, epic failure.

The special guests this year were immense. There was Ed Quinn, Erica Cerra and Jordan Hinson from A Town Called Eureka, Jacqueline McKenzie, Richard Kahan, Billy Campbell and Jeff Combs from The 4400, Jimmy Jean-Louis and Nora Zehetner from Heroes, and Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi in Star Trek). Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin were there plugging Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel (which is awesome by the way), while Johnny Yong Bosch, Laura Bailey and Colleen Clinkenbeard (animé voice actors) and Tony Lee, Billy Tucci, Mark Sparacio, Lee Townsend, Ian Sharman, Rich Johnston and Dan Boultwood (all comic artists) were all present as well. There were opportunities to get your picture taken with the stars, as well as lots of Q&A sessions.

Then there was the cosplay contest. I got a lot of it on film, and will upload and edit later (when I figure out how to connect my camera to the computer), but for now a description will have to do: Oh the horror... Like all Expos, there was a healthy mix of teenage girls dressed as boys doing Yaoi, bearded men dressed as 14 year old girls, and fat women pretending they're thin enough to fit into lycra. It was truly frightening, yet ridiculously fulfilling and amusing. You just didn't want to stop them embarrassing themselves, probably because they all did it with smiles on their faces - they were truly enjoying it!

The cosplayers combined with the numerous "Free Hugs" and "Free Glomps" signs created a strong (if frightening) friendly atmosphere, provided you didn't have a paranoia about being bear hugged by a complete stranger.



7 hours after entering, I had bought my fair share of Kingdom Hearts manga, had almost every leaflet under the sun forced upon me, met at least 6 of my friends from the forums, seen two (male) FMA characters experiment in various sexual poses in a massive crowd of people, watched Naruto give Sasuke a lapdance to the tune of "Girlfriend", and avoided so many free hugs and glomps I was breathless...

Successful Expo, I'd say. See you there next year?

Tonbridge School Arts Festival

Last Sunday heralded the beginning of Tonbridge School's Art Festival: Festival Evensong in the Tonbridge School Chapel, including an external vocal group, the chapel choir, and the majestic Marcussen organ (pictured below, click for larger images). The evening was a soaring success, with "Steal Away" and the jazz trio setting of Nunc Dimitis coming off superbly.

The Commitments had performed on the Friday and Saturday before, both times to rapturous applause and praise. On the same day as the Festival Evensong was an Art workshop, "Picture This", a production of Cinderella by "Unpacked" and a screening of "The Last King of Scotland".

On the following Tuesday, there was a Lunchtime Concert in Tonbridge Parish Church, to the delight of the community, and Brian Patten (one of the Liverpool poets, of The Mersey Sound fame) gave a superb reading of his poetry in the E.M.Forster theatre. The next day, there was a Rock Band Workshop in Big School, revolutions dance company gave a Dance-Theatre showcase, and the arts week Writers in Residence (Peter and Ann Sansom, both well known and respected poets) gave readings in the Cawthorne Lecture Theatre. On Thursday, Funkstylerz presents Life of a b-boy in the E.M.Forster theatre.

On Friday, Marcus Brigstocke gave two stand up fantastic comedy shows to rapturous applause, and on Saturday, Mark Forkgen, the school's own director of music, conducted The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (the British orchestra based in London, often referred to as the national orchestra of Britain) in a stunning concert of Mozart, Wagner and Beethoven.



The Arts Festival has always been successful, and is certainly worth checking out each year. For a school, the immense range of activities and performances on offer truly are tremendous.

Robin Hood 's back!

That's right, Robin Hood is back on our screens, as of last week's tentatively introductory episode. Last year's series wasn't bad: it was easy watching, not a massively involving drama. A bit of action, some romance here and there, a semi-believable plot - everything you need for a watchable Saturday evening program. If you ignored a lot of inconsistencies and general badness, it was genuinely enjoyable.

After last week's episode, I was left feeling slightly violated. They had taken a program I considered enjoyable in its own right, and taken it back to the drawing board. But instead of some better story arcs, more action-packed fight scenes and more talented actors, they've completely changed the ethos of the show! The plot is stupid, the fighting is rubbish, the script is more agonizing than I remember, and the main character has a haircut that makes him look like a walking mop! Whoever wrote the script needs to be fired! There are not circular saws in medieval England. The plots are more extravagant than a lot of Doctor Who episodes, but bear in mind we're not far in the future with a time-traveling alien in Robin Hood... Only decent thing is that there appears to be a story arc this year (although it looks like it's complete and utter rubbish).


The same night saw the return of another of my favorite shows: Top Gear. Thankfully, in this case it is a return of genuinely good TV. Very entertaining, slightly less informative, and just as weird, wonderful and wacky as I remember it. The gags are even better this year!

I leave you with one of my favorite Top Gear clips: What happened when Jeremy Clarkson met Simon Cowell!

The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance

At my school, on a Wednesday afternoon, we have CCF: Combined Cadet Force. Basically, you go into either Army, Navy or RAF and (for the mostpart) waste a lot of time standing still, marching and being shouted at by a short man with a shrill voice and a stupid hat. Of course, that's a little harsh, the CCF courses enforce leadership skills, teamwork skills and I'm sure there are some people who enjoy it. Plus, Duke of Edinborough is a useful qualification to have when an employer looks at your CV. However, when people come home from trips literally dripping with mud and their stomachs empty, I do kind of lose faith in the education system.

Fortunately for myself (being a bit of a wuss), I managed to get out of CCF and do Music activities along with about 60 other similarly minded people. We do things like Chamber Music, Brass Groups, Masterclasses with visitors and small concerts. Right now I'm doing the paperwork for my ARCO (Associated Royal College of Organists) exam and a string group (which I admittedly haven't bothered going to for the last three weeks).

Today it was CCF field day for my year, so the majority of 140-odd boys disappeared off to punish themselves in a variety of imaginative ways, leaving myself and 11 others to have our very own "Music Field Day." Basically, there was an Improvisation Workshop in the morning (we got quite a jam going, surprisingly), some Chamber Music in the afternoon and a Conducting Workshop in the evening.

Before lunch, some guy from the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance came and gave a presentation about... well, Contemporary Music. The industry, possible jobs in it, everything. And in fact it was very interesting. The guy certainly knew what he was talking about (well, he air-guitared the first few bars of every single song he mentioned) and enthused me quite a bit. He talked about various jobs you could get in the industry, including Singer, Songwriter, Singer/Songwriter, Music Producer, Studio Musician, Backing Band, Music Journalist, the list goes on. He also spoke briefly about the sort of courses the ICMP offer. They do full 3 year courses and one year courses, all of which you emerge from with a diploma or degree of some kind, and they also do 3 month courses and Summer/weekend courses for those of us who are just trying it out. The ICMP certainly have a lot to do with some pretty big names (Take That, Will Young, Katie Melua, KT Tunstall, Mick Jagger, Keane (who incidentally went to my school)) and I would recommend checking their website.

Considering our music department is mostly classically minded, I was pleased and surprised to see something like this happening, and I hope more stuff like it makes it way onto our timetables!

But more importantly, if you're a guitarist, bassist, drummer or vocalist, and are interested in getting into that scene, the ICMP certainly seems to be a great way to do it.