dan richardson

About dan richardson

https://www.rockaoke.com

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NBHD Weekender!!

First festival of the season done, and what an epic way to kick off proceedings!

We were booked by SJM Concerts, one of the UK’s leading promoters, to curate a pop up bar called the Neighbour Hood Inn. The brief was to fill it with the kind of entertainment you’d find in a traditional pub but to add an unexpected twist and engage the ‘hungry for fun’ festival crowd.

Luckily, we have a flight case full of these activities after 15 years in the game. The programme was hosted all day by our fictional pub landlord character, Mat Butcher aka Mat Slater. The live band then took to the stage for a bespoke, fully interactive live band music quiz ( different each day ), sing along bingo and 2 sets of Rockaoke, before our landlord turned to the decks for the evening under the guise of DJ Starship.

We knew what we had put together was going to be fun, but we weren’t quite prepared for the crowd surfing kids and OAP dance offs. The Neighbour Hood Arms was packed to the rafters all weekend, with full houses for the Sing-Along-Bingo, standing room only for the quizzed and complete carnage during the Rockaoke sets!

SJM were supremely happy and the festival crowd were euphorically entertained. Job very well done.

Keep your eyes peeled for video evidence of this completely interactive, Rockaoke programming. It should be making it’s way to a festival, corporate event or private event near you soon.

 

 

 

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Crack open a cider… festival season is here!!

Summer is one of the busiest times of the year for Rockaoke, as not only do we have a plethora of corporate summer parties, weddings and private events lined up, but also a full calendar playing some of the UK’s top music festivals!

Ever since we played at our first major UK festival back in 2007 (in the VIP area at V Festival), we have forged a reputation as one of the go-to interactive festival experiences. Using our ability to interact with and engage audiences both large and small, we’ve been booked as part of brand experiences and in our own right at festivals such as Standon Calling, Meraki and Car Fest. We give festival goers the experience of feeling like a rock star and fronting their own rock band; an experience not unlike that of the bands they’ve come to see….

So crack open a cold cider and get ready to unleash your inner rock god at a festival near you this summer:

27th May – NBHD Weekender – Victoria Park, Warrington

15th-17th June – Eroica Britannia – Friden Grange, Buxton

21st-24th June – Isle of Wight Festival

29th-31st June – Love Supreme – Lewes, East Sussex

20th-22nd July – Blue Dot Festival – Jodrell Bank, Cheshire

26th-29th July – Kendal Calling – Lowther Deer Park, Kendal

27th-29th July – Standon Calling – Lordship Cottage, Standon

3rd-5th August – Bestival – Lulworth Estate, Lulworth

11th August – Meraki Festival – Herts County Showground, St Albans

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Bohemian Rhapsody, the movie!!

Is this the real life, or is it just fantasy!?

Back in January we were asked by long time Rockaoke fan, Dexter Fletcher (film director) if we could come along to The Bloomsbury Ballroom and play at the wrap party for Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ biopic.

It was a slightly surreal night, what with us being in the same room and playing in front of total rock legends Brain May and Roger Taylor. This was made even more surreal by Rami Malek, who plays Freddie Mercury in the film, slaying through Queen songs ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ and ‘Under Pressure’ with all the Freddie mannerisms down to a tee.


And come the end of the night, when the grand finale was upon us, it could only have been one song………Bohemian Rhapsody, led by Oscar winning film producer Graham King. The perfect way to sign off from one of the craziest nights in Rockaoke history.

The official film trailer is out now. From what we saw on the night, it’s going to be amazing.

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ROCKAOKE……the Premier League Champions of live band karaoke!

Blue Moon at the Manchester City Champions Party 2018 from rockaoke on Vimeo.

Ever wondered how world class, elite, Premier League Footballers celebrate winning the Premier League? Naturally, they hire Rockaoke!!

Premier League 2018 winners Manchester City hired Rockaoke to help world class football superstars such as Sergio Aguero, Leroy Sane, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Kevin De Bruyne to name but a few, live out their Rock ‘n’ Roll dreams by fronting their very own live band.

The venue of choice was the Mayfield Depot, Manchester, an old disused railway depot. The evening started off a little quiet until the whole team invaded the stage to sing club anthem “Blue Moon”, then things hotted up as the night quickly picked up pace with the guys doing “Hey Jude”, “Mr Brightside”, “Suspicious Minds” and many more. Even City supporter and guitar hero Johnny Marr of The Smiths popped his head in just to see if the team had the same swagger on the stage as they’ve had all season on the pitch. He didn’t fancy getting up himself saying… “I’m off the clock boys but sounds cool. I’ll stick around”.

Just goes to show, everyone loves singing with a live band…..even the most expensive footballers on the planet!

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The Bunga Bunga Bank Holiday Bonanza!

 

Rockaoke have teamed up with the world famous pizzeria and karaoke bar, Bunga Bunga Battersea, for some bank holiday fun.

We will be serving up a slice of our mighty meaty, fully loaded, live band karaoke experience, and giving you the chance to unleash your inner rockstar live at Bunga Bunga Battersea.

There will be cocktails and foot long pizzas galore, with a £100 bar tab for the best singer of the night, to be used at the next Bunga Bunga Rockaoke Night.

Come and see us at any of the below dates:

1st April

6th & 27th May

26th August

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Rockaoke Nights – The ultimate WTF experience!

 

Rockaoke have been running regular nights in London for the last 10 years, giving  people the platform to lose their inhibitions and unleash their inner rockstar!!

Our nights have seen us take on such venues as Punk, The Phoenix,  Proud Galleries, AAA Bar, The London Cocktail Club and the iconic Madame Jojo’s.

Now with a new roster of regular monthly nights, including one in Sheffield, the birth place of Rockaoke, you can sing with Rockaoke on most Friday nights, with the addition of a monthly Thursday and Sunday.

Our Rockaoke Nights are as follows:

1st Friday of the month – Radicals and Victuallers – Islington.

1st Thursday of the month – The Dogstar, Brixton.

2nd Friday of the month – Tooting Tram and Social, Tooting.

Last Friday of the month – The Star of Kings, Kings Cross.

Last Friday of the month – The Mulberry, Sheffield.

For one of the most fun nights you can have without getting arrested…….then come to one of our nights!

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The School of Rockaoke Life

The School of Life is a global humanist organisation devoted to developing emotional intelligence through the help of culture.  Who did they choose to help spread that message on Mother’s Day? You’ve guessed it….David Baddiel and Rockaoke.

Sunday mornings are not a musician’s natural habitat but we managed to drag ourselves to the beautiful Conway Hall  to sandwich David Baddiel’s brilliant secular sermon on Fame with two rock and roll hymns.

The subject of the talk provided the opening hymn, with us leading the congregation in an early morning dance  to David Bowie’s Fame.  We then sat back and laughed for 45 minutes as Baddiel, one of Rockaoke’s comedy heroes, shared his observations on fame; his own, other people’s and the myths surrounding this prized but also reviled status.

DB

The following Q&A session provided us with the ideal end to a wonderful and slightly surreal morning, as a wannabe teenage rockstar asked a question about levels of fame based on his own upcoming XFactor audition. When we returned to the stage to play the final hymn, Creep by Radiohead, we asked asked him to come onto the stage and lead the song.

He rose to the challenge and delighted the audience as he rolled onto the stage, put on his sun glasses and delivered a slightly nervy, but wonderfully tender rendition of the Radiohead classic. It ended with the whole room singing an a cappella refrain of the chorus, before Conway Hall erupted into applause for the fame hungry youngster, who had given the perfect epilogue to David Baddiel’s poignant and extremely funny sermon.

Just a regular Sunday morning in the office. In the words of Mr Baddiel himself ‘I’ve never seen this before, It’s brilliant, you make karaoke NOT NAFF’.

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Rockaoke – Just what the Doctor ordered.

What the Doctor ordered

Bosley_crop_Rockaoke

According to new scientific research, Karaoke nights out are actually good for your health, writes The Telegraph Science Correspondent Richard Alleyne.

Researchers found that moderate drinking with a good friend helped improve cardiovascular health with singing also helping to reduce stress.

While heavy drinking is associated with a greater risk of a stroke, light to moderate drinking has been linked to a lesser risk of stroke and coronary heart disease.

Having the social support of a good friend seems increase the positive effect that moderate drinking has on your health.

“In short,” said Professor Takeshi Tanigawa, at Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan. “Moderate to light alcohol consumption with high social support is good for your health. Drinking with a good friend appropriately makes you feel happy and healthy.

“So drink with good friends for health.”

Prof Tanigawa also recommended karaoke bars as one way for business persons to cope with stress. “Singers use deep breathing, which is good for the nervous system,” he said.

“After singing, they usually receive applause. It is a good kind of social support, and helps in the face of adverse occasions or stressful events.”

AAA - 6th April 2013-46 - cropped

The study on 19,356 men aged 40 to 69 found the health benefits of light to moderate drinking are more pronounced in men with greater social support.

The study, published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, also found that those with low social support had less healthy lifestyles such as physical inactivity, no job and fewer opportunities for medical checkups.

Heavy drinking was found to be risky irrespective of the level of social support.

Professor Hiroyasu Iso, the study’s co-author from Osaka University, said: “We found the reduced risks of total stroke, ischemic stroke, and total cardiovascular disease associated with light to moderate drinking were more pronounced in men with high social support, probably due to avoidance of unhealthy behaviours and enhancement of stress buffering.”

(read the full article here)

See you at a Rockaoke Night soon!!!

AAA – High St Kensington – 1st and 3rd Friday of the month
Tooting Tram and Social – 2nd Friday of the month
Star of Kings – Kings Cross – Last Friday of the month.

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Rockaoke at the BBC6 Music Festival

This has to go down as one of the greatest weekends in Rockaoke history. We’re all still buzzing from the BBC6 Music Festival at the Victoria Warehouse in Manchester. We were asked by the coolest music radio station in the country to be their official party starters on both the Friday and Saturday on their inaugural festival. This was organised to say thanks to the listeners who helped to keep the station on air and BBC6 enlisted the UK’s finest live karaoke band to add a bit of interactive rock and roll fun to proceedings, complimenting the raft of rockstar talks, interviews and acoustic sessions that were going on during the daytime fringe.

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The very first live musical performance of the weekend took place on the Rockaoke stage on Friday morning and it was no surprise to us that our old pal Shaun Keaveny was determined to kick proceedings off in style with a performance he predicted would be the festival’s “high-water mark”.  Typically charismatic and slightly bonkers, it was a great opening salvo; however Shaun wasn’t the only person to get up and show us who’s The Boss:

The following sets saw us blast through some old Rockaoke classics, but also visit  new ground with tunes that had been specifically requested by BBC6.  We went Up The Junction a couple of times, Pumped it up with some Elvis Costello and drove down the 2-4-6-8 motorway whilst Tom Robinson himself was watching. He was one of the many musical heroes who we had the pleasure of entertaining and meeting across the two days. Our heads are still spinning from the chats we’ve had with Mark Radcliffe, Mark King, Tim Burgess, Guy Garvey, Steve Lamacq, Huey Morgan and even Freddie Flintoff.

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The only down side to the experience is that we didn’t get to play one particular tune that we had rehearsed. It’s probably a good thing though as the Victoria Warehouse may not have been able to deal with a rendition of “Two Pints of Lager and a packet of crisps please” similar to this one that we smashed during rehearsals.

You can see the rest of the musical highlights on our You Tube channel.

We’re already excited about the thought of doing it again next year. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring a few of the Rockaoke faithful along!

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ROCKAOKE set to play BBC6 Music Festival!!

Rockaoke are delighted to announce that we will be playing at this year’s BBC6 Music Festival in Manchester at the Victoria Warehouse!!

BBC6 Music Festival

Rockaoke’s involvement at the festival will be at the Fringe event, which takes place on the Friday and Saturday afternoons. We will be nicely sandwiched between DJ sets and spoken word sessions from Tim Burgess (The Charlatans), Huey Morgan and Craig Charles to name but a few.

There will also be a record fair, a BBC Radio 5 live special with Freddie Flintoff and loads of other goodness for you to feast yourselves on…!

If you are at the event, and want to sing Karaoke with your favourite live Karaoke Band, then come say hello and rock out with Rockaoke!!!!

There will be a brand new, bespoke set list chosen by the music gurus at 6Music, full of slightly alternative but awesome songs from The Clash to The Tom Robinson Band, Blondie to Weezer plus all your favourite Rock and Pop classics!

See you in Manchester!!!

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