EXCITING NEWS……! ROCKAOKE has been featured in the latest edition of Heatworld as one of the top ‘quirky karaoke’ nights around.
“Get the goss on the new craze for quirky karaoke”
If you prefer your sing-along experience with added air guitar, this is probably the closest you’ll get to joining a rock band. The on-hand pro musicians promise they’ll make you feel like you are in a band, whether you’re rocking out to Arctic Monkeys or AC-DC.
They’ve entertained everyone from James Corden to Jeremy Corbyn (yes, really) so you’ll be in superstar company. And as well as private events and one-off appearances, they have regular gigs in both London (various locations) and their hometown of Sheffield in the Mulberry Bar.
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.
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!
Kaiser Chiefs may have performed on the main stage on the Friday afternoon of the Isle Of Wight Festival, but frontman Ricky Wilson wasn’t ready to go home just yet.
Ricky made a surprise appearance at the Rockaoke stage, aka Camp Kiwi on Sunday afternoon (11 June).
The one-time coach on The Voice treated surprised fans to renditions of Kaiser Chiefs classics including Ruby and I Predict A Riot, swapping the rest of the Chiefs with the Rockaoke band.
Kaiser Chiefs performed at the Isle of Wight Festival on the Old Mout Cider Tent stage. Ricky put on an energetic show and got up close to the fans. The band were among the acts entertaining fans at the music event this weekend.
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.
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’.
Michael Mosley is challenged to confront one of his worst fears – his absolute terror of karaoke. And to makes things a bit harder Michael has to sing with a live band.
Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles has announced that he will be touring the country with a full live band later this year find out this here.
The DJ will broadcast his final show as the host of the Radio 1 Breakfast show on Friday (September 21) and will then head out on tour in October with his cast of radio sidekicks.
The shows are set to last 80 minutes and will feature a live band, games involving audience participation and a live question and answer session.
According to The Sun, a source said of Moyles’ plans for the tour: “It’s the first and last time Chris and his team will perform to a paying audience. They will be getting the audience really involved, be it singing with them or just playing games.”
The tour begins at Birmingham’s O2 Academy on October 14 and runs until October 24 when it finishes up at Manchester’s Academy. The run also includes stops in London, Sheffield, Newcastle, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Leeds and Bristol.
It was recently revealed that Moyles’ replacement Nick Grimshaw will play double the amount of music than he did when he takes over the Radio 1 breakfast show. ‘Grimmy’ will play eight to 10 songs an hour – compared with the four to five an hour played by Moyles when his show launches on September 24.
Chris Moyles will play:
O2 Academy Birmingham (October 14)
O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire (15)
O2 Academy Bournemouth (16)
O2 Academy Sheffield (17)
O2 Academy Newcastle (20)
O2 Academy Leeds (21)
O2 Academy Bristol (22)
O2 Academy Liverpool (23)
Manchester Academy (24)
Tickets go onsale on Friday (September 14) at 9am (BST). To check the availability of Chris Moyles tickets and get all the latest listings, go to NME.COM/TICKETS now, or call 0871 230 1094.
STARS came out for a night of celebration to mark Toon record goalscorer Alan Shearer’s latest milestone.
The great and the good from the worlds of sport and celebrity turned up at the ex-Newcastle United ace’s home for his 40th birthday bash.
They turned up for the glittering event at the former England skipper’s plush Northumberland mansion in Darras Hall on the outskirts of Ponteland.
Famous faces from sport and showbiz attended the bash last weekend.
Shearer was joined by former Magpies teammates including Shay Given now keeping goal at mega-rich Manchester City, Gary Speed, new manager at Sheffield United, whose side today take on Middlesbrough, and Lee Clark, the Huddersfield Town boss.
Other sporting guests were ex-United defender Steve Watson, who previously lived in a house round the corner from Shearer, and Steve Harper, currently the Toon’s Number 1.
Ex-Toon manager Kevin Keegan also turned up to wish Shearer a happy birthday, along with Iain Dowie, who was Shearer’s assistant manager during their brief reign at the helm of the Magpies.
Ant McPartlin, one half of Geordie duo Ant and Dec, was also in attendance along with his make-up artist wife Lisa Armstrong.
And, as he declared live on Match of the Day last Saturday night, Shearer’s co-host Alan Hansen also made the trip to the North East from his home on Merseyside.
Guests spent the afternoon drinking champagne, with some, including former Wallsend Boys Club player Watson, leaving at around 7.30pm.
Others stayed until the early hours of the morning to celebrate with him.
