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.

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’.