High school bands alive and well

Bishop's College
St. John's, Newfoundland

By Allison P.

Here at Bishops College High School, there are a multitude of bands formed by students. These are the kinds of bands that practice in basements or garages - a few friends who all somehow came to possess musical instruments and decided to form a band. There are a lot of these bands among Bishops' student body; unfortunately they're usually only known to their own group of friends.

So, how do these bands go about getting recognized? Well this is the hard part, but there are possibilities. The school can be a vehicle for student bands to use "on the road to recognition". For instance, some schools have concerts in their basement theatre or gymnasium- more than one student band gained a larger fan base from such a concert. Also, there are promotional opportunities available in the Enterprise Education courses. For a project, one student made recordings of several student bands from this school and other schools. If these tapes sell, which they most likely will, the bands on the tapes will get a lot of exposure. Also, another person in this course plans to sell products (such as T-shirts) with the names of these bands.

Unfortunately, most student bands will probably not get record deals and make it to the national music scene. But maybe some of our student bands will luck into paid gigs, like dances and parties, or they might get a record deal with a local label.

If a student band is lucky enough to be pushed into the public eye, they might have a shot at national, or even international recognition. But if they don't make it to the big leagues, at least they will have had the experience.