Rock School

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For the documentary about an actual school of rock music, see Rock School (film). For the Jack Black movie, see School of Rock

Rock School
Gene Simmons with the class of Rock School (Series 2)
Genre	Reality, Documentary
Creator(s)	RDF Media
Starring	Gene Simmons
Country of origin	UK
No. of episodes	7 (Series 1) 4 (Series 2)
Production
Running time	30 minutes* (Series 1) 1 hour* (Series 2) *including commercials
Broadcast
Original channel	Channel 4
Original run	Autumn 2005 – February 19, 2006
Links
IMDb profile

Rock School (also known as Gene Simmons' Rock School) is a British reality TV series starring Gene Simmons (from the band KISS), in which he has a short time to turn a class of school children into a fully fledged rock band, at the end of which they must perform in a supporting slot for a leading rock band.

Rock School is made by British production company RDF Media and has been shown on Channel 4 in the UK, Channel Ten and Channel V in Australia, TVNZ's TV2 in New Zealand, VH-1 in the United States, TV2 Zebra in Norway, Nelonen in Finland, TV4 in Sweden and Much Music in Canada.

A comedy film with a similar theme, starring Jack Black, called School of Rock, was released in 2003, before the first series began although the creative team and Gene Simmons insist that it was not because of the success of that film they made it, and say it was in the works since 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Series one
2 Series two
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Series one

Gene Simmons in a scene from Rock School (Series 1)

The first series was broadcast in the autumn of 2005 and took place at Christ's Hospital school in England. The chosen class of year 9 students were all classically trained and had no interest in rock music.

The band consisted of Josh (also known as "The Emperor") as lead singer, Dudley ("Dudders") as drummer, Jesse ("Bagpuss") as guitarist, Kwamé ("Mr. Cool") on keyboards and bassist Camilla (who refused to have a "rock name"). Stylists were Fiona ("FiFi") and Frances ("Francis"), while the stage managers were Lucian and Richard ("Mr White"). On 21st October, the manager, Rodney ("Rods"), revealed the band's name to be "The Class". After an initially difficult start the band successfully played to a crowd of Motörhead fans at the Hammersmith Apollo.

The highlight of the programme was arguably Josh, "The Emperor", so named because of his love of the game Warhammer. The 13 year old sparked plenty of controversy among his fellow classmates as his weird antics made him an outsider. A fluent speaker of Elvish and learning Klingon by the end of the series, Josh is completely tone deaf but was chosen by Simmons for his determination and perseverance. Completely transformed by the experience, Josh saw himself as a rock god by the end of filming and had even grown his hair in homage to Brian May which irritated his fellow classmates as they thought his arrogance got the better of him.

[edit] Series two

Following strong international sales for the first series, a second series began filming in October 2005 at Kirkley Community High School in Lowestoft and began airing on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on Sunday January 29th, 2006. A new twist to this series was that instead of classically trained musicians, Simmons was working with students from a less affluent area, almost all of whom had a tendency to ignore everything asked of them. Unlike the first series the pupils were from year 11 rather than year 9. Their task at the end of the series would be to open for Judas Priest and Anthrax in Los Angeles.

In the first episode we meet Chris Hardman, also known as "Lil' Chris" (due to his diminutive stature), who can sing , play guitar, drum, and write songs. At the end of the first episode he goes on holiday with his family, causing Simmons to appoint Ellie as the replacement vocalist. The band, then "No Coment" and consisting of Ellie (vocals), Samanie (guitar), Lindsey (bass), Jess (keyboards) and Sammi (drums) spend the second episode preparing for their first gig, where they played to an audience of predominantly old age pensioners at a local bowls club, as well as worrying about their positions in the band upon Chris's return. Episode two also features Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, who was brought in by Simmons to inspire the group.

In the third episode, the band hold auditions for a backup drummer in light of Sammi's volatile temper and tendency to walk out on them. These auditions were open to both class members and select non-members as well. Simmons chooses an outsider Lauren, raising the suspicion that he was looking to form an all-girl band. They go on tour with Chris and Ellie taking turns on vocals, but neither impresses Simmons, putting both of their positions into doubt. On the second show of the tour, the band were promised they would get to play "My Generation" as an encore with Ellie singing, but Simmons felt they had not sufficiently impressed the crowd and did not warrant the encore (Sammi later claimed that he had been told by members of the crowd that they had been impressed). Suzi Quatro also features in episode three, showing Lindsey some techniques on the bass guitar.

In the final episode Simmons reveals the final line-up of the band, dropping an obviously devastated Ellie and opting for Chris, who he felt was more charismatic. He also renamed the band "Hoax UK", inspired by a slogan on Chris's cap. They successfully played their opening slot with their song "Kicking Off", written by Chris and classmate Rob:

I want to learn to fly, I want to climb so high, It's kicking off
Bought a ticket out this hole, Play my rock and roll, We're kicking off
Gonna take my life, Take My life to new levels, Going to shake it all up until my heart rate trebles

The lyrics may have been prophetic, as a week after the performance Chris was contacted by record producers Ray Hedges and Nigel Butler, who appeared in the show to help the class with songwriting. They worked with him on a song called "Checkin' it Out". The song was released as a single in September 2006 and reached at #3 in the UK Singles Chart, Chris then recently released an album in December 2006. The female members of the band, including Samanie, Ellie and Lauren formed a band of their own known as The Upraw. Lauren and Lily left the band but have been replaced by two new members Toni (Drums) and Katie (keyboard). They released a single called "Make My Way" in May 2006.[1]. According to the Upraw's website, Ellie and Katie have now left, with the three remaining members functioning as a three piece.

[edit] Trivia

Although not mentioned in the programme, Kirkley High School (the location of the second series) was attended by three members of rock band The Darkness. It has been alleged that the band did not want to be associated with the programme as they felt it would portray the school negatively and in contrast with the school shown in the first series.
There were clashes between the school and the production company (RDF Media) due to filming methods.
Children at the school were not given the opportunity to prevent their face being shown on television.