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I Definitely Don't Want To Be A RockstarFrom: News Telegragh by Julie Henry On stage he is a rock'n'roll legend, known for his outrageous make-up and bedding more than 4,000 women. But in the classroom of one of England's oldest boarding schools, the KISS frontman GENE SIMMONS was rather a flop. The arrival of Mr Simmons, the former lead singer of the glamrock band KISS, at the £17,900-a-year Christ's Hospital School, in West Sussex, to film a Channel 4 series entitled Rock School, brought 10 musically gifted teenagers face to face with a star whose trademark tongue displays have helped him to sell 100 million albums and fill stadiums all over America in the 1980s. In the week after seasoned performers entertained five billion people across the globe in the Live 8 concerts, however, pupils at the school, talking for the first time about their experiences, were unswayed by the promise of a rock'n'roll lifestyle. "At times I got really annoyed by him," said Rodney, a 14-year-old from east London. "He said, 'Money is the most important thing and if you don't have it, you have nothing' and I really don't agree with that." Rodney, who is Grade 4 on the piano, adopted Rods as his rock name and donned cowboy boots and a leather jacket for the finale of the series, a "terrifying" support spot in front of 5,000 Motorhead fans at the Hammersmith Apollo in west London. "I still don't like rock music," he told The Sunday Telegraph, "but I do understand it more and I have become more confident and open as a result of taking part. He got us jumping up and acting more rockish when we were rehearsing and I surprisingly didn't find it that embarrassing. But I definitely don't want to be a rock star, I want to be a lawyer. It was all quite surreal really." A classmate Dudley, or Dudders, from Alford, in Surrey, was equally circumspect: "He was in your face, bragging and boasting and that is not really our type of thing," he said. The 14-year-old, who "can play most things" but specialises in the French horn and the organ, was the band's drummer. "A lot of us disagreed with his morals and challenged him during his reign over us," he said. "He would act like the big hard man - you could say he was like the Gordon Ramsay of the classroom." While Dudley is a rock fan, listening to guitar bands such as Green Day and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, a life in the music industry does not beckon. "I want to be a neurosurgeon or a pathologist," he said. "If I did go in to music, I think it would be something more relaxing like an orchestra." Contributors to the student-run website were unimpressed by the 55-year-old rock legend, whose hits include Crazy, Crazy Night, Lick it Up and Hotter than Hell. One entry said: "Poor Gene. In a school debate, he extolled the virtues of money worship and boasted of his 4,136 sexual conquests." Christ's Hospital, with its 250 acres of rolling fields, 16 boarding houses, sumptuous facilities and musical tradition, provided the ideal backdrop for programme makers. Its mixed intake - less than three per cent pay full fees because places are subsidised by a charitable foundation - was also attractive. The pupils' lack of enthusiasm for the rock'n'roll lifestyle came as a surprise at a time when children seem obsessed with fame and fortune, idolising pop stars and rappers. A recent survey of 2,000 five- to 10-year-olds by Luton University found that "fame" came first in front of "family" and "football" as the best thing in the world. Bruce Grindlay, Christ's musical director, said he was impressed by the attitude of pupils at the school, which counts among its alumni the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the journalist Bernard Levin and the comedian Mark Thomas. "It is very interesting that, often the quieter characters, were very self-assured and determined," he said. "They said, 'Yes, it was interesting', but they were not in awe of him and held a certain approbation that making money and financial gain was at the centre of his artistic outlay. The pupils stuck to their guns and that created conflict." Mr Grindlay, who remembers being terrified at the age of four by a photograph of Mr Simmons in full devil make-up on the front of his brother's album cover, said that important lessons were learnt from the experience. "They did get a lot out of it in terms of how to perform, which is just as important for the classical artist as it is for a rock star," he said. The programme will be screened in the autumn on Channel 4. |
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