Talented young musicians converge on The Minerva, Chichester

Nick Davidson, who is masterminding it all, is promising a very special evening: “I'm a musician myself but I don't put my music out there. I keep my music to myself but I really respect the young people for doing this, for turning up and committing and to playing in front of people and to walking away with a smile on their face saying ‘When can we do that again?’ I think we've really achieved something through Chichester Music Academy and Ovation Music, and I don't think you'll find anything like this anywhere near here.

“This event started in 2016 and it's really about giving a platform to the young people on a Chichester level using the facilities of the Minerva Theatre where they can go out and perform. It is not perhaps suitable for everyone but the point is that we give them the opportunity to be on a professional stage.

"We use our own sound guys and we use the theatre’s lighting team and we have our own tech guys. And the format is that we have our own bands and performers on stage, young people that are Ovation attendees, young people that come together in bands or whatever. They might do a couple of songs each depending on age and experience and there will be 15 or 16 groups and bands or singer-songwriters on the night. We have a vocal group and we also have a band that will accompany. It gives singer-songwriters the chance to perform with a backing band rather than backing tracks.

“The young people are aged ten to 18 but mostly they are early secondary school years. I think that the average age would be 14 or 15. There are younger and there are older ones.

"We were hit pretty hard by Covid and then we lost the college music department this year which was a major blow so now we work out of the Chichester Boys Club and also out of the CMA office. And what I think they get out of it is first and foremost confidence. They commit to working together perhaps not necessarily with their mates or even people the same age or even from the same school but they come together with a common goal. They are writing songs and then they go out there and they perform them.

"The Minerva is like a goldfish bowl. It's a professional stage and it's the confidence that they get, the experience, to use their creative passion (tickets on https://www.cft.org.uk/events/ovation-rock-show-2)

“And what they do is pretty good. I get pretty nervous watching them because you're thinking that they've got to go out there and play in tune and remember the song, remember the lyrics and listen to each other and communicate with each other and look at the audience and you're just thinking of all the things that could go wrong but the fact is that they always rise to the challenge and I think what they do is a real achievement.”

Tickets from the venue.