Edinburgh Schools Rock Ensemble: Elevating young musicians from grassroots stages to groundbreaking success
Edinburgh Schools Rock Ensemble: Elevating young musicians from grassroots stages to groundbreaking success
By Daisy Gallacher
“I think I’ve got the best band In Edinburgh”
Edinburgh Schools Rock Ensemble (ESRE) are an annually evolving band of just over twenty talented musicians drawn from secondary schools across the city. ESRE centres around performing a variety of rock and contemporary covers in venues around Edinburgh’s touring circuit including the Usher Hall, Summerhall and most recently, The Mash House. This band of multi-instrumental young musicians will celebrate their 25th anniversary next year. I was fortunate enough to attend a band rehearsal, talk to current members of ESRE and past member, Ace Duncan as well as the director of the whole operation, Neil Somerville who prides himself on mentoring Edinburgh’s best band.
Neil told me ESRE was born because, “We thought that the kids that played non-classical instruments should get the same level of expertise, if you will, from professional musicians.” This prosperous ensemble wouldn’t have been thriving for this long without the support network of secondary school music staff who, alongside Neil have coached rehearsals and organised shows for these young musicians throughout its twenty-some year history. ESRE has been the starting place for many successful alumni including Calum Beattie’s guitarist, members of Black Honey and Napier University’s current Professor of Popular Music.
Sommerville speaks on the key to ESRE’s success being “I've been surrounded by very, very good tutors. So while I might have had the visions and I picked the music and that stuff, these guys make it happen.”
Community remains at ESRE’s core. Not just the community of staff who make these performances a reality but also the community of band members, past and present, that allows this band to flourish. In fact, community is the best thing that every ESRE member that I’ve spoken to says they’re gotten out of their time in the band. Current members say they enjoy having friends who also play music that they can share an understanding of musicianship with. This sense of community spans beyond band membership, as Neil tells me, “The best thing about my job is most of them keep in touch. It’s maybe once every couple of months, I'll get a photograph of two ESRE members… at one of each other's gigs. They support each other. It's lovely.”
Membership in ESRE provides young musicians opportunities to socialise, gain performing experience, to learn to work within a band setting and to make instrumental progress. One member speaks on the benefits of this “I think in school, at the time, I didn't have many opportunities to do it (perform). To kind of start singing more, learn how to perform and like, work as a band.”
Everyone unanimously agreed that touring around schools in the Highlands was their favourite memory of ESRE. The band found enjoyment in, “spreading music everywhere”, getting to perform rock music and because spending so much time together, “was really good for building closer friendships.” Neil explained the band’s creative process on tour “So, usually every night we’ll learn a new song. We’ll soundcheck it the next day at a school and we'll play, whilst on tour. And this particular band that you saw has been the quickest band to pick up material we've ever had.” This incredible ability is a testament to how gifted these musicians really are. They told me that they were conditioned by attending weekly rehearsals, having already learnt their parts for the material on the rehearsal agenda at home, which was a lot to adapt to in the beginning. However, Neil says this pace is only possible because “great players pick up stuff really quick.”
Sommerville reckons that ESRE’s niche lies in adapting songs from their original tunes, getting creative with altering the tracks and enhancing them to reflect the band’s strengths “ESRE’s been at its best is when it's taken a song and made it its own.” Current members exemplify this, “…And if we, like, make mistakes, sometimes it'll even be like a mistake that he [Neil] likes. In one of our songs, we're doing, “You're the Voice” by John Farnham and I accidentally played two notes instead of one at the end of one of my runs, and he [Neil] just said he really liked it and said to keep it in. So I like, accidentally made it better.”
ESRE’s greatest legacy is preparing Edinburgh’s youth for pursuing music and giving them an understanding and taste of the music industry. Former ESRE member, Ace Duncan confirms this, stating “ESRE is like doing music in the real world, it - and Neil - properly set you up for a career in music, along with meeting some of the most talented musicians of that age. It just gives you an amazing kickstart, which as young musicians is so important now because of the insane increase of artists. And, of course the networking is amazing, for example now I’ve left we have yearly ex ESRE meet ups and I met Jason Tucker - Calum Beattie’s guitarist - and a producer from Abbey Road and a lot of people from really successful bands.” Since leaving ESRE, Ace has embarked on their own solo Alt/Folk project, ‘Ace and All The Other Animals’; has started releasing music and has toured independent venues across Scotland. They’ve performed in Glasgow’s King Tuts and headlined Edinburgh’s Sneaky Pete’s. Ace explains they wouldn’t be where they are today had it not been for ESRE, “Honestly, when I started my confidence was so so low, like I was terrified of speaking in front of people never-mind sing. ESRE was the best thing to happen to me as a musician, gave me confidence, skill, real expectations of the industry and life long friends (and) trusty musicians. Without it, I don’t think I’d be doing music as seriously as I am now or as successfully!”
ESRE continues to provide a service: expanding our musical repertoires, educating our youth in great musical performance, creating and uniting communities and giving us phenomenal live entertainment. Make sure you go and see ESRE’s next live performance and look out for Edinburgh’s emerging new musicians because chances are, they probably started out in ESRE and you wouldn’t want to miss seeing , ‘…the best band in Edinburgh…’, would you?