SCHOOL FOR SONGS

One song to be written, one day to do it – and about 500,000 people to sing it and judge how it sounds. That was the equation faced by a dozen schoolchildren who were coached by leading lights of Australian music yesterday in writing this year’s ditty for the annual Music: Count Us In project. The teenagers were given guidelines for the composition, but Eskimo Joe’s Kav Temperley said: ”I told them to forget about that completely.” The result with his pupils was lyrics about ”pocketful of poo, something about spew”, he said proudly. But it rhymed. ”That’s what we’re saying: it’s gotta be good.” Regurgitative references aside, the Diary’s anthem correspondent, Adam Fulton, reports that the students were beyond chuffed to come from around Australia to get the guidance of Temperley, Clare Bowditch, Holly Throsby and Rai Thistlethwayte for the project, which is designed to raise awareness of the value of music education in schools. By day’s end the song chosen by the project’s ”ambassador”, John Foreman, to be sung by students from about 1600 Australian schools at the same time on September 1 was by Thistlethwayte’s bunch and carries the working titleWe’ve Got the Music. Its chorus: ”Get on your feet / Feel the heartbeat / We’ve got the music / We’re not too proud to say it out loud / We’re not afraid to use it.”

from Sydney Morning Herald 14.4.2011 Matt Buchanan and Rachel Olding