Rain aside, nothing screams typical British summer holiday more than an angry wasp disturbing your picnic. That was the inspiration for the latest project from The Garage’s senior Inclusive Music class, which is creating quite the buzz.
The 14-18-year-olds, who all have special educational needs and disabilities, meet every Friday under the guidance of tutor Paul Thompson and support worker Amelia Stephanides.
Paul explains: “The main creative input from our sessions always comes from our participants and we always start a new term by chatting about what everyone’s been up to.
"A participant said they’d gone on picnics, and someone got stung. I asked, ‘did it hurt’. And - I think it was actually a mishear - they seemed to reply ‘angry’. We jammed, practiced, did a lot of improvisation, added new ideas and then recorded it.”
The result is a catchy Kraftwerk style anthem to summer. There’s now talk of its creators and members of The Garage’s other SEND music groups forming a performance company.