Beating the Blues and raising money for charity - Ellesmere School provides Blue Monday alternative

Pupils at a Shropshire school have helped raise hundreds of pounds for charity by offering people a chance to Beat the Blues.

Ellesmere College put on a concert on January 15th, known as Blue Monday - the most depressing day of the year. The Beating the Blues event also helped raise over £300 for Shropshire Mental Health Support charity.

Tony Coupe, Director of Music at Ellesmere College, said: “This inaugural event was a huge success and generous donations by friends and families helped raised a fantastic amount for a valuable local charity. It was the idea of our drum teacher Will Oram who did a brilliant job of organising the event and led it with such enthusiasm.

“Local youth bands were happy to perform. We are incredibly lucky to have young people who are confident enough as individuals to get up on stage and work together to produce fantastic performances. The quality of music-making was first rate, leaving the sell-out crowd happy and inspired – we managed to well and truly Beat the Blues.”

Eight bands performed on the night and songs included Sweet Dreams, Highway to Hell, Sunshine of Your Love and Heart of Glass as well as Believer, Radioactive and Centuries.

Those taking part included students from year six to year 13 and due to its success, the school hopes to make this an annual event.

For more information about music at Ellesmere please visit https://www.ellesmere.com/the-schools/all/clubs-an... or follow ellesmeremusic on Instagram.