The Marlborough House Shout took place on the final evening of the half term before a full house in the drama theatre.
Taylor House began the proceedings and performed ‘Demons’, a somewhat dark song by Indie Rock band Imagine Dragons. The tonal quality of the performance was most impressive and the piano playing of accompanist Jay Chew deserves commendation.
Iskandar House responded in style and gave the audience a splendid rendition of the Mamas and Papas 1965 hit ‘California Dreamin’. They even managed an additional line of, ‘we are Iskandar and we came here and conquered’. Ceasaresque in content and delivered with a John Travolta Saturday Night Fever flourish.
‘Our House’, originally written and performed by the quintessential English group Madness, took on reconstituted lyrics which Suggs would have been proud of and Munawir Hill provided splendid entertainment, impressive musicality and an additional bonus of high quality saxophone playing by Zayd and Teng.
Honan House sang ‘Just a Little Girl’ by Amy Studt and were, without doubt, girls with attitude. A tight and confident beginning followed by an excellent two part harmony created a strong sound, probably best summed up in the musical phrase ‘con spirito’, with spirit.
For the judges, they were left to make subjective judgements on four excellent but very different songs. In both categories there was no unanimous decision and, by the narrowest of margins, Taylor House won the Junior House contest, and received ‘The A# Cup’, and Munawir Hill took ‘The Wyndham Cup’ back to ‘their house’.
