Ottawa students brace for brush with pop fame
Fri Oct 15, 7:19 AM
Students from St. Leonard Elementary Catholic School in Manotick, Ont., will partake in a record-breaking concert by an icon of rock music on Sunday in Ottawa.
The 20 pupils are to sing in the choir for part of former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters's performance of the entire album The Wall.
"I was really excited about it. I went home and I told my parents and their mouths dropped and everything," 11-year-old Grace Petschenig said.
The concert at Scotiabank Place sold out in a record 22 minutes and will require 24 transport trucks of equipment, more gear than any other concert at the arena.
The St. Leonard choir was chosen to accompany Waters on his song Another Brick in the Wall, Part II because a concert promoter with a daughter at the school remembered watching them perform the signature Pink Floyd tune in a talent show last year.
The lyrics include the lines, "Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone."
"We yell at the teacher," said Jacob Ritchie, 11. "It feels good."
Ritchie said he checked out the theatrics of the live Wall concert on YouTube.
"The first time I saw it, I was just like, how am I going to do this? So many people there and everything, and I just gotta stay calm and go with it."
On Sunday, the children will rehearse with Waters before the show and have a photo taken.
Teacher Nathalie Wall, who has two daughters in the choir, said she is a big Pink Floyd fan.
"Probably for the adults and the parents of the kids it's maybe a little more significant, you know, because it's music that we enjoy listening to," she said. "It's quite the moment. I'm still a little moved by it, a little .
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