One of the highlights of Brentwood School's musical calendar is the House Music Competition and this year's evening played to the usual full house. 

This year's guest adjudicator was the legendary Rick Wakeman, who was making his first visit to Brentwood School's House Music Competition.  Rick is a composer, keyboardist and songwriter and is considered by many to be the best rock keyboardist of all time, with over 100 million record sales globally.  He has played with artists such as David Bowie, Cat Stevens, Alice Cooper, Elton John and Ozzy Osbourne to name a few, but he is probably best known for being a member of the progressive rock group Yes and for his many solo albums. In addition to which he is a regular on TV on such programmes as "Grumpy Old Men", "Have I Got News for You" and "Top Gear".

All of the Houses have been rehearsing since the beginning of term for three items; a Partsong, Ensemble and Unison Song.  The evening began with the Partsong, "Golden Slumbers" arranged by Robinson.  All six Houses gave their own unique interpretation of the song.  The adjudicator praised them for their performances and conducting, and commented "It is phenomenal that you have managed to put these remarkable performances together in just 10 school days."

Section two, the Ensemble, provided an opportunity for arrangers as well as performers to take the stage.  South began with a Classical Medley arranged by Alex Quigley.  This was performed with pace and enthusiasm.  Weald then played a Michael Jackson Medley arranged by Martin Bartlett.   School House moved many with their arrangement of "The Sound of Silence" by Paul Simon arranged by pupils Alex Schlitt and Mark Baldock.  North played a "Film Medley" by Hans Zimmer arranged by Carina Gascoine.  West brought energy to the stage with student Alex Tai's arrangement of "Wild Wild West!" and finally East House played "This is it!" arranged by Liam Taylor and Oliver Cross.

There was everything to play for as the Houses came forward one-by-one to perform their Unison Songs.  Weald began with the Beatles classic "Help!" conducted by Reiss Meister. West's performance of "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton was conducted by Abigail Dawson with great enthusiasm.  East House was conducted by Pia Reilly and they sang "Relight My Fire" by Dan Hartman.  The members of North House performed "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay conducted by Yasmin Malik.  School House sang "Summer Nights" by Jacobs, conducted by Caroline Stevens and South House completed the evening's entertainment with "Never Gonna Give You Up", conducted by Ryan Barrell.  All of the pupils showed great energy and enthusiasm throughout and the evening ended on a bright note.

The adjudicator came forward to award the final marks and commented on the quality not only of the performers and arrangers, but also the conductors and many excellent individual players.  He praised all of the Houses for their Unison Song performances and said that he was "stunned by the standard all the way through".  After a difficult deliberation, North House was awarded the Anthony Forbes-Tullet Cup for winning overall.