Crossgar rocker Eoghan on the road to stardom

Crossgar rocker Eoghan on the road to stardom

5 June 2013

CROSSGAR teenager Eoghan Johnson recently won the regional live heat of the WorldSkills UK popular music competition with his college band Lipstik Lizards.

The band, formed by 18 year old Eoghan and three of his Belfast Met classmates, beat 13 student bands from Northern Ireland, Scotland and the North of England during the heat and will now go on to perform at the live national final of the competition later this year.

Joining Eoghan in the band are classmates Daniel Thornton, Matthew Duly and Dean Ward.

The quartet are studying their Level 3 Extended Diploma in Music and recently raised the roof at Newcastle College during the regional heat of the competition.

The rock band competed against 13 other student bands from Northern Ireland, Scotland and the North of England, receiving top marks in the live heat.

Lipstik Lizards performed two live songs and were assessed on a number of areas reflecting a professional musician’s work, including musicality, presentation, technical accuracy, difficulty and communication.

The band, whose members are based throughout Northern Ireland, will again take centre stage in November to perform live during the grand final of the national WorldSkills competition in Birmingham.

Claire Hueston, music course co-ordinator at Belfast Met, said all of the music staff are extremely proud of what the Lipstik Lizards students have achieved, despite some really high calibre competition from other colleges across the UK.

She added: “The WorldSkills success tops off a great few months for the band as they also reached the UK final of the School Jam competition.

The Lipstik Lizards have a very bright future and we hope to hold onto them for another couple of years as they continue their studies at Belfast Met with the HND Diploma in Music.

“We are great supporters of competitions like WorldSkills because they help to inspire creativity in young people and demonstrate expert skills in a real-life professional situation, which is fantastic experience for our young learners.”