by Felice Arena
Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
CHAPTER 1
Oh When the Saints …
CHAPTER 2
Oh Yeah!
CHAPTER 3
Our Band
CHAPTER 4
The Greatest Band
CHAPTER 5
Smash Hit
EXTRA STUFF
• Rock Star Lingo
• Rock Star Must-dos
• Rock Star Instant Info
• Think Tank
• Hi Guys! (Author Letter)
• When We Were Kids
• What a Laugh!
Rock Star
Felice Arena and Phil Kettle
illustrated by
Gus Gordon
MACMILLAN
First published 2003 by
MACMILLAN EDUCATION AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
15–19 Claremont Street, South Yarra 3141
Reprinted 2004, 2005 (twice), 2006, 2007, 2008
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Copyright © Felice Arena and Phil Kettle 2003
All rights reserved.
Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia
and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
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National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication data
Arena, Felice.
Rock star.
For primary school children.
ISBN 978 0 7329 8966 8.
ISBN 978 0 7329 9179 1 (Set 2).
1. Rock musicians – Juvenile literature. I. Kettle,
Phil. II. Title. (Series: Arena, Felice. Boyz rule).
A823.3
Project management by Limelight Press Pty Ltd
Cover and text design by Lore Foye
Illustrations by Gus Gordon
Printed in Hong Kong
These electronic editions published 2010 by
Macmillan Education Australia Pty Ltd
Level 1, 15 - 19 Claremont Street, South Yarra 3141
All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any
person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying,
recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the
publisher.
Boyz Rule! Rock Star
Felice Arena & Phil Kettle
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9781458610492
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9781458610508
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9781458610515
Online ISBN
9781458610485
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CHAPTER 1
Oh When the Saints ….
Best friends Sam and Billy are hanging out together in Sam’s garage. Sam has recently taken up guitar lessons and is showing off what he’s learned to Billy on his brand new electric guitar.
Sam “I can only play two songs so far—‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ and ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’.”
Billy “Cool. Play ’em.”
Sam “Okay.”
Sam carefully places his fingers on the correct starting chord position.
Sam (strumming) “This is chord D.”
Billy “Good.”
Sam (more strumming) “And this is chord G.”
Billy “Okay, I get it. Now play something.”
Sam “Yeah, hang on. I’m just showing ya what I know. Right, here goes …”
Sam begins to strum continuously: Oh, when the saints, oh when the saints, oh when … Sam stops strumming. His fingers fumble to find the next chord.
Sam “… oh when … the … sai … nts …”
Billy “Yeah, is that it?”
Sam “I haven’t finished yet! … go … mar … ch … ing … in.”
Billy “Can I have a go?”
Sam “Um …”
Billy “Come on, I won’t wreck it. I just wanna see what it feels like.”
CHAPTER 2
Oh Yeah!
Sam reluctantly hands over his guitar to Billy. Billy madly strums it as if he’s grating cheese. He also starts to sing made-up lyrics—badly.
Billy (singing) “Oh Yeah … oh yeah baby … oh yeah … You make my heart bleed and my nose too … yeah, yeah, yeah …”
Sam “What are you doing?”
Billy doesn’t hear Sam. Squinting his eyes and biting his top lip, he continues to pluck the instrument, lost in his own world. Sam suddenly snatches the guitar from him.
Sam “What do you think you’re doing?”
Billy “I was just playing ya guitar.”
Sam “No you weren’t—it was gross.”
Billy “It was not. That’s how you’re meant to play an electric guitar.”
Sam “No way …”
Billy “Yeah really! I’ve never heard of any rock legend playing ‘Oh When the Saints’! Maybe on a recorder, but never on a mean guitar.”
Sam “Yeah, well I don’t know if …”
Sam stops mid-sentence realising what Billy has just said.
Sam “Rock legend? What do ya mean, ‘rock legend’?”
Billy “Well, if you’re learning to play a really cool guitar like that, what else are ya gonna be?”
Sam “Hmm … rock legend … yeah, I could be a rock star!”
CHAPTER 3
Our Band
Sam thinks for a minute. The idea of being famous is really sounding good.
Sam “I’ve got a better idea. We can both be rock stars. We’ll put together our own band!”
Billy “Cool. So are ya gonna play guitar?”
Sam “Yeah, and I wanna be the lead singer too, and have all the fans fall all over me.”
Billy “Really? All those girls with their hands all over you—wow, great choice … not!”
Sam “Yeah, well I love to sing. Didn’t you just hear me? And I’d just have to wear chick repellent.”
Billy “Is that what you were doing?”
Sam “Okay, so I don’t have a voice like Eminem or that big Italian opera singer Pav-lova-rotti or whatever his name is, but it doesn’t matter …”
Billy “Why?”
Sam “We can be heavy metal. The singers just scream in those bands. Doesn’t matter what your voice sounds like, so you can sing too.”
Billy “Yeah, I s’pose. Okay, cool. But we need more band members.”
Sam “What about Dom to play drums? He’s always getting in trouble at school for tapping his pens on his desk. And we can ask Luke to play keyboards. He already plays piano.”
Billy “Good one.”
Sam “Now, all we need is a really cool name.”
Sam and Billy pause for a moment, and look around the garage for some good band name ideas.
Billy “What about ‘The Bike Chains’ … nah, that’s dumb. I know, ‘The Cardboard Boxes’.”
Sam “You’ve got to be jokin
g. It has to be tough-sounding like ‘The Brick Heads’, or have something to do with us.”
Billy “I know, I know …”
CHAPTER 4
The Greatest Band
Billy leaps to his feet as the best name springs into his mind.
Billy “What about ‘The Nits’!”
Sam “What?”
Billy “‘The Nits’. Remember how you gave me head lice back in Year Two?”
Sam “Oh yeah, I forgot. That was years ago.”
Billy “Well, we didn’t really hang out with each other before then. If it wasn’t for your nits jumping onto my head we might not have become best friends.”
Sam “You’re right. That’s a cool name … ‘The Nits’. I can see it now … 50 000 people crammed in a stadium, wearing their Nits T-shirts and screaming, ‘We want The Nits! We want The Nits’ …”
Billy “Yeah, and there’s lights flashing all over the stage …”
Sam rushes over to the light switch in the garage and flicks it up and down several times.
Billy “Then we walk on stage and the crowd goes wild. We’re the greatest band on the planet.”
Sam leaves the light switch and joins Billy again.
Sam “Then I hold up my guitar and strum an awesome chord that booms through the super giant speakers and echoes right around the stadium.”
Billy “And I step forward and pick up my microphone.”
Billy turns and picks up one of Sam’s dad’s golf clubs which is leaning against the back corner of the garage. He brings the golf club up close to his mouth, pretending it’s a microphone.
Billy “… and then I sing the greatest song ever!”
Sam suddenly begins strumming the chords to “When the Saints …”.
CHAPTER 5
Smash Hit
Billy and Sam pretend to be rock stars for several more minutes. Sam continues to play the only three chords he knows while Billy alternates between being a lead singer and banging on an upside-down bucket as the group’s drummer. Their “performance” is suddenly interrupted when Sam’s mother calls for him.
Sam “Awwh man, we were just getting into it.”
Billy “This isn’t good for our image. When The Nits go on tour the folks have to stay home.”
Sam “That’s for sure. I’ll just be a sec. Don’t play my guitar.”
Sam leaves the garage, while Billy patiently waits for him to return. Billy stares at the guitar, eager to pick it up even though Sam has strictly told him not to. Eventually Billy can’t resist it any longer—he grabs the guitar and starts strumming it.
Billy “… And the crowd are no longer screaming ‘We want The Nits, we want The Nits’ … but it’s ‘We want Billy, we want Billy’ …”
Billy falls to his knees, frantically strumming the guitar like a mad man. He gets carried away imagining he is a rock legend and starts swinging the guitar above his head. Like all good heavy metal guitarists, he then begins to smash the guitar on the garage ground. The instrument breaks into a thousand pieces just as Sam returns.
Sam “NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Sam suddenly springs up out of bed, panting heavily with beads of sweat racing down his face. He looks over and sees that his electric guitar is intact—safe and well, leaning by his bedside table.
He realises that it was all a bad dream—Billy and him in the garage, The Nits, everything—just one big nightmare. Later that morning, Sam’s mum calls Sam to answer the front door. It’s Billy. Sam’s mum suggests that Sam shows Billy his new guitar.
Billy “You got a guitar? Cool. Give us a look.”
Sam “Yeah, but it’s no big deal. Wanna play basketball?”
Billy “Yeah, okay.”
Sam “Great, let’s go.”
Sam smiles to himself, relieved that he isn’t a rock legend—for now.
Rock Star
Lingo
amplifier A big, black box that makes the loudest noise even louder than it was before.
drum An instrument which has a tight skin stretched over a hollow base. You beat the skin with a stick to make the loudest noise possible.
rock music Music with a constant beat that makes your hips and head shake.
singer The person in the band who tries to sing louder than the noise the drums make.
Rock Star Must-dos
When practising in the garage, make sure you always keep the garage door closed—you want to keep the neighbours happy!
If your neighbours do complain about the noise, ask them if they would like to join the band.
Practise your groovy moves while looking in the mirror.
Try to be the drummer in a band—they make the most noise and it’s the best fun.
If your dog howls while your band is playing, you need to practise a lot more.
You can practise some air guitar with your tennis racquet.
Sometimes it might be good to practise in the park but be careful not to scare the birds away.
Practise signing your autograph—you never know when you might become famous.
If your parents complain about the amount of noise your band makes, next time you get your pocket money, buy them some ear plugs.
Rock Star
Instant Info
The world’s largest drum kit has 308 pieces.
The biggest organ in the world is as loud as 25 brass bands put together.
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album has sold over 47 million copies since 1982—it’s the biggest selling album of all time.
There are more boy bands than there are girl bands.
The British Broadcasting Corporation’s record library has over one million records.
The first record—a gramophone record—was made in 1885.
The first CD to sell one million copies was “Brothers in Arms” by a band called Dire Straits.
Kylie Minogue earned five million dollars from her 2001 tour of Australia—a record (not the playing kind) for a solo Australian performer.
Your parents love to hear you practise singing and playing musical instruments—the louder, the better!
Think Tank
1 What does the lead singer in a band do?
2 What is a duet?
3 What instrument in a rock band makes the most noise?
4 When was the first record made?
5 Is rap music much like rock music?
6 What is an air guitar?
7 Are there more boy bands or girl bands?
8 How many band members were there in The Beatles?
Answers
1 The lead singer sings the main part of the songs and usually stands out the front.
2 A duet is when two people sing together.
3 The drums make the most noise in a rock band.
4 The first record was made in 1885.
5 Rap music is nothing at all like rock music.
6 An air guitar is a pretend guitar you play in the air.
7 There are more boy bands than girl bands.
8 There were four band members in The Beatles.
How did you score?
• If you got 8 answers correct, then you should get your best friend and together form your own band.
• If you got 6 answers correct, maybe you should just go and listen to rock bands.
• If you got fewer than 4 answers correct, then the best you can hope to do is play some air guitar.
Hi Guys!
We have heaps of fun reading and want you to, too. We both believe that being a good reader is really important and so cool. Try out our suggestions to help you have fun as you read.
At school, why don’t you use “Rock Star” as a play and you and your friends can be the actors. Set the scene for your play. What props do you need? Maybe you could take a guitar or drum kit to school, or just use your imagination to pretend that you are about to go on stage at a rock festival.
So … have you decided who is going to be Billy and who is going to be Sam? Now, with your frien
ds, read and act out our story in front of the class.
We have a lot of fun when we go to schools and read our stories. After we finish, the kids all clap really loudly. When you’ve finished your play your classmates will do the same. Just remember to look out the window—there might be a talent scout from a television station watching you!
Reading at home is really important and a lot of fun as well.
Take our books home and get someone in your family to read them with you. Maybe they can take on a part in the story.
Remember, reading is a whole lot of fun.
So, as the frog in the local pond would say, Read-it!
And remember, Boyz Rule!
When
We Were Kids
Phil “You were a rock legend as a kid, weren’t you?”
Felice “Yes, I performed in a rock concert in London once.”
Phil “Were you any good?”
Felice “I was more than good, I was sensational!”
Phil “Why, what happened?”