26 Jun 2025
From BGT to STA, diverse rock group Electric Umbrella raised the roof at St Albans Cathedral as hundreds of local schoolchildren were blown away by their performance.
The band – which actively welcomes people with neurodivergence or disabilities – reached the semi-finals of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent in May, and this week’s Cathedral gig is their biggest since they appeared on the show.
This meant a huge audience of screaming pupils who were getting the chance to see their TV idols perform songs including ‘You Should Try Smiling’ and ‘There’s No Such Thing As Normal’ in the breathtaking environs of St Albans Cathedral.
The St Albans Times was there for the second of Tuesday’s performances, and we caught up with local musician Tommy Waterhart beforehand to find out how the morning’s show had gone down.
“It was beautiful. It was great fun. We visit all the schools separately, and do our sessions with them, teach them songs and things like that, but it’s really nice to get everyone together and go ‘wow, look at what we do’.
“Claire Boulter, our head of education and programmes, has been all over this while we’ve been doing everything else, so this is really her project and hats off to her for pulling it all together.
“The kids are loving seeing our guys, because they’re the guys off the telly now as well, so they’re rock stars. It’s great having a live band, and we’ve been dancing up and down the aisles and interacting with the kids.
“My highlight of the day has been Dale on the Cathedral organ, it’s just amazing, he’s a total natural.
“We did I Am as well today, which was our planned song if we’d reached the BGT final, and that was beautiful. It would have been great to do it on TV, but I’m not sure the constraints of television would have made it work in quite the same way, especially when the audience are all kids.”
Mel Boda, co-founder and CEO of Electric Umbrella, was one of many members of the charity working behind the scenes in putting the event together.
“It’s huge, it’s been nine months in the making, and today is the celebration of the body of work that these 43 schools have done on their journey with us since October.
“A couple of years ago we wrote all the songs that you hear today with one of the primary schools. Now everybody else has learned them, understood the messaging, just really gone to town in the classrooms on every level, getting to grips with the meaning of the messaging and how important it is with their class teachers.
“So we’ve been out to the schools to visit and sing with them, and here they are coming together as one voice.
“The really important thing is that its SEND schools and mainstream primary schools together, and that’s what we really wanted to grow. No boundaries, no barriers.
“Although these schools are in such close proximity to each other they typically don’t mingle, so we want to foster relationships with those schools, break down those boundaries and build amazing relationships with the children.”
Orchestrating an event on this scale must have been a logistical nightmare? “I tell you, the music is the easy bit.
“The map of the car parking and the map of the auditorium here is colossal.
“That’s where the real work is.
“We’ve had amazing support from the Cathedral, who have gifted us this space to use today. It’s just incredible. I mean, to sing in one of the most prestigious, iconic music venues in the country is really special. It’s a core memory for those children.
“We’ve had really generous support from donors against the project as a whole, so we’re really, really lucky to be able to offer it to the schools free of charge.”
Unfortunately SADC has yet to support the event by waiving the charge of parking a huge amount of minibuses and coaches at Westminster Lodge, which is in the region of £1,500.
The St Albans Times would love to see the district council do its part and support a charity whose mission is to create a truly inclusive society – one where everyone, regardless of ability, is seen, heard, and celebrated – which has brought together pupils from schools across and beyond the district, including many which support children with special educational needs.
(Are you reading this SADC? Don’t let’s make this official…)
Mel added: “That would be amazing if they could do that. We really want this to become an event that will continue year-on year, and we’d make it happen here in St Albans if we didn’t have to pay such a huge parking charge.”
Finally then, what was her experience of Electric Umbrella’s BGT journey?
“I was there in the audience, and that was really incredible. We feel like, as an organisation, that we’ve been taken to the Moon and dropped down back on Earth.
“But actually this is what we love doing, this is our every day, and you know, that was magical on BGT, but to be here with 2,000 children in our home county is really, really special, and that’s what it’s all about really.”
Main photos by Michael Lyons, small gallery by Matt Adams
