MUSIC students from a Rhos-on-Sea based college have overcome all the odds, launching their chart-topping new album onto the world market during lockdown from their own homes!

Every year Coleg Llandrillo’s Music Technology students produce an album of original songs. The new digital album Polar Opposite comprises 16 tracks, each song produced by a different student.

Made available to purchase from Thursday May 21 on iTunes, and stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Google play, the album within 24 hours had hit the number one spot in the iTunes Singer/Songwriter Chart, number 10 in the Overall Chart, number 4, 13 and 30 in the singles chart and number one in the Polish singles chart.

Royalties from the first three months of sales of the album will go to the NHS.

The students were hoping that this year’s release matched the popularity of last year’s CD ‘Pink Noise’, which reached number 8 in the iTunes album charts.

The students’ initially started work on the project in October at the college’s Rhos-on-Sea campus, putting together an eclectic mix of genres: rock, jazz, pop, EDM, alternative, and many more!

“Obviously with the lockdown going on we thought we’d be the first year who wouldn’t be able to do it, and that sucked because we were really looking forward to it," said 18-year-old Harmony Flynn from Towyn. "But, we weren’t going to be beaten that easily.”

Another student added: “It was so stressful, but we did it; it’s done. We have an album!”

James Taylor, L3 Music Technology Programme Leader, said: "We set the benchmark of trying to improve on last year’s successful album ‘Pink Noise’ which got to number eight in the charts. We challenged this group to go one further see if they could better it; they did, and then some! To see this talented group of learners achieve a number one album is extremely rewarding. It shows their true character and grit in the face of challenging circumstances. We are exceptionally proud of each and every one of them."

Jon Crowther, Level 3 Performing & Production Arts programme leader, said: “This has been the biggest success building on that of last year. Let’s not stop here! A lot of the promotion of the album has been student-led with this fantastic success. Averaging a social media reach of 1000 within the UK & Poland. Some really innovative ideas and challenges overcome with ease; I am very proud of them!"In coordinating this project, my colleague James Taylor worked tirelessly to bring all the elements together.“Students have all been highly enthusiastic right through thecreation of this album. When college was shut lots of the recordings were left oncollege computers. James went into college like a superhero to download them. To cap it off, this year we have seen one of the largest cohorts of students within thedepartment.”

Lecturer Ffranc Williams said: "The group producing the album’s material have great reason to be proud. They worked with determination and demonstrated their talents clearly. When we heard the quality of the songs, performances and productions we knew we had a great album."

The college principal, Lawrence Wood, stars in the student-led trailer on social media. @musicpalace (Facebook) & @musiccolegllandrillo (Instagram). The script and concept was fully developed by 17-year-old student Catrin Parry from Llysfaen. She edited all of the videos too.

For more information on Music Technology courses at Coleg Llandrillo, call the college’s Learner Services team on 01492 542 338. or email enquiries.llandrillo@gllm.ac.uk

Web: www.gllm.ac.uk