Audio Books Children Love: “The Tale of the Cocklebur Ick”

June 23, 2009 - PRLog -- The Tale of the Cocklebur Ick is a song for children who love music. It’s the first single and animated video to be taken from the hit on-line musical, RockfordsRockOpera.com.  Rockford’s Rock Opera, the first in “the next generation of downloadable audio books for children  ” and adults, has now been downloaded over 400,000 times and is being used to teach children about music, extinction and ecology in more than 8,000 schools around the world. It’s also been featured on many popular kid’s radio programmes and been performed live in concert at many children’s song groups.

Children Love Songs

Every child enjoys music, singing and songs. But with an amazing, original ecological story, child friendly mp3s and mp3 downloads, clear narration, sound effects, illustrations, CGI videos (including the enchanting video that accompanies The Tale of the Cocklebur Ick single) and great songs for youngsters, Rockford’s Rock Opera takes the best children’s songs to another level entirely – ipod friendly, audio-visual entertainment for kids and adults.

“Think… ‘Jungle Book’ meets ‘Jurassic Park’!”

Created by Sweetapple and scripted by respected BBC writer and performer,
Steve Punt, this is a unique musical story with a message – a unique ‘take’ on the threat of extinction and the effect man is having upon life on earth.

And it’s a tale that’s already attracting an exceptional response amongst children’s book reviewers. Writing in The Times, child audiobook reviewer, Christina Hardyment said:
“Rockford's Rock Opera is an amazing mix of story, songs and sound effects. It has a freshness that makes you smile as you listen and could become a cult favourite as beloved as Wallace and Gromit.”
So what on earth are Cocklebur Icks and why write children’s songs about them?
In the story of Rockford’s Rock Opera, Cocklebur Icks were small sticky yellow creatures that lived in the woodlands of Britain. They were named after the hooked ‘Cocklebur’ seeds that were the inspiration for the invention of Velcro™.
In Rockford’s Rock Opera, the Cocklebur Ick is a central character who leads us, through your speakers, to the Island of Infinity – the home to the very last one of all the world’s extinct creatures.
Infinity has a secret for the world but Moog, a boy from Battersea in London, and Rockford his dog, are the only ones who can hear its message. Travelling to Infinity Moog and Rockford are drawn into an amazing musical adventure that’s like nothing you’ll have heard before.

A New Kind of Children’s Musical Story

Rockford’s Rock Opera is not a traditional ‘stage musical’ with hammy children’s songs, its diverse musical inspiration can be found in The Beatles, Eno, Divine Comedy, the Sex Pistols, the Penguin Café Orchestra, XTC and works such as Roger Glover’s ‘Butterfly Ball’, and Harry Nilssen’s ‘The Point’ and the best Disney Musicals like Jungle Book, Pinocchio and The Lion King.

Rockford’s Rock Opera has also now been adopted by the World’s leading environmental charity, the World Wildlife Fund to help their work.

How to get “The Tale of the Cocklebur Ick” single?

You can buy the single as an mp3 download from iTunes or on CD from Rockford’s Rock Opera’s Shop (www.rockfordsrockopera.com/shop) for just £2.99 (the enhanced CD contains two tracks: ‘The Tale of the Cocklebur Ick’ and ‘Rockford’s Rock Opera Audio Trailer’.) Then, by putting the CD into your computer you can play the amazing CGI video and view a pdf of some great free primary KS2 lesson plans all about the song and its story. Perfect for teachers and great edutainment for children!

How to discover Rockford’s Rock Opera?

• The whole of Rockford’s Rock Opera Part One (52 minutes in total) is available as a free audio book to download, podcast and to stream FREE on the web. It’s completely child safe and recommended by many key education sites.

•  Then, when you want to hear more, you can buy it all as an audio book on CD, as children’s mp3 downloads and as a story read along at http://www.rockfordsrockopera.com/

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About Sweetapple
www.sweetapple.co.uk

Rockford’s Rock Opera’s creator, Sweetapple, is the charitable brand and creative consultancy established by Elaine and Matthew Sweetapple.
Based in London, since 2002 Sweetapple has been responsible for creating and giving ideas to charities which have raised over £1,000,000 for good causes.
These have included Peeball, for the Prostate Cancer Charity (UK) and the Australian Prostate Cancer Foundation, 'Remember Me' for the road crash victim's charity, RoadPeace (UK), and 'GiveSure' Charitable Insurance.

Although Sweetapple remains a commercial marketing and PR consultancy with a broad range of clients, the organisation's innovative charitable works have developed a unique public profile, winning Sweetapple several major national awards including the Institute of Public Relations "Outstanding Achievement Award" and PRWeek magazine's "Best Not for Profit" Awards.

Editorial Contact:

http://www.RockfordsRockOpera.com/