''Rockford's Rock Opera'' is a series of ecological musical stories created by Matthew Sweetapple,

Steve Punt Steve Punt (born ) is a British comedy writer, comedian and actor. Along with Hugh Dennis, he is part of the double act Punt and Dennis and was presenter of BBC Radio 4 satirical news programme '' The Now Show''. He is also a writer and programm ...

and Elaine Sweetapple. It was first released on the Internet and also as a three-album set by Sweetapple in 2010. There are now four Rockford's Rock Opera stories; Lost on Infinity (2010), The King of Nowhere (2015), The Spooo who Grew (2017) and The End of Infinity (2022). ''Rockford's Rock Opera'' uses audio visual resources, CGI animation (created by Steve Skinner) and

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sch ...

stories to teach about

extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

, ecology, biomimicry, and

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

. As a result, the project has been promoted by education portals, including the BGCI, Woodland's Junior School, Teachernet and Primary Times. Rockford's Rock Opera has also been featured on

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

– including a musical feature on BBC Radio 4's Go4it programme. ''Rockford's Rock Opera's'' stories introduce the Island of Infinity, home to the last single representative of every extinct animal and plant species. Key characters include the fictional Cocklebur Ick (named after the cocklebur seed - inspiration for the invention of

Velcro Velcro IP Holdings LLC, trading as Velcro Companies and commonly referred to as Velcro (pronounced ), is a British privately held company, founded by Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral in the 1950s. It is the original manufacturer of ho ...

), the Registrar, Dectopus, Feeble Beetle and The Herculous. Also featured are non fictional species such as the

passenger pigeon The passenger pigeon or wild pigeon (''Ectopistes migratorius'') is an bird extinction, extinct species of Columbidae, pigeon that was endemic to North America. Its common name is derived from the French word ''passager'', meaning "passing by" ...

great auk The great auk (''Pinguinus impennis''), also known as the penguin or garefowl, is an Extinction, extinct species of flightless bird, flightless auk, alcid that first appeared around 400,000 years ago and Bird extinction, became extinct in the ...

, moa and

thylacine The thylacine (; binomial name ''Thylacinus cynocephalus''), also commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, was a carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmani ...

. ''Rockford's Rock Opera'' is described as an "Adventure in Sound," citing influences such as '' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'', '' Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds'', Roger Glover's '' Butterfly Ball'' and Harry Nilssen's ''

The Point! ''The Point!'' is the sixth studio album by American songwriter and musician Harry Nilsson, released in late 1970. It was accompanied by an animated film adaptation directed by Fred Wolf, which aired in early February 1971 on the ABC-TV networ ...

''. Delivered via the web and on CD, ''Rockford's Rock Opera'' was described by ''The Observer'' as "Magical", by ''The Guardian'' as an "ingenious story" and a "thoroughly modern musical" and, by ''The Times'', as a "cult favourite as beloved as Wallace and Gromit." The musical story's on-line and on-mobile formats allow visitors access a variety of free audio visual materials and resources as well as different story formats (including text synchronized readalong, pdf and audio

downloads In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote s ...

). On Apple and Android ''Rockford's Rock Opera'' is available as an app for phones and tablets. In addition, ''Rockford's Rock Opera's'' ecological messages and content have led to cooperative links with environmental organisations and charities including the WWF, Buglife the BGCI and the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

. In addition to many school performances, ''Rockford's Rock Opera's'' 'Lost on Infinity' been performed live on stage at various venues including the

Museum of London London Museum (known from 1976 to 2024 as the Museum of London) is a museum in London, covering the history of the city from prehistoric to modern times, with a particular focus on social history. The Museum of London was formed in 1976 by ama ...

and The Bull Theatre in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

History

''Rockford's Rock Opera'' grew from the success of a Sweetapple song released with the help of Gerry Bron on behalf of

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home Battersea Dogs & Cats Home (now known as Battersea) is an animal rescue centre for dogs and cats. Battersea rescues dogs and cats until their owner or a new one can be found. It is one of the UK's oldest and best known animal rescue centres. I ...

called "Rockford's Christmas" which entered the UK singles chart in 2004. ''Rockford's Rock Opera'' Part 1 was first performed live at The Bull Theatre, High Barnet on Friday, 29 January 2010. The cast included: *

as the Narrator, *Matthew Sweetaple as the Guitarist/Narrator, *Zoe Karp as Cocklebur Ick and *Danny Lane as Iggy the passenger pigeon

References

External links

Rockford's Rock Opera websiteTeachernet UK Government Education PortalBGCI Education PortalThe Times ReviewThe Guardian ReviewThe Observer ReviewPrimary Times Magazine Educational ReviewObserver Article about the original Rockford's Christmas single release.Times Article about Sweetapple
{cbignore, bot=medic Rock operas Audiobooks by title or series 2008 musicals