{"id":198862,"date":"2025-10-08T22:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T22:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/198862\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T22:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T22:45:10","slug":"self-taught-child-drummer-makes-rock-band-debut-with-the-living-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/198862\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-taught child drummer makes rock band debut with The Living End"},"content":{"rendered":"

A boy’s dream of playing with his musical heroes came true when Aussie rock legends The Living End invited him on stage.<\/p>\n

Twelve-year-old Noah Pope, from Mogo on the New South Wales far south coast, was in the front row at the recent Wanderer Festival<\/a> in nearby Pambula.<\/p>\n

In a bold attempt to grab the attention of the iconic Australian rockers, Noah crafted a sign asking, “Can I drum with you?”<\/p>\n

To his surprise, it worked after lead vocalist Chris Cheney spotted him in the 10,000-head crowd.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Living End noticed Noah Pope had been holding up the sign for a long time. (Supplied: David Rogers Photography\/Wanderer Festival)<\/p>\n

“He said, ‘I’ll get back to you \u2026 I see you holding the sign. Your arms look very tired and you’re as cute as a button,'” Noah said.<\/p>\n

The Living End first formed in the 90s and is made up of members Chris Cheney, Scott Owen and Andy Strachan.<\/p>\n

They performed as a headline act at the Wanderer Festival on October 5, which was the first stop on their tour to promote their new album, I Only Trust Rock n Roll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nearing the end of the set, the band brought Noah to the stage.<\/p>\n

Lead vocalist Cheney admitted they had never invited a stranger to play with them before and were unsure about what to expect from Noah.<\/p>\n

“The only people that have ever played with us are friends from other bands,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’m thinking he’s going to play a couple of bars of Johnny Be Good or an old blues tune that we’ll just jam along to.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Chris Cheney is the guitarist and lead vocalist of The Living End. (Supplied: Wanderer Festival\/Ruby Boland)<\/p>\n

Instead, Noah wanted to play Prisoner of Society, one of The Living End’s signature songs, and he pulled it off.<\/p>\n

“That’s a really tricky song to play \u2026 and he just bought the house down,” Cheney said.<\/p>\n

“He didn’t just play the song, he played the heck out of it.<\/p>\n

“It was such a euphoric, joyous moment for the crowd and for us.”<\/p>\n

Noah overcame his nerves in the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I just went for it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It was a little scary at first, but when I got into it, I was just having fun.”<\/p>\n

A dream come true<\/p>\n

Cheney said he and his bandmate Scott Owen were not much older than Noah when they first started playing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“To have gotten up and played with a band like that would have been have been a dream come true for us,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I can put myself in his shoes, what it’s like being a young musician and wanting to get on stage.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Chris Cheney invited Noah to the stage at the end of their set. (Supplied: Ruby Boland\/Wanderer Festival)<\/p>\n

Noah is a self-taught drummer, mostly learning from videos online over the past two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n

His drum kit is set up in his bedroom, which he has soundproofed with a bookshelf full of soft toys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 12-year-old is eager to meet other young musicians in his area who want to play punk music.<\/p>\n

“I really don’t have anyone to jam with,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’s not really any musicians at my school, so I’m hoping to find some at high school [next year].”\u00a0<\/p>\n

A bright future\u00a0<\/p>\n

Noah performed without in-ear monitors, which made it all the more impressive that he kept up with the band.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The founder of the Wanderer Festival, Simon Daly, took Noah and his mum backstage to meet the headline act after the set.<\/p>\n

The band members were surprised to learn Noah was not in a band and was self-taught.<\/p>\n

“This 12-year-old’s never had a lesson and his very first band is The Living End,” Mr Daly said.<\/p>\n

“Just unbelievable, really.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Noah Pope exchanged numbers with The Living End after the show. (Supplied: Ruby Boland\/Wanderer Festival)<\/p>\n

Cheney described Noah as “a prodigy”, and the band’s drummer Andy Strachan plans to stay in touch.<\/p>\n

“They were actually going to help mentor me and help me with my career,” Noah said.<\/p>\n

“I was really shocked and actually cried.<\/p>\n

“I really want to take it up as a job and become a little famous.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A boy’s dream of playing with his musical heroes came true when Aussie rock legends The Living End…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[124585,64,63,134,124583,124587,124586,124584,119885],"class_list":["post-198862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-12-year-old-drummer-performs-with-the-living-end","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-noah-pope","tag-pambula-music-festival","tag-self-taught-drummer","tag-the-living-end","tag-wanderer-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}