Hydrock Rock!

Anyone with music in their blood will know that Construction Rocks is a well-known and well-regarded platform to showcase the depth of talented musicians across the construction, engineering and architectural sector.

By day, Vando Valente is a London based acoustic consultant for Hydrock’s and out of hours he is now the bass guitarist for their new band, the 1/3rd Octave.

Vando said, “We’ve grown as a business considerably over the last five years, and with 900 staff across the UK, we also recognised we had a wide range of talented musicians in the business, many of whom were really excited to form a band, “the 1/3rd Octave” and compete.

Our blend of classics from the late 1970s to the 2010s had people dancing and waving their arms, so we were delighted with the response. One of the highlights was a slow guitar-led build up to Patti Smith’s classic, ‘Because The Night’, which was then totally owned by lead singer, Gizem Okten once the vocals kicked in. The crowd also became very involved in a rendition of Zombie by The Cranberries.

It was a great night, and the competition had so many entries it ran over two nights. We had a chance to play four tracks on the first night which was extra special in front of our work colleagues and friends, and an overall supportive audience who cheered for all the bands that played. People see you in the office doing your day job, performing your technical skills, so it’s extra special to have them then see you doing something completely different and cheering your performance in something so totally different to the workplace environment. It was a nice intimate venue, well set up for all of us, and the four bands who played were all of a very high quality.”

Hydrock won an award on the night for the most money raised for their chosen charity, the Lighthouse Club.

Graham Munday, Energy and Environment Marketing Director said, “Construction is a vital sector for our economy, but also a tough place to work. It embraces a wide range of people often working remotely from their families and under great pressure to ensure safety for the wider public, so a charity that can offer support to people in this sector who are affected by a wide range of personal issues, is really important to us as a business. I think we’d all hope someone is looking out for us, so hopefully our fundraising as part of this event is helping people in our sector get that support.”