Davenport Central students to sing with Foreigner in concert

Davenport Central junior Lillian Scodeller says the 1984 power ballad “I Want To Know What Love Is” by Foreigner is her favorite song.

So she’s over the moon that she’ll be among 25 Central students in the Concert Chorale to join the veteran rock band on stage to sing the chorus as part of its historic Farewell Tour in Moline at the Vibrant Arena on Sunday, March 3, at 7 p.m.

“I love that song so much, so it makes it so much better I actually get to sing that song,” Lillian said at Central Thursday morning, Feb. 29.

She is also in Central’s show choir (Central Singers Inc.), and dance troupe, Blue Illusion. She sings soprano.

“My mom would always play Foreigner throughout the house; she loves the band,” Lillian said. “Last year, our school just did ‘Rock of Ages,’ which has this song in it. It’s such a great opportunity, I’m very excited for it.”

Her mom has never seen Foreigner in concert before, but will be in the Moline crowd.

“This is so amazing – I love that they’re giving so many people so many opportunities to be a part of the music,” Lillian said of the band (which has for over 15 years included a local choir in their shows in every city on tour). “I think it’s a really great way to share, not just kindness, but music. I love when big groups are able to come together through music, being able to share how you feel about something.”

She said it will be an absolute thrill to share this song with her friends in the big arena setting.

“When I’m on stage, I get a little anxious, a little nervous, when all the lights are on you and you see all the people,” Lillian said. “It’s a different experience being on stage. When I perform for show choir and musicals, it’s so amazing, to share the experience of being on stage. Everyone should have that experience at least once in their life. It really is amazing.”

‘Once in a lifetime’

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she said. “I’m just glad we have this opportunity through our school. It really shows you have to go for it. I would never thought that I’d be singing on stage with Foreigner; it’s incredible. I am so excited.”

Shyam Devasthali — a Central senior who sings tenor and also is in show choir – is equally pumped for Sunday.

“It’s something different, something new and something fun,” he said Thursday. “It’s something I can tell my kids I did in the future.”

“This is really cool to hear about, learn about and something to be part of,” Shyam said. “I am very excited to be part of it.”

Many of the choir students also perform in show choir, which will have a concert (with other QC high school show choirs) Monday, March 4, at 7 p.m. at the Adler Theatre, Davenport.

Shyam said it’s not hard to juggle the Foreigner gig and show choir on back-to-back days. “It’s a fun challenge. It’s gonna be crazy to see them in person, up close, and it’s gonna be a pretty good challenge – to show them who we are here, Davenport Central, best of the best.”

Shyam loves show choir most for the energy and dancing. He’s currently in Central’s spring musical, “Mamma Mia!”

“Getting the chance to do something like this is pretty cool,” Central choir director Reid Keller said of the Foreigner show. “A lot of these kids probably don’t know who Foreigner is, but you start singing a few of their songs, and they go, ‘Oh, that band!’”

Keller, 34, was not born yet during the band heyday (in the ’70s and ‘80s), but his parents have seen them in concert a dozen times and he’s excited to have them come see the show. “They love to travel, to see live music,” he said, noting they live four hours west of the QC.

25 kids going

Central opened the opportunity to the top students in the Concert Chorale. The first 25 (12 boys and 13 girls) signed up are doing it and get to see the concert for free.

“I think it’s really smart,” Keller said of the Foreigner partnership. “They’re supporting our program and we’re supporting them, by getting our parents to come, buy a ticket and watch the Foreigner concert. It’s very symbiotic in that way.”

“Having our kids get to see something on an arena-size scale is pretty cool,” he said. “It’s a very singable song, it repeats a lot, so they’ll get a lot of stage time. The band will give them a moment at the end and having a whole arena of people clapping for you will be pretty special.”

Keller and his parents got to see the Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire show at the arena several years ago, which was a real highlight.

He credited his students for always taking rehearsal seriously and performing at their best.

“At Davenport Central music, we have some high expectations; our community has high expectations, and when they go out and compete, our judges have high expectations – so our students know how to rehearse, take things seriously, but also have fun doing it,” Keller said. “They’re performers, they know how to do this. This is right up their alley.”

As they do in each city on tour, Foreigner is donating $500 to the choir’s chorus program and local Shriners will be selling a Foreigner greatest hits CD to raise money for Foreigner’s fundraising partners, the Grammy Foundation, and the Shriner’s Children’s Hospitals.

The Grammy Foundation raises funds for high school music programs to help keep music education alive in schools throughout North America. Foreigner contributes to this effort by donating all the funds from the Shriner’s CD sales to the Grammy Foundation and to Shriner’s Children’s Hospital’s.

Why does the band do it?

Davenport Central follows other QC school choirs to know what love is — Rock Island High’s Chamber Choir sang at a Foreigner show at the Adler Theatre right before COVID, in early March 2020, and a Moline choir performed at a Vibrant Arena date in 2015.

“We’re always happy to have the choirs sing with us at the shows. It means a lot to me personally as I was in school music programs as a kid and doing that helped guide me towards a career in music,” Foreigner bassist Jeff Pilson said. “It’s great, I mean it’s absolutely wonderful. Who gets a chance to do that? I mean to get on stage with a major rock band and sing along with them. It’s a pretty cool experience. It’s really fun to watch. It’s endearing. The choirs are always so enthusiastic. They sing their hearts out. It’s really great.

“Plus, it’s a chance for us to give back to school music programs around the country,” Pilson said. “When schools cut budgets, it seems they always start with the arts programs, which is sad to see. We donate $500 to each choir that performs with us to try and help keep music education alive in our nation’s schools. We’re just trying to do our part. It’s a real win, win all around and I’m so happy we get a chance to do it.

“The band, and everyone in the Foreigner organization, are huge supporters of music education in schools everywhere,” he said. “They are all about giving back to the music education programs in schools because we all feel that an arts education helps these students to lead a more well-rounded and interesting life.”

With worldwide sales topping 80 million records, Foreigner’s extensive catalog of hits is still recognizable to this day, with their music embedded in pop culture from Miami Vice and The Simpsons to Arrested Development and Stranger Things, according to the band’s 2024 nomination to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Foreigner was built around the creative forces of Lou Gramm and Mick Jones, whose original vision for Foreigner was a fusion of rock, progressive rock, R&B, and pop sounds, and the lineup of Jones, Dennis Elliot, Al Greenwood, Ed Gagliardi, and Ian McDonald, paired with Lou Gramm’s distinctive and emotive vocals, brought it together.

Jones and Gramm became legendary songwriting partners, crafting an arsenal of multiplatinum albums and hits, including “Cold As Ice,” “Feels Like the First Time,” “Hot Blooded,” and “Juke Box Hero.”

Their No. 1 U.S. hit “I Want to Know What Love Is” (penned by Mick Jones, with original backing vocals from the New Jersey Mass Choir) remains one of the Top 25 performed songs from the ASCAP catalog. In recognition of their partnership, the duo was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013.

The Jones/Gramm songwriting partnership resulted in Foreigner’s first eight singles charting in the Billboard Top Twenty, making them the first band to achieve this milestone since the Beatles. With the massive success of Foreigner’s second album Double Vision, the best-selling record of their career, the band quickly became an arena headliner.

Jones, 79, recently announced he has Parkinson’s Disease, requiring ongoing absences from the band’s farewell tour, which began in 2022. He’s been battling Parkinson’s the last several years and is mostly out of the final tour lineup.

Jones assured fans this month he is “still very much involved in the background” and “remains a presence” with the British-American band. The Songwriter Hall of Fame member founded Foreigner in 1976 and co-wrote most of their songs with Lou Gramm. Jones is the only Foreigner member to play on every album.

His announcement came a week after Foreigner received their first nomination for the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The inductees will be announced in late April, with the ceremony returning to Cleveland this fall and again streaming live on Disney+.

Lineup changes

Before recording 1979’s Head Games, Gagliardi was replaced by ex-Peter Frampton and Roxy Music bassist Rick Wills; Gagliardi’s departure was shortly followed by that of Greenwood and McDonald. Despite these lineup changes, the quartet of Jones, Gramm, Elliot, and Wills continued to record and tour arenas throughout the ’80s in whatever iteration they found themselves – a premise that has served the band for the decades since, as it continues with only Jones from the original lineup.

“The time has come. We have more or less lived our lives on the road for almost 18 years,” lead singer Kelly Hansen said of retiring in a tour release. “We have always strived to give you our best and we intend to finish this the same way. Foreigner has a brilliant and increasingly demanding catalogue of songs to sing and I refuse to give them less than they deserve.

“So, we’re going to finish strong. I want to make it very clear how grateful and appreciative we are to our audiences all over the world who have supported this band,” he said. “I’m sure there may be occasions when we’ll do some special appearances, but I think the time is coming for us to live off the road.”

This summer, Foreigner is touring with Styx and John Waite, through Aug. 28, including an August 24 date in Tinley Park, Ill. The Davenport Central Concert Chorale will perform their own program April 24 at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, near Central.

For tickets ($39 to $134) to the March 3 Moline concert, click HERE.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com.