The public schools of rock

Pupils at exclusive private colleges stage YouTube tributes to Nickelback smash hit

Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger (GETTY IMAGES)

Benenden and Harrow are better known for their blazers and boaters than for their budding rock stars. But the boys and girls of those legendary educational institutions are laying down their hockey sticks and cricket bats to pick up camcorders, as a home-made grunge music video craze sweeps Britain's smartest schools.

At least five schools now have videosattributed to them on the file-sharing website YouTube. They show pupils and teachers lip-synching and cavorting to the Canadian band Nickelback's hit single, "Rockstar". The song is a satirical take on the a rock star's freewheeling lifestyle. The schools' efforts are similar in style to the band's own video, which features celebrities Kid Rock, Gene Simmons, Nelly Furtado and Wayne Gretzky mouthing the lyrics to the song.

Sixth formers at Epsom College in Surrey seem to have been the first to film their version of the song, back in March. Since then, sixth formers at King Edward VI School near Birmingham, Downe House in Berkshire, Harrow and Benenden have followed.

Sixth-form girls at the £26,000-a-yearBenenden school, which once counted Princess Anne among its students, were filmed in fur coats and St Trinian's-style school uniforms, washing cars inbikini tops, and pouting as they cram into a bubble bath. One girl sets fire to her credit cards, as she sings along to the song.

Benenden School's take on 'Rockstar'

The Epsom College boys are filmed in rugby kits, one sitting in a red Ferrari, while the boys at King Edward VI School opted for cricket whites, using bats as makeshift guitars.

Epsom College's take