Music

Hercules 12!

“Hercules, you gotta see it through/You can’t stop now, there’s more labours to do…”

Hercules 12 is by no means my first musical adventure. Working for the brilliant Tall Stories Theatre Company, I’ve co-written songs for musical adaptations of Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom, as well as Chris Riddell’s Something Else.

In this collection of songs, I explore the legend of Hercules as you’ve never seen it before!

Greek demigod Hercules, the son of Zeus, is on a mission to complete twelve tasks for the mean King Eurystheus. The goddess Hera – Zeus’ wife – has taken a dislike to Hercules and Eurystheus serves her faithfully, giving the demigod tasks designed to text him to the limit. Originally, the shifty king gives Hercules only 10 tasks to complete but later he rules two of them out, because he decides that Hercules had too much help with them! So, our hero ends up doing 12 tricky labours. Hercules’ influence is so great that even today, we call something challenging a “Herculean task”!

Which labour of Hercules do you think was the hardest? Have a listen and decide for yourself…

Labour One: The Nemean Lion (“Get the fur flying”)

Labour Two: Slaying the Hydra (“He chopped off a head and said “in your face!””)

Labour Three: The Ceryneian Hind (“No-eyed-deer!”)

Labour Four: The Erymantheian Boar (“It’s a big, wild pig!”)

Labour Five: The Augean Stables (“The kind of smell that makes a pig move pigsties”)

Labour Six: The Stymphalian Birds (“Flap, flap, flap, flap, flap off!”)

Labour Seven: The Cretan Bull (“Big Beefer – the father of the Minotaur”)

Labour Eight: The Man-Eating Mares of Diomedes (“Who ever heard of horses like these?”)

Labour Nine: Hippolyte’s Girdle (“Hip-po-lit-ay – a perfect rhyme with slay!”)

Labour Ten: The Cattle of Geryon (“It’s a multi-quest for Hercules!”)

Labour Eleven: The Golden Apples of the Hesperides (“Faint hearts quail”)

Labour Twelve: Cerberus (“A nightmare in Petworld”)

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