POP stardom beckons for Haslemere primary school St Bartholomew’s when its re-recording of hit album Pop or Not by Whyte Horses is released in December.

When record label CRC’s head of music Charlie Larby approached head teacher Charles Beckerson at the end of the summer term to ask if the school was interested in re-recording Pop or Not, it was music to everyone’s ears.

The record label released the album by the psychedelic pop group to great critical acclaim in May, but the band’s originator Dom Thomas wanted to give all 17 tracks a fresh creative twist by re-recording them with a children’s choir.

Mr Beckerson and St Bart’s music leader Sally Hollyer both agreed it would be a fantastic learning opportunity for pupils and immediately set to work re-writing the 11 vocal and six instrumental tracks to be sung by the school choir with a piano and guitar backing.

Milford Music Works provided a mobile recording studio to make a demo album so the choir could practice the songs and CRC could help shape the final arrangements. Mr Beckerson and Mrs Hollyer recorded their backing accompaniments on October 30.

The school choir were thrilled to spend last Thursday and Friday at legendary Rak studios in London’s St John’s Wood recording the vocals and the entire school gathered on Monday to be recorded singing the chorus.

Mr Beckerson said: “This is amazing for a school that is very passionate about music and has a very active choir and orchestra.

“When you strip back the psychedelic approach, you have a bunch of almost campfire children’s songs. On Monday CRC recorded 420 pupils and staff singing the chorus to She Owns the World, which will be released internationally as a single on Friday, December 2.

A week later CRC will release the album as St Bart’s Choir perform Pop or Not - the music of Whyte Horses.

The head added: “CRC has also made a documentary of us doing the recordings for TV and a video to accompany the single.

“By a happy accident there are 17 children in the choir and each has done a colourful drawing inspired by a different track to go on the album cover with photos of them playing outside.”

Mr Larby said: “ This project has certainly been a first for me in my music career but probably one of the most enjoyable.

“My eldest son, Ryder, is one of the 17 children in the choir, which was one of the reasons why I approached Charles Beckerson and Sally Hollyer about the project.

“They were incredibly enthusiastic about the potential of the project, and they, along with the choir, gave up so much of their free time to make this possible.

“If you’ve heard the original album you’d quickly realise what an undertaking this was, but once we’d finished the recording with St Bart’s choir and indeed the whole school, we knew we were working with something special. Here’s hoping many others will get to hear it.”