Tour 1 - Hull

Northallerton Methodist Church very kindly allowed us to use their Cottage room for our meeting, while their morning service was taking place. It's a strange feeling when you are on tour to realise that the world is continuing as normal - church services, work, school. While at Northallerton, Barrie gave us his three point sermon on parking in Hull - park legally, park cheaply, and I can't remember the other point - sorry Barrie...

Anyway, Barrie Renwick, our multi-talented supporter, had his moment of truth on this last day of the first tour week. Barrie, along with Phil Davison and Jean Gray (and numerous others), had organised the Hull performance of Rock. When Barrie left to come on tour with us, he thought they'd barely sold any tickets...

We left Northallerton together and travelled to Hull, Keith still taking the role of stand-in techie following the events in Sunderland. We arrived in Hull in perfect time for lunch, where they'd prepared for us a marvellous chilli and an equally lovely lasagne. It's quite a challenge preparing food for all the odd dietary requirements of a touring party, so well done to all the venues, not just Hull!

Hull is one of the few towns to have hosted every single one of Roger's musicals. By the end of the tour, the cities of this distinction will be Birmingham, Hull, Norwich, Leicester and Bristol. There are even some choir members who have taken part in every one!

The Methodist Central Hall is one of those interesting venues with restricted access to the stage - not only was it possible to only get to one entrance, but there's a set of steps to climb too! It made getting on and off stage a little slower than usual, but I don't think the audience minded too much. The Hull choir was too big for the stage, which was very exciting. That meant that the tenors and basses had to sit on the ground floor below the stage next to the musicians. They may not have been visible from the audience, but they did have the honour of being able to see the production from the front...

The performance was great fun, and Barrie needn't have worried, because the hall felt pretty full with at least 300 attending. Well done to everyone involved - what a fantastic job!