Tour 1 - Sunderland

The next morning we all met together at St. Cuthbert's Church in Blyth. This was one of those rare occasions we could all be together to pray, even including the technicians. The technicians were provided with pie to keep them going by the local wonderwoman, who not only bakes, but sings, plays the organ, and serves tea and coffee beautifully! In the churchyard, Marilyn slipped and grazed her face - little did we know it would be the start of an interesting day...

We then moved on to Sunderland. As it was not such a long journey we were able to stop in different places on the way down. Bill managed to get his swim in the sea at Blyth, and some of the team managed to find their way to Whitley Bay, and then to Sunderland through the Tyne Tunnel.


In recent years we have performed at the Seaburn Centre in Sunderland, so it was most unusual to travel instead to the Salvation Army Citadel right by the Stadium of Light. It was a lovely venue, and we were wonderfully welcomed. It did have some curiosities though. The men's changing room seemed to be a creche area right underneath the tiered seating at the back of the hall, and there was a special children's door to get into it - which was interesting for our predominantly tall male part of the touring party.

The Salvation Army Citadel in Sunderland is in a difficult area of the city - right where it should be to be on the front line of Christian ministry. This meant that we found it was an area of some Spiritual attack. So having had quite a smooth tour so far, we had a lot of incidents all on one day. Two of the technicians were out of action, and there was a struggle with the lighting rig, which meant that the remaining techies were working hard right up to when the doors opened - with Keith (our bookstall guy) standing in to help. The choir therefore had to stay away from the performance area, so for most of the rehearsal time we all met in a meeting room downstairs. The choir coped wonderfully well, and were able to sing one rehearsal song on the platform upstairs before we let the audience in.

The performance itself had a couple of incidents, not least of which was Roger falling from his podium and knocking his music stand over. And then it was Children in Need that evening, accompanied by a large firework display right outside the Citadel windows!

Our performance in Sunderland was a day to remember, and God was clearly working through all the incidents and mishaps. Our huge thanks go to Valerie Boyd the choir trainer and joint organiser with George Sanderson. They did a wonderful job, particularly in finding the Citadel. Thanks also go to the choir who were wonderful when so much seemed to go wrong. And thanks to the wonderful members of the Salvation Army in Sunderland, who worked very hard and made us feel so welcome.