Rock Tour 4 - Exeter

And so on to Exeter - now historic as the last ever CMM jumbo tour venue.


This time we were at the Salvation Army Citadel - a challenging spot parking-wise, but a lovely venue. We were welcomed by Phil Jones, one of the officers, and the team that had gathered around him to organise the event, including Margaret Pope and Chrissie Taylor.


Hospitality at the Salvation Army in Exeter was excellent and we were well looked after with a lovely lunch ahead of our matinnee performance. Unfortunately Clair had to leave us at lunch time to get back to Birmingham, which was a little worrying with Catherine suffering from a migraine, but thankfully Catherine recovered. God is good.


Salvation Army Citadels are purpose built for choirs and brass bands. This is great for us, although it did mean the large Exeter Choir had to squash in tight. The choir was made up of a huge number of areas - Exeter, Bradninch, Collumpton, Crediton, Okehampton, Lauceston and Stoke St. Gregory - the home of our Cornelius.


Specially to mark this final tour performance, a few of the cast had learnt the dance to Rock of Ages and usurped the dancers in the choir rehearsal. Results were...well... interesting.


The audience was pretty full, which was great to see, and the cast and dancers made the best use they could of the narrow, but quite high stage. The narrowness wasn't a problem until right at the very end, where Sally was kicked in the neck during the reprise of Rock of Ages. Like a pro she kept going right to the end of the dance before making a quick exit. It's amazing that the dancers have performed that dance so many times without this happening before - the chorus with the handstands in comes three times in each song, we perform that song twice in every performance, and once in every rehearsal. That's 45 choir tour rehearsals, 55 performances, as well as all the dance rehearsals leading up to the tour - 475 choruses, each with two handstands.


And this time, Richard sang in the prophetic section, which was lovely. This came after the instrumentalists had played for a minute or so - all four of them improvising at once in beautiful harmony. When God inspires people, the results can be absolutely amazing.


And then it was the long journey home (for some of us - Bill didn't have so far to go for once). Everyone arrived home absolutely exhausted, but thrilled with what has been a fantastic tour. One of the best I've been involved in, I think.


Thanks so much to Phil and all his helpers at the Salvation Army Citadel. It was a fantastic day, and we look forward to being back at the citadel for the Rock Roadshow in Exeter on January 16th.

Rock Tour 4 - Truro

After a night of chatter, swimming and table tennis, the team reconvened for a fantastic breakfast in the dining room at Specott Barton. Some of the team from Bideford had arrived to help - and it was much appreciated - a fantastic breakfast.


This was also the day selected by Richard prior to the tour to be our breast cancer awareness day - so we all wore pink in various guises - some trying harder than others...


After a team meeting in the lounge, we travelled through the rain to Truro Methodist Church, the venue for our Cornish production. The church is a typical large Cornish Methodist Chapel, with a huge pulpit and a balcony. This created some interesting logistical problems. A stage was built over the communion rail, but it didn't lift the action up quite high enough to be seen by all of the balcony. The choir were to be in the balcony at the front, and the musicians in the pulpit. The problems with the choir and some of the audience seeing were therefore solved by a huge network of screens and projectors. These were controlled by an excellent camera man - Tim, who managed to film the performance, and even occasionally put inserts into his projection of Roger conducting. It was amazing - particularly since he hadn't seen the performance before. It was also quite weird for the cast, who could see themselves performing in a projection on the back wall - with a second or so time delay.


The stage was incredibly loud to walk around on - so while the cast and dancers were trying to be as gently trod as possible, Bill was relishing every moment as Cornelius, crashing round and making as big a noise as possible!


The choir was made up of quite a few groups - the Threemilestone group conducted by John Harris (who along with his wife Gill also organised the event). Then there was a group from St. Austell trained by Hilary Balsdon who had themselves performed Rock a couple of months ago, and so knew it by heart already. And there was also a choir from Helston trained by Stephanie Gordon. They made a fabulous sound, and it was great to see so many young people among the choir.


Before the performance we had a shared tea with the choir. It was lovely to chat to them all. There were even a few from Weston who were visiting friends. I wonder if they win the prize for the record number of performances for choir members...


A feature of this tour seems to have been the prophetic section at the end of song 15. This is the moment where all the cast are open to God to hear what he is saying. This time, Brenda had felt God really speak to her while she was ironing and preparing the costumes. So she obeyed God and came on to the stage and sang out a prophecy. It was an amazing moment, and Anna responded in dance. God uses everyone and anyone - if we are only open to him.


God clearly used Brenda's word, and there was a lot of prayer and ministry afterwards.


Thanks so much to John, Gill and all their helpers for making it happen. It was a wonderful evening. We raised quite a decent sum of money for breast cancer too - thanks to the choir for their generosity.

Rock Tour 4 - Bideford

Following our day in Minehead we travelled further down the coast to Devon, and more specifically, Bideford. We were performing this time at the Kingsley School Theatre, formerly known as Edghill College.

Bideford is the home venue of Bob Deakin - he sang the part of Joseph of Arimathea in Pharisee and also toured with Angel Voices and sang on the Precious and Honoured album. Bob, supported by his wife Eve, trained the Bideford Choir, including huge amounts of warm ups that the choir were delighted to put to one side for the previsit. Bob also took the liberty to add some extras - in song 15 the men added an extra line at the beginning so that they could be 'shhhhed' by the soloist. (Hard to describe, but makes sense when you look at the score...). The choir were brilliant, and had to cope with some very bright lights shining directly in their eyes from the low balcony in front.

Bideford is also the realm of John and Liz Kelly and Eric and Carolyn Moore - the fearsome foursome who together worked on the administration for the event - mostly led by John.

For the last couple of tours the Bideford performance had been a sellout, but this time they had really struggled to sell tickets... until the night itself when a huge number came on the door and almost all the seats were full.

The auditorium at Kingsley School is interesting. The choir and cast were on the floor at the front, and then the ground floor audience seats are also on the floor with very little tiering. Then up above is a steeper balcony where most of the audience sit. This created some issues with the audience being able to see some of the action that is lower down towards the floor. The cast, and especially the dancers, had to work hard to lift the action up so that they could be seen. This involves avoiding kneeling down or sitting on the floor. This was especially the case in the dance for Just as I am, where Sally changed the entire first part of the dance which would normally involve mostly movement low down to the floor.

Another memorable feature of the Bideford performance was the heat in the auditorium. Keith and Laura on the bookstall found themselves opening and closing the doors at the back to let some cool air in.

At the prophetic section at the end of song 15, Martin felt led to sing for the first time this tour. He described it as having had a feeling about it during the whole performance and then when Ann said Miriam's line "Don't put it off", he says he felt his stomach 'dropped out'. So Martin followed God's lead and sang a lovely prophesy, that spoke to several people in the audience.

Bideford is always a highlight on the tour for the overnight accommodation. Thanks to the astounding generosity of Debbie and Mark Kimber, the entire touring party were able to stay at Speccott Barton, a Chrisitian Farm equipped with self-catering holiday cottages, a swimming pool, trampoline and games room. The team were able to rest and relax together, and generally have a great time. Most of us got some sleep...

So huge thanks go to John, Liz, Eric, Carolyn, Bob, Eve, Debbie and Mark for all their hard work. It was a wonderful day.

Rock Tour 4 - Minehead

After our day off, the team was fresh and ready to begin all over again in Minehead. Roger and Mary have been connected with Minehead for years through their friends Colin and Mavis Mee. The last couple of tours were organised by Ian and Margaret Nevell, but sadly Ian died last year. Margaret was still able to be part of Rock, singing in the choir.

So this time we needed a new organiser, and we twisted Mavis' arm. She then managed to twist some more arms, including that of Jean Armin, who took over the organisation when Mavis became ill. Jean did a fantastic job, alongside Gordon Nichols who trained the choir. It was one of the smaller choirs on this tour, but they made a fantastic sound, and Gordon had also included a large spiritual dimension to the choir practices too.

The venue for the Minehead performance was the Regal Theatre, on the main shopping street in Minehead. The manager of the theatre, Lewis Lintern, is a Christian, and has been hugely supportive. The theatre is currently raising money to be refurbished, so we pray for them that the money is forthcoming and that the modernisation is a success. It is a lovely little theatre, with a decent sized stage. The audience is raked quite steeply, which means that every seat has a wonderful view. We did feel very close to the audience, and could see them all quite clearly, including the goths on the front row and the lady with the loudest bag of sweets in the world.

We were looked after amazingly well - even fed shepherd's pie at the church over the road, which was a huge hit with the team.

The performance went well. We were without Amy on clarinet again - it seems Minehead is an area that is particularly bad for asthma and Amy's flared up quite badly. She had to go over to the hospital halfway through the performance to be checked out.

One of the performance highlights came at the end of song 15 for the prophetic section. For the first time in a performance, Alyson felt God really move within her to sing. So she went forward confidently to the front of the stage and sang some really powerful words. Then God also moved Ann and Devon. So we were left at the end of the song with a tableau of Peter, Peter's wife, and his mother in law. An amazing moment.

Annie's family are from the Minehead area, and so her dad came and watched. He has seen a lot of the performances over the years, and he really loved this one. He said the costumes and drama particularly were excellent.

So huge thanks go to Jean Armin for stepping in to the breach, and also for Gordon's wonderful work with the choir. Our prayers are with Margaret Nevell and with Colin and Mavis Mee.

Rock Tour 4 - Bridport

And so on we move to a new venue, but not an entirely new choir. In the past we have travelled to Dorchester or Weymouth to perform the musicals, but this time, thanks to a performance of Wildfire in Bridport in June 2007, we managed to twist the arm of Steph Frampton from Dorchester to administrate it, and the wonderful people of Bridport to have us.


The performance was in Bridport United Church, and can safely be said to be one of the most intimate venues of the tour. The choir were on every side of the stage and pushed the instrumentalists up on to the balcony. With the close proximity of the choir, sometimes the cast found themselves nearly sitting on a poor soprano's knees. But we managed with the small space, and several of the audience said they preferred that intimacy to some of the larger performances.


The choir was made up of 50% Dorchester people and 50% Bridport. They made us feel very welcome with a lovely dinner of lasagne and chicken casserole. There was also a wonderful prayer team who were a huge support to Margaret as they prayed around the building for the cast, choir and the audience.


It was a birthday day among the cast - both Rachel and Ann. Alan created the funniest moment of the day by attempting to start off the singing of happy birthday. He sang one note to give us all the pitch, and then started off the singing on a completely different note! He'll never live that one down.


The performance was slightly delayed in the evening - the main road through the centre of Bridport was closed overnight for maintenance, so that meant no-one could get to the church after 7pm. But they made it somehow.


There was also a wonderful signer down at the front on stage right. The instrumentalists up in the balcony couldn't see any of the drama, but they could see the signer. Amy, on clarinet, mentioned afterwards that she was amazed with the signing as for special sections of the music the signs used were special intimate ones - for moments like 'The look of love' or 'Simon Peter do you love me'.


The following day was our day off. The team had a wonderful day divided between Weymouth, Bridport and Lyme Regis. And the weather held out for us too, which was great. Thanks so much to the people of Bridport for their wonderful hospitality. We had a great time.


So huge thanks go to Steph Frampton, Molly Doughty, and all those who helped make it possible.

Rock Tour 4 - Bristol

After our morning meeting in Taunton, we travelled the short distance up the M5 to Bristol and the newly refurbished Colston Hall in Bristol. I say newly refurbished... Since we last visited for Jail Break they have built a beautiful enormous foyer area on to one side, which was fabulous for Keith and Laura with the bookstall. Not a great deal more than that has changed - the backstage areas are still... er... interesting. The cast had plenty of space in lots of little dressing rooms, but the poor choir found themselves in the basement again.

Despite this, the Colston Hall remains one of the most impressive venues on the tour. The auditorium seats well over a thousand, and there is loads of room for a fabulously big choir. Huge thanks go to the wonderful Brenda Munden, without whom none of this could have happened. She not only trained the Bristol section of the choir, but she handled all the administration too.

The other choir trained specially for the event came from Thornbury just north of Bristol. The choir there was wonderfully trained by Heather Staley. Then the two choirs were joined by singers from Weston, Gloucester, Exeter and Taunton - an amazing bunch.

What was so fabulous about Bristol was it was like a mini Symphony Hall finale, with loads of familiar faces and friends among the choir and audience. Richard Harvey had his usual supporters travel all the way down from Nottingham. Then there was Barbara Carpenter, Bill's wife, and many familiar faces from our music weeks. It was also great to see some other CMM people - Caroline Finney (the original Mary Magdalene) was there, and also Ruth Butler and Kaye Cooke (who also sang at Weston) who were part of our Wildfire touring party. It was also Alyson's home performance, so she was understandably very nervous, but you couldn't tell. She had many supporters, including work colleagues as well as family and friends.

In the afternoon in the team meeting we had a long time of prayer for any who were ill or in pain amongst the touring party. In the end we found that it was at least 1/3 of the group, one of which was Rachel, who was asleep in one of the dressing rooms suffering from a migraine. The prayer time was immensely powerful, and God did quite a lot of work amongst us. Rachel wasn't quite well enough to perform that evening, but she was considerably better.

Just before the performance when we prayed together with the choir, someone had brought along some oil to anoint people with. This is what Brenda said in an email afterwards: "One of my choir men actually said on the second rehearsal that he felt the Lord telling him He would really anoint this whole tour and our part specifically. Then we were all anointed before the performance!!! Now how about God telling us He was and is with us?"

The performance went very well, and was really blessed by God. Margaret, our prayer coordinator, noticed some of the hall staff who should have been standing on guard at the doors peeping in through the curtains so they could watch. We pray that God can break through there.

So once again, huge thanks to Brenda for all her hard work, and also the many choir trainers who have made the Bristol performance so wonderful.

Rock Tour 4 - Taunton

The first venue in our week long tour of the South-West was Taunton on Saturday 24th October. It was a brilliant way to begin our tour week, as I'm sure you will see below. God was piling us high with encouragement before we started our long journey.

The venue was Wellsprings Leisure Centre on the outskirts of Taunton, and it had been brilliantly organised by Veronique Hart, with help from her husband Tim and a number of others. Above all this event had been surrounded in prayer - there was a fabulous prayer team who had even visited the venue a week or so before and walked around it 7 times proclaiming Psalm 150. Thankfully it didn't fall down...

Despite the huge amount of prayer, there were still some logistical issues. The stage was a very long way from the entrance to the hall, which meant that the cast had to perfectly time their entries to add an extra 10 seconds on to the journey time. Rehearsals are so important! The technicians also couldn't get into the hall until much later than usual due to a judo event, but they made it in the end.

The performance went really well despite the time delay, and the audience was a complete sell out. There was a member of Leisure Centre staff sat near the door and she was completely transfixed by the whole thing - so transfixed that she didn't notice the latecomers among the audience, and so Laura and Margaret from the Rock team ended up sorting them out with chairs in front of the bookstall. Needless to say, that girl was given a leaflet!

There was lots of ministry afterwards, which was really helped by a nice big gap at the side of the stage where people could mingle and chat. Alan, our team leader, found himself praying with someone for the first time on the whole Rock tour - and not just one person - three people. Bill (Cornelius)'s postman came to watch, and his son was prayed for afterwards.

A man spoke to Roger about a small village performance of Saints Alive years ago. Completely unknown to Roger, this performance had started his faith journey. What a great story at the start of a tour to raise our faith.

As if that wasn't encouraging enough, one choir member said afterwards, "Thanks for enabling me to find a part of me I never knew existed." This shows just how important it is that we spend a lot of time visiting and working with the choirs. It's amazing what fellowship and singing can open up in people's lives - especially when the Holy Spirit is behind it all.

Thanks to Veronique who worked so hard not only organising, but training the wonderful choir. Thanks to go to all those who helped her.

Rock Tour 4 - Weston-Super-Mare

After being looked after brilliantly overnight in Wimborne, we travelled to the Playhouse in Weston-Super-Mare for an afternoon performance. This meant that things were a bit rushed for the technicians, and for our ironing wonderwoman Brenda, and traffic wasn't great. But we made it ok. Most of the team went to Paul's house where his family brilliantly fed everyone soup or fish and chips.

The Playhouse had at the last minute had a problem with the number of chairs we could fit on the stage for the choir, which was a big headache for the local organiser, Jo Buchanan Hay. She had her own choir arriving, but was also expecting singers from Gloucester and Bristol to help out, and now didn't have enough seats. But God is good, and seats were found from around the Playhouse, and we had exactly the right number.

The regular afternoon team meeting was unexpectedly altered as the choir arrived half an hour earlier than expected. So instead of a private team meeting, we held a time of prayer and worship on the stage with the choir. I think everyone enjoyed the chance for a little bit more fellowship together.

Jo had organised the event wonderfully - so wonderfully that as you walk along the sea front at Weston every few metres there was a poster advertising Rock. This was brilliant, and meant that the Playhouse was almost completely sold out - a fantastic achievement for such a big venue. Roger and Mary managed to get all of their neighbours in Weston to come - every one of the small block of flats was represented.

As well as the Gloucester and Bristol choirs, the Weston Choir itself was a bit of an amalgamation, with singers from Weston churches together, from the Caprione choir, and from the churches in Brent Knoll. All were expertly gathered and trained by Naomi Russell and they sounded fantastic.

The performance itself went very well, but with one anomaly. During the prophetic section at the end of song 15, Laura danced, but no-one at all sang, which hasn't happened for us before. It was suprising, but actually we were quite thrilled as it shows that all of the Rock team are listening to God, and if he doesn't give anyone the nudge, no-one tries to fill the gap with empty words. Roger then spoke for a minute, and several of the cast said that his words summed up the feelings they had not been able to express in song.

Thanks so much to Jo, Naomi, Peter, and all those who helped with Rock in Weston. It was a brilliant day, and a pleasure to perform where several of our touring party consider to be home.