Rock Tour 4 - Wimborne

After a week back in the office the Rock team (back to full strength) headed out on the road again, accidentally most people meeting up for lunch at a garden centre just off the A34.

Wimborne is a regular part of our tours, but this time we are sadly without Peter Lawrence, who died earlier this year. In the past Peter has been a great advocate of the performances, encouraging many to be involved and to come and watch.

This time we had the wonderful assistance of Hilary Shenton, who made sure everything went to plan, and looked after us brilliantly. The choir was trained by Clive Allen, and they were a pleasure to sing with. They were also all very patient with the Rock team who had accidentally taken over their changing space to eat dinner!

The Tivoli is a lovely small theatre right by the centre of Wimborne, and as the weather was so lovely the team took time to explore. Many of the team could be found in the Fat Face trendy surfer clothing store, but even with 70% off, the clothes were still too expensive! The stage was a good size, and the techies used the starlight background to great effect!

The performance began in a special way. Roger presented Carol Lawrence with the first copy of Peter's book "Squidgy Bod at Easter" - the third and final edition in the 3 part series of Squidgy Bod stories. Peter lived in Wimborne for the last decade, and many of those in the audience will remember him.

The performance went really well, and the theatre was completely sold out, which was wonderful. It is a little difficult getting down from the stage at the end to talk to the audience, but many of the cast made it without too much problem.

Thanks so much to Hilary and Clive, who worked so hard to make the performance possible. It was a wonderful day.

Rock Tour 4 - Salisbury

After the morning meeting at Chandler's Ford, the team were on the road again. This time not for too long, just the short trip up the road to Salisbury.


We have performed with the Millennium Churches' Choir many times in Salisbury, and it was great to be back with the organisational skills of Grahame and Jennifer Chubb, and the musical talents of Andy and Alison Larkham. We had a fabulous welcome at the City Hall, complete with music stand in the passageway with a special message and instructing us where to go for the dressing rooms.


After the interestingly shaped performing area in Chandler's Ford, it was quite a suprise to suddenly have acres of space on the stage at the City Hall. Another big bonus for us was the collection of settees in the changing rooms, which quite a number of people made use of. Those of us that didn't want to sleep headed out into Salisbury, some even making it into the cathedral, which was great.


Just before the performance we met for choir prayers as usual, but this time we had the added support of a fabulous prayer team, and Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith. The Bishop has always been wonderfully supportive of Roger, and it was great to see him once again. After a lovely prayer time, complete with a prize for the choir member who had sold the most tickets, we went into the hall in front of a huge audience of over 700. Thanks go to the work of Grahame and all of the choir for making that possible.


One of the most thrilling parts of the performance was the chatter afterwards. God seemed to really have been working in people's hearts, and we understand a couple of people were led to Christ that evening. Praise God!


And then we all returned home to our own beds, ready to get up for work in the morning. What a crazy team of people.

Rock Tour 4 - Chandler's Ford

So tour 4 begins for real, and our first performance sees us at Chandler's Ford near Southampton. This was a new venue for the tours, so it was a brilliant opportunity to get to know some new people. But of course people are never properly new - Helen Cornick, one of the organisers, used to sing in the Salisbury choir, and Chandler's Ford Methodist was the venue for one of Roger's first ever ministry trips 30 years ago...

After what seemed like eternity on the A34, the majority of the team arrived. We were without Ann Walters for the weekend as her brother was getting married, and also Clair Rogoff was ill. Clair being ill led to some problems, as she is the understudy for the part of Zillah, and Alyson who played that part was due to be arriving late after a night shift at work. Several of the team were pretty under the weather too - Ann Steer was uncertain she'd make it on stage, which would have decimated the cast. But God is good. Alyson arrived before Helen had embarrased herself too much trying to play her part in the rehearsal, and Ann was well enough to perform.

Chandler's Ford Methodist is a lovely, large, modern building with plenty of space. The choir had been trained beautifully by Chris Warren, and they sounded absolutely fabulous. The stage was an interesting shape, with banks of choir diagonally on either side, and the instrumentalists filling the empty space at the back. This did mean that the instrumentalists couldn't see Roger when the choir were standing, and the cast had ample opportunities to pull faces at them, but they seemed to survive ok.

The performance went really well, with some interesting improvisation. Ann sang half of 'The Look of Love' from mid-way down the aisle, and then for the crucifixion, Simon walked slowly up the aisle before the music started - all very powerful. The audience was really large - people were being squeezed in with extra chairs most of the way through.

Huge thanks go to Ann Squire, Helen Cornick, Glen Shepherd and Chris Warren for making it all possible. A wonderful way to start the final tour.

Rock Previsits

In the weeks following the Tamworth performance of Rock, Roger had his last ever three previsits - Exeter, Weston and Bristol.

Roger has always said that he would write a musical just for the previsits alone. These are wonderful evenings where Roger and a team of soloists get to rehearse Rock with the choirs. These choirs have already been practising for 8 or 9 weeks, they know the music, and many of them have also experienced the Bible teaching.

The previsits are a lot of fun, with plenty of joking. Roger intersperses going through the songs with anecdotes and serious bible teaching. It gives the cast a wonderful opportunity to revise the music, and to sing one another's parts...

This is one of the aspects of touring that will most be missed. But we know God has it all in hand, and there will be plenty of opportunities for fun, fellowship and teaching with choirs in the future.

Rock in Tamworth

On Sunday 4th November we held our 'Pre-Season Friendly' at Tamworth. Tamworth has been the venue for a pre-tour performance for the last few years, and it was great to visit again. Once again Pam Griffiths was the inspiration for it all, and this time we were greatly helped by Brian and Gill Johnson, members of EBRG and Coton Green Church, where we performed.

Pam Griffiths trained the Tamworth choir ready for the Rock Premiere on November 1st last year, and they'd had a few reminder rehearsals. They were also joined by a few other choir members, including some from the CMM choir in Birmingham, and others from the Leicester Choir.

It was great for the team to be together again - all bar Keith our bookstall man who went to see Cliff Richard for his birthday, and Brenda our wardrobe lady who was on a cruise with her sister. So instead Ann Parkin joined us to look after the costumes, and huge thanks to her. Viv Flowerday was the prayer coordinator on the day, which was nice as it was her birthday too! Discrete card-signing was done by all at the rehearsal.

The afternoon rehearsal went well, all bar the moment where Alan and Brian tried to pull the curtain out of the way from the white backdrop, and ended up removing the curtain and rail entirely... We also had a lovely meal together with the choir - it is always great to be able to join the choir for a meal as we get chance to properly meet and get to know them.

The performance itself went really well - everyone remembered their lines - except Devon of course. He was doing really well... all except for the very last line of the whole performance, which he managed to cut in half and remove from it any meaning. There was a lovely big audience who were very responsive, including quite a few friends we had seen at other performances. It was also great to see Maria, who danced in Wildfire, and Emily, one of the dancers from Jail Break.

Thanks to Pam, Gill and Brian, and all the folk at the Coton Centre who made it possible.

Rock Roadshow Witney

On October 3rd, Roger and a team from CMM travelled to Witney in Oxfordshire for a Rock Roadshow. Roger was accompanied by Gill and Brian from EBRG, Helen, Sarah Moreton, Simon Cooper, Paul Herrington, and also Philippa MacDowell and Lesley McCourt. Philippa (flute) and Lesley (oboe) haven't been part of our team for long, so it was wonderful to have them with us.

The day was brilliantly organised by Shirley Enoch, and although there weren't as many present as hoped, we were thrilled with who did come. It was a lovely day Spiritually, and there were some excellent deep conversations and some people really stepping out of their comfort zones in terms of improvising and singing prophecies etc.

Cast Rehearsal

On Tuesday 29th September the cast, instrumentalists and dancers met together at Christ Church, Burney Lane for our rehearsal after the long summer break.

It was wonderful to see each other again, and there were no absentees, which made everything very smooth and easy.

We had a great time catching up and rehearsing - it was amazing how quickly the memory started working again. The cast remembered their lines, the dancers their moves and the instrumentalists their notes.

Bring on the tour!