A Story from the Rock Tour

"Dear Roger
I know you like to know what impact your ROCK roadshow has on people so how is this for a lovely story:

Rev Val Butler of Trimley St Martin church offered the building as a rehearsal venue for the Felixstowe choir to rehearse in the early days of the training. David White the musical director from the neighbouring Walton Church was our trainer. Both had suffered bereavement and were on their own. I think it was love at first sight and their friendship grew throughout the run up to Rock.

They have now announced their engagement and hope to marry in the autumn. So thank you Roger for unknowingly arranging such a union! We, the choir, are utterly delighted at the news."

Rock Tour 2 - Kidderminster

And so to Kidderminster for the last performance of the tour. It has been an excellent tour - performances have been good, audiences big, and more conversations and prayer taking place afterwards than ever. It has been a joy to be part of, and what better place to conclude it all than Kidderminster - organised by Sue Stinton and Katy Cornwell. The New Life Together choir have been meeting and performing together for years, and they have been friends with CMM and regular attenders at events for just as long.

We all arrived at the Kidderminster Town Hall in time for a team meeting, where we spent quite a bit of time in prayer, as one of our cast members, Clair, had had an accident on the way to the venue. But thankfully she was ok and Martin was able to go and fetch her. They then got caught in West Bromwich Albion traffic, but still made it in time to have a quick bite to eat and then rehearsal with the choir.

Tickets had been going pretty well for the performance, and so many went on the door that they had to open up the balcony, which was excellent news.

We have been performing at the Kidderminster Town Hall for the last few tours, and had always struggled a little for dressing room space - there was only really one room available - the bar - and there were no mirrors. This time we were delighted to discover that there were a whole suite of rooms we had never discovered before, the King Charles Suite. It is rather a grand banqueting room with comfortable rooms and even a fully equipped dressing room with full length mirrors. Wonderful! This did however mean that the girls and boys had to share makeup facilities. The girls received a fascinating insight into life in the men's dressing room - particularly the rousing renditions of 'chestnuts roasting on an open fire' (in homage to Jonathan's 'chestnut' coloured makeup) and also 'We love you Brenda, we do', whenever Brenda delivers the freshly ironed costumes.

The final performance of the tour passed without any mishaps. The choir sang really well, and it was lovely to finish the tour among friends in front of a full hall.

Thanks again to Sue and all her helpers.

Rock Tour 2 - Derby

After nearly a week off, the touring party were once again out on the road, for this, the penultimate performance of Rock Tour 2. But the journey was not without it's mishaps. Alan's beautiful new Audi decided to completely give up - all the electrics failed on the A38 in Birmingham, leaving him stranded with Helen and Viv, the prayer coordinator for the weekend. Thankfully Gill, a member of EBRG and one of the choreographers for Rock was reasonable nearby, and she drove Helen and Viv to Derby, where they arrived just in time for dinner. Alan arrived with Gill's husband Bill just in time for prayers before the performance. Everyone else arrived ok, apart from Laura and Ann, who got a little lost in Derby. They made it in the end though.

The Derby performance had been looked forward to with much anticipation by several members of the touring party. Marilyn, Laura, Felicity and Richard all had lots of people attending from their churches - Richard had sold a significant portion of the tickets for the night to his church, who came on a coach. Also, Helen's mum was part of the choir, along with several members of her church in Long Eaton.

The Derby performance has traditionally been organised by Ian MacLaren of Derby Wesley Owen. Ian retired a few months before the performance, but still helped with the organising along with other staff from the Wesley Owen who sold the tickets. The main Derby choir was trained by Peter Nelson, and they were supplemented by a choir from Nottingham trained by Anne Hicks, and a choir from Long Eaton trained by Jane Allen. It was the first time the Long Eaton choir had been involved.

The Derby Assembly Rooms have a unique layout for the performers. The stage itself is enormous both in breadth and depth, and is surrounded by a black wall about 3 metres high. At the top of this wall the choir seats started, almost like a balcony, and the choir was so big it surrounded three sides of the stage.

The performance was great fun - so much room to use, and tickets pretty much sold out. The choir sounded fantastic, and there was a great buzz in the auditorium afterwards.

Thanks so much to all those who worked so hard to make it all possible. The Derby choir always holds their own performances afterwards, so our thoughts and prayers are with you. And also with the Long Eaton choir, who are performing themselves on 26th April.

Rock Tour 2 - Norwich

After a fabulous day in Ipswich and a wonderful morning meeting, it was just a short journey over the border into Norfolk, to Norwich. Norwich is almost like a second home to Roger and Mary - they have been supported for years by Meadow Way Chapel, and the Southgate family.

After driving very slowly through Norwich Saturday shopping traffic, we finally arrived at the venue - the Salvation Army Citadel. This is the second time this venue has been used. For Wildfire six years ago we used the Norwich family church, and it was booked for Jail Break, but was burnt down a couple of months before the performance. The Salvation Army Citadel stepped in for Jail Break, and it was such a good venue we used it again for Rock.

Salvation Army Citadels make excellent concert venues, as there is almost always some permanent tiered seating at the front - ideal for choirs. The tiered seating at Norwich was not quite big enough for the large choir for Rock, so some of the sopranos were down on stage left, and some more above them in the balcony. The instrumentalists were up on the balcony on stage left - their beautiful tones drifting over the top of the auditorium.

After a delicious lunch organised by the local team (headed up by Jenny Osborne) we had a quick team meeting during which the choir started arriving for rehearsal ahead of the first performance of the day. The Norwich choir, trained by Jenny Osborne, was supplemented by a choir from Lowestoft, trained by Peter Winter. Together they made an excellent sound, which filled the 450 seater auditorium beautifully.

The first performance went well, and the audience seats were almost all filled. We were then able to share with the choir over tea before the second performance, which was great - while attempting to find out the news of qualifying for the first formula 1 grand prix of the season with very little mobile phone signal...

The second performance of the day went well too, although slightly interrupted by a lady in the choir fainting during Just as I am. After being led off the stage, she fainted again, blocking one of the two entrances to the stage so that the dancers couldn't get on ready for song 14 - the healing of the lame man. Martin, who's job it is to carry on one of the dancers to be the lame man instead grabbed the nearest person - Sally, who was still wearing her costume from the previous song. The lady that fainted recovered well, which is a relief. Days with both a matinnee and an evening performance can be quite challenging to choirs, sitting under the hot lights for so long.

Thanks so much to Jenny and Ruth and all the team in Norwich. Most of the touring party travelled to Meadow Way chapel for the following morning's service, with Ann, Annie, Marilyn and Helen augmenting their excellent worship band. It was a lovely service, with Roger preaching, and an excellent way to end the week's tour.

Rock Tour 2 - Ipswich

And on to our second new venue of the tour - Ipswich. We have long had many friends in Suffolk and the surrounding areas - Colchester, West Mersea, Stowmarket to name just a few. So it was great to finally have an Ipswich performance. The Christmas before last, Helen and Annie had been invited to lead an Inn Crowd in a day at Bethesda Baptist Church in the middle of Ipswich. The organiser, Peter Miller, along with his wife Olive, had done an incredible job organising that day - a choir of approximately 100, and an orchestra of 15 or so. With so much support and enthusiasm behind him, we rather bullied Peter into organising an Ipswich venue for Rock, and what a wonderful job he did!

After our morning team meeting in Worthing, we set off on the long journey through the Dartford Tunnel to Ipswich. On arrival we discovered that although the Technicians had had some difficulty, things were well under way. Peter had managed to pull together a massive choir for the performance, and choir seats were filling up every inch of the stage that could be spared - a huge chunk of the tenors and basses were directly behind the musicians, which gave them a new perspective on the performance!

The Corn Exchange in Ipswich is like a big old... corn exchange. It looks inside like an old railway station - most of the audience seats were on the flat below the stage, but there was some tiering in the balcony and just below it. It holds about 800 people, and for the performance of Rock, was pretty much sold out, which was very exciting. We heard not long after arriving that over the past few years in Ipswich there had been low attendances at shows, and the hall staff were amazed to have a full auditorium. Sadly we discovered that on the day of the performance some of the hall staff had been made redundant. We pray that Rock will have had a big impact on them.

After our team meeting we had a good pray around the building - it is amazing some of the things that happen in a public hall that need clearing away - psychics, seances, mediums.

The Ipswich team (there must have been at least 20 volunteers helping on the day) had put together a wonderful tea for us of jacket potatoes and fillings, which gave us plenty of energy for the performance. We had a good rehearsal with the choir - and an important one too - we needed to get used to wading through choir members in order to get on to the performing area!

The performance went well too - both Helen and Alyson had family in the audience, which was wonderful. Amy managed to play for half of the musical, and had to come off following the crucifixion scene because she was coughing, but at least she made it that far!

Thanks so much to Peter, Olive and their extensive team of helpers and all the different choir trainers - Mike Arbon, David White, Karen Hill, Pat Kirby. What a wonderful event it was.

Rock Tour 2 - Worthing

The following morning we met together back at All Saints in Crowborough, and had a lovely morning meeting. Just outside the side chapel where we met there was a grand piano, and Devon led us all in a sing song together before we moved on to Worthing. It's moments like that that make tour incredibly special.

We travelled down to Worthing, parked, and hurried down to the sea front. It was a bit of a cold day, but that would not stop all of the midlanders in the team from getting a glimpse of the ocean. Fish and chips on the pier were the order of the day, although some of the team were sidetracked by other eating establishments that offered seating inside out of the wind... After lunch came the traditional stone throwing into the sea, or even some paddling, in the case of Richard and Brenda, and then a wander back through the town to the Assembly Rooms. We have performed at the Assembly rooms for the last few musicals, and it was great to see all our friends - Jane and George Hicks, Steve Brown and John Barnes.

After the team meeting we gave the understudies a rest and had a bit of spare time, and then had dinner - during which Sally had been plotting. When the rehearsal began, instead of track 1 of Rock, track 1 of Jail Break began - Where the Spirit of the Lord is. The choir had been primed, and they all knew the words. Sally had taught the dancers the dance, and good fun was had by all - except perhaps Roger and Alan, who were not amused...

The Assembly Rooms is a great place to perform. There is a large stage with two levels to work on - which the dancers enjoyed, and choir tiering too. We had a good performance again - that has been one of the features of the tour with very consistant performances and everyone trying their hardest

There was a lot of chatter and conversations afterwards, with many friends to be met and spoken to. Anna, one of the dancers, seems to have family all over the country. This time it was her grandmother, who had travelled across from Bognor Regis, a town regularly visited by CMM for music weeks and musicals in a day.

Thanks so much to all those who organised the Rock performance at the Assembly Rooms. It's strange to think that we won't be visiting there again.

Rock Tour 2 - Crowborough

We met the following morning at a church in Horsham. Sue Messenger, the Crawley organiser, felt well enough to join us, and it was great to see her. After another round of happy birthday for Felicity, we drove the short distance to Crowborough - several cars unsuccessfully trying to find the 100 Acre wood and play pooh sticks.

The venue at Crowborough was All Saints Church, right on the green in the middle of the town/village. It is a pretty ordinary looking Anglican church on the outside, but inside you can see the benefits of £2million worth of work. The original structure has trippled in size, and the extension is beautiful, and very practical, giving plenty of rooms for the cast and choir to use. There is even underfloor heating...

This is the second time we have been able to visit Crowborough. Cliff and Julie Wootton and their family have long been friends of CMM, as regular visitors to our holiday weeks at Lee Abbey, and it has been great to have them on board both for Jail Break and for Rock. They were joined in their organisation by Mark and Cheryl Farnham - an excellent team. The choir had greatly increased in size from last time, under the excellent tuition of the director of music at All Saints - Duncan Fraser.

After our team meeting we had a bit of spare time before dinner, so a few of the team had a birthday party downstairs in the hall for Felicity. This included musical statues, bumps, chairs as well as a brilliant rendition of the hokey cokey.

After a wonderful shepherd's pie, we got down to rehearsing with the choir. The choir were all situated on stage right in an L shape - this meant that they were really able to hear each other well and the blend was excellent. The instrumentalists were stage left, and the cast and dancers were performing in front of some screens hiding the communion table, font and lectern.

The performance was almost completely sold out, which was brilliant. There was also tea and coffee served at the end, which was great, because it meant there was plenty of time to chat to those that had come to watch. This unfortunately meant a late night for Brenda and Barrie in the wardrobe department, as some of the costumes were returned pretty late.

Thanks so much once again to Cliff, Julie, Mark, Cheryl and Duncan. Also thanks to All Saints for having us again. We are really looking forward to coming again on June 13th at our Rock Roadshow.