Rock cast announced

The cast for Rock are as follows (understudies in brackets):

Peter - Devon Brown (Martin Fisher)

Jesus - Simon Cooper (Paul Sodzi)

Cornelius - Bill Carpenter (Richard Harvey)

John - Jonathan Chappell

Peter's Mother-in-law - Ann Steer (Catherine Muggleton)

Peter's Wife - Alyson Ottaway (Claire Rogoff)

Maid - Helen Gray (Rachel Walker)

Paul, Richard, Alyson, Claire and Rachel have never been part of a touring musical with us before, so a big welcome to them.

Please pray for the whole team and also those who did not get a part.

Rock gathering pace...

One of the main features of office life at the moment is Roger's daily 'Rock chat'. He comes into the office and talks for a couple of minutes about how far he has got with some composing the night before, or what is going on behind the scenes. It's quite exciting having a daily update in this way, so I thought it was time for the CMM blog to have it's own 'Rock chat'.

Roger has finished most of the songs now, and sent them off to various people - Chris King, the recording producer, Tim - Roger's son, and Annie, who will sequence them and design backing tracks. There is a date fixed in early January where Roger will play and sing to EBRG, his support group, so that they have more of an idea of what they will be focusing on for the next two years. So Roger has his first deadline...

Also, auditions for the solo parts in Rock took place a week ago. It was a very successful evening, if scary, for the quality of all the auditionees was very high indeed. The cast have now been chosen, and they will be formally announced soon. Please pray for them, particularly bearing in mind the understudies who have very much a servant role. Also pray for those who were not chosen, as the news will have been very painful.

The tour of Rock itself is also coming along well, with many venues confirmed and booked ready for choirs to begin rehearsing ahead of their performance. There are many nervous administrators out there who have paid deposits on halls before Roger has even finished writing. Please pray and thank God for them.

Finally, still to come is the dance auditions in April, a hunt for instrumentalists, and Alison Fuggle will soon begin work on the drama. There are so many loose ends, but gradually things are falling into place.

An evening at home

On Tuesday evening last week, CMM paid a visit to St. John's House, an anglican community in the heart of inner city Birmingham. St. John's has also been Helen's home for the last 2 years.

Roger led an evening based on the canticles at the start of Luke's gospel, accompanied by carols and songs from the CMM repertoire.

The CMM team for the evening was Roger, Mary, Annie, Helen and Pat - Pat's cold meaning that Helen had to sing the high notes in 'For to us a child is born'. She didn't attempt the top C, unsuprisingly.

The sisters were delighted with the evening, and put on a wonderful spread of home-made mince pies - delicious!

All together for once...

On Saturday evening, a special one-off performance of the Inn Crowd was put on at Kidderminster Baptist Church. For one night only the original cast from the CD recording were all together in the same place, singing (roughly) the same musical...

The cast were ably supported by the Kidderminster New Life Together Choir, who also provided three wonderful shepherd soloists. They looked fantastic in their bright red sweatshirts.

Kidderminster Baptist Church in Franche is now under the care of Simon Gudger, who played Joseph on the recording. Simon, veteran of four touring musicals and numerous CMM recordings (Simeon, The Christmas Collection, A Grain of Mustard Seed to name just three) is currently training for the Baptist ministry, supported by his wife Louise.

Showtime!

We're getting into the Inn Crowd performance time of year, with lots and lots of events across the country. Amazingly, we're onto our third reprint of the books, which means we've sold over 1500 copies. And when you think of all those who used word copies too, that's a lot of singers!

The CMM choir's performances are going well. Two are completed and there is one to go. Peter Hazelwood and Sue Walker star as Sam and Debbie, and Jonathan Chappell and Fran (?) make a wonderful Joseph and Mary. Prayers are needed for their conductor who has not been well - the audience at Marston Green on Saturday were treated to a suprise visit from Roger as stand-in conductor. Hopefully, Penny will be well enough on Sunday to hear the results of all her hard work training the East Birmingham choir.

Photos: Fran and Jonathan as Mary and Joe in rehearsal; the three 'wise' men rehearsing.

Come and join the Inn Crowd...

I've put a list on the side of the page of all the Inn Crowd performances that are taking place around the country. If you know of any more, please let me know the details. If you want more information about any of those listed, please let me know.

helen@cmm.org.uk

Scratch Inn Crowd in Ipswich

This weekend, Annie, Helen, Simon, Laura and Catherine travelled across to Ipswich to lead The Inn Crowd in a day at Bethesda Baptist Church. The organiser, Peter Miller, had worked incredibly hard with his team of helpers, and managed to convince a choir of nearly 90 and an orchestra of 15 to come.

Helen spent the morning and some of the afternoon working with the choir, who made a beautiful sound - there were a lot of talented people among them.

Annie led the orchestra and then the full rehearsal and performance. She had to stand on a box in a pew so that all of the singers could see her properly. As there were so many in the choir they were arranged not only across the stage but down both sides as well, and at one point in the rehearsal, in the pulpit, the choir stalls and on the steps up to the pulpit!

Simon, Catherine and Laura also earnt their keep. Simon sang the part of the Inn Keeper, and Catherine the part of Mary. They also helped to train the soloists, and the wonderful group of children who played the shepherds. Laura, as ever, was the ultimate bookstall keeper.

The day was very tiring but an immense success, and hopefully we will be able to return to Ipswich for a performance of Rock in 2009.

A busy mid-week

Monday and Tuesday of this week saw Roger travelling to Wigan for a special performance of the Inn Crowd. After a practice on Monday evening, the cast of 60 children and 30 adults assembled for the Tuesday evening performance. It was a great success, including the comic performances of three vicars as the three 'wise' men.

The informal setting of the working men's club was perfect for a proper welcoming Inn atmosphere, and a fantastic time was had by all.

Annie yesterday spoke at the Arise Group from St. Germain's Church, Edgbaston on her work with Christian Music Ministries. This is the church Annie has been part of for 24 years - don't worry - it is not the first time she has been asked to speak!

Chilly...

Roger, Annie, Katie and I have just spent the weekend at Shrewsbury Abbey. It was an incredible priviledge to be able to sing and play in that beautiful building, if a little cold!

On the Saturday we led a Ways to Praise day, beginning with 'Being a Worshipper' - some teaching using King David as the model, then Annie, Katie and I led a new songs session, introducing some of the music for the later part of the day. After lunch, Roger led a creative and prophetic session, forcing poor old Katie to sing out a prophecy (sometimes it's great to be intently playing your instrument so there's less chance of being picked on) and we concluded with a the 'Ways to Praise' session, with it's focus on psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.

On Sunday morning we took part in the sung eucharist at the Abbey, including Man of Sorrows and My God, how wonderful thou art during the communion.

Sing to the Lord

A fabulous day was had by all at Christ Church, Ward End on Saturday. About 60 people were present for our day of vocal workshops and choral singing.

Penny King and Katie Leaver led the day. They are both incredibly gifted singing teachers, and were able to teach some of the tricks of the trade, while enabling us to put them into practice in the choral pieces.

Ably assisted by Annie on the keyboard, the performance at the end of the day in front of an audience of 3 (Roger, Alan and God), was a wonderful end to the day. Interspersed between the choral pieces, Penny and Katie sang solos and duets - a real highlight.

This is a course we certainly hope to develop for the future.

Photos: Katie Leaver and Penny King; the delegates at the course

Sad News

CMM were saddened yesterday to hear of the death of Rev Dr Rob Frost, director of Share Jesus International, and presenter on Premier Radio.

CMM has often taken part in Easter People, a yearly Christian festival initiated by Rob, and Roger was often interviewed by Rob on his Sunday morning radio show, Frost on Sunday.

Back in June, both Roger and Sally were interviewed by Rob and his wife Jacqui for UCB TV, a show which will hopefully air very soon.

Helen became a Christian at Easter People, was regularly involved with Share Jesus events.

Our prayers are with Rob's family and all those at Share Jesus International.

Off the mainland...

Isle of Wight trip 2007 - Jail Break

Last weekend Roger, Annie, Katie, Devon, Martin, Simon, Ann, Helen, and Mary all made their way 'down south' to Southampton, and from there on the ferry to the Isle of Wight. We had a good journey down and a fabulous ferry crossing, arriving on the island in plenty of time for an evening meal and rehearsal with the choir.

The choir - about 40 strong, were fabulous, brilliantly trained and well balanced, making a lovely sound. Also, a big mention needs to go here to David the technician, who worked tirelessly and did a wonderful job.

On Saturday morning we enjoyed a nice wander on the beach at Shanklin (not something we midlanders get to do very often) with Jane, Helen and Simon's host, her dog Mille, and Barrie, a friend and great supporter of CMM who had travelled down from Hull for a short holiday. The holiday for us was short lived though, because in the afternoon we had to get down to work rehearsing at St. John's church, Sandown, ready for the evening performance. Despite the cold, and a large fireworks display outside during some of Trish's narrations, the performance went really well with a good sized audience, and a scary amount of TV cameras belonging to Rodney Hearth. Will there be a "Making Waves part 2?" Could be interesting.

Then on Sunday, the team split up for morning service. Roger, Ann, Mary and Simon travelled to Shanklin URC church, and Helen, Devon, Katie and Martin visited Beulah Evangelical Church, on the outskirts of Ryde. Then it was down to work once again with an afternoon performance of Jail Break at St. John's church, Newport. Aided by a lovely performance from Leanne as the slave girl, and a large audience, we had a wonderful production, followed by some good conversations and sharing over tea and coffee.

The work over, we then enjoyed an evening at Brian and Janet's - Roger and Mary's hosts, and then a day off on Monday, which included fish and chips on the beach, a visit to the Needles, and a rather bizarre and dangerous fireworks event at Yarmouth.

A good weekend, and we pray that God will richly bless the people we came into contact with on the Island.

Photos: Helen, Ann and Katie singing Broken Chains, and Rodney with one of his cameras

Time to catch up...

Sorry it's been a while since the last update. I'll try and catch up in event order.

Last week we spent Wednesday in a beautiful small village in Worcestershire, Charlton. In the afternoon, Roger led a rehearsal workshop for their forthcoming production of While Shepherds Watched. They are a small choir, but they make an excellent sound, and some of their plans for including the children sound excellent. They are also from several different churches in the parish, and seem to enjoy uniting to sing.

Following the rehearsal we were provided with a lovely meal, and then we led a Ways to Praise evening. The session went very well, and Roger, Annie and I were ably assisted by Martin, whose parents were watching! It is a big challenge for rural churches to find musicians to assist their worship, but we hope the Ways to Praise evening may have encouraged people in their 'worshipping from the pew'.

An old classic...

CMM has been in action again this weekend. Firstly, Roger was involved with the Brent Knoll performance of Snakes and Ladders. If ever you travel down the M5, and see an isolated hill on your left just past Bristol, well that's Brent Knoll. The churches together there performed Snakes and Ladders with a small choir, but with a huge amount of enthusiasm. Roger reports that their performance was wonderful, and very well received.

Also, on Saturday, Phil Parkin, now retired but formerly part of the CMM office staff, led A Grain of Mustard Seed in a day at Elmdon Methodist Church. The 30 strong choir did a fantastic job, and an audience of 40-50 enjoyed the final performance. Phil has not conducted anything since his retirement from the CMM choir, and he says he was a little rusty, but soon remembered how to conduct. He loved having the baton back in his hands - watch out world!

Photo: Phil Parkin at his retirement, December 2005

The smallest event...

Sometimes it's the smallest of events that have the biggest impact.

On Tuesday I spoke at a small meeting at Ellen Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. There were about 20 there, and I tried out my sermon for Sunday, interspersing it with a few songs.

At the beginning, a young Muslim lady came in, and sat down and listened. She didn't join in with the songs at all of course, but she seemed content to sit and wait.

At the end she was asked if she'd found the meeting different to her expectations. Surprisingly, she said, "No. I came in expecting to find peace, and I found peace."

Praise God.

Treloyhan Manor

Treloyhan Manor Christian Guild Hotel was the beautiful setting for the first ever Inn Crowd music week. Over 40 guests enjoyed the beautiful surroundings, sea view, and wonderful food last week in St. Ives.



The CMM team for the occasion was Roger, Annie, Helen, Ann Steer and Bill Carpenter, and we were joined by the Christian Guild hosts for the week, Ivor and Anne Cresswell.


After a wonderful full cooked breakfast, the usual pattern of events involved some bible teaching led by Roger based upon themes from the musical, followed by a choir rehearsal led by Helen and Annie. The afternoons were free, and then the evening meal left us all a bit full for the evening's entertainments - a games evening, a praise party, and an informal agape.

The scratch choir worked really hard, and it paid off with a superb performance on the Friday evening to an audience of over 30 (all the hall could hold!). The evening was led well by Bill and Ann as Sam and Debbie, the Innkeeper and his wife. The other soloists - Mike, Mike, Ray, Ann, Gill and Pauline also were wonderful, and were beautifully accompanied by a string section of Ali (violin) and Annie (viola).

It is always a real priviledge to be part of the leadership team for a CMM music week, spending time sharing with and ministering to the different guests. We have 8 music weeks lined up for 2008:

Whitby 10-15 Feb, Rhos on Sea 7-11 Apr, Grange-over-Sands 24-31 May, Harnhill 14-18 July, Bognor Regis 21-25 July, Lee Abbey 2-9 August, Scargill 16-23 August, St. Ives 6-13 September.

If you are interested in coming to any of these, please email Helen for further details: helen@cmm.org.uk

Photos: Treloyhan Manor, St. Ives; some of the delegates at the final rehearsal; the CMM team; Annie and Ali - the string section.

Multi-tasking...

At the same time Roger, Mary and Helen were at Sizewell Hall, CMM was also in Clitheroe with Annie leading 'A Grain of Mustard Seed' from scratch in a day. She had with her Paul, Martin and Carole, and the day was a great success, complete with 'ragamuffins' and a 20-strong choir. There was a large, appreciative audience, among whom was a family who haven't been to church for some years but felt God calling them back into fellowship.

It's wonderful the way CMM is able now to be in three different places at once, with Annie, Helen and Roger all available to be booked separately. Sometimes a bit of teaming up is necessary though, according to the scale of the event!

Photos - Roger, Annie and Helen in action!

An unexpected trip to the seaside...

We've just returned from a weekend away with Meadow Way Chapel, Norwich. These are old friends of CMM, and the basis for our Norwich performances whenever we tour with a musical. I had assumed we would be staying the weekend in Norwich, but was proved wrong when we sat on the A14 for a lot more time than I expected. Instead, we were staying at Sizewell Christian Conference Centre, on the East coast just north of Ipswich. As someone who has been landlocked for most of her life in the midlands, a hall right on the sea front was a wonderful bonus!

The weekend was based around Paul and Silas in Philippi from Acts 16 - the major themes of Jail Break. It was a priviledge to be there, sharing in the music and supporting Roger and Mary. People seemed to be blessed by what God was doing among them, and the Holy Spirit was certainly present in power on some occasions.

India Report

Here's some excerpts from Roger's report on his trip to India:

"Accompanied by DEVON BROWN and ANN STEER, two of our regular Soloists, we set out on a long arduous journey lasting about 20 hours. Missing a nights sleep, and 4 ½ hours in time, we arrived at Kerala and immediately were joined by MIKE & BARBARA ROWARTH, who came out from UK a week earlier. Very soon we were rehearsing THE INN CROWD.

"It was a joy to meet up again with the “Family Harmony” Choir. They are a wonderful group of very friendly and welcoming folk, who made us feel very much at home. The “World Premiere” of THE INN CROWD was presented at CMS College Hall and approximately 500 people came to watch."

And then in Vellore...

"The Chapel meetings were a challenge for me, having to wait each sentence for the translation. But the translator was a wonderful Christian man, and we all knew he was capturing the true impact of what I was trying to say. After the second meeting a small Hindu lady came and knelt before me, asking for prayer. This as just the start! As the days went on more and more came in this way, even Patients were brought down from the Wards by Nurses. Never before have I felt quite so reliant on God turning up in power!

"The final Production was tremendous, with over 1000 people crowded into the auditorium. The Choir were magnificent, and the Dancers, about 20 of them, thrilled us with their “Indian style” movements. The local soloists, who complemented the UK Team of Devon and Ann did extremely well, and the “Indian World Premiere” of JAIL BREAK crowned an amazing two weeks of ministry."


Read the full report at http://groups.msn.com/RogerJones/india07fullreport.msnw

Earn CMM some money!!!

Sorry that this is more of an advert than a blog post, but we've found an exciting way for people to give money for us for free. We're searching high and low for a catch, but we can't find one...

1. Go to the cmm homepage: www.cmm.org.uk

2. Scroll to the bottom of the page

3. Click on the easyfundraising banner

4. Register as a user

Whenever you do any online shopping, first go to the easyfundraising site, log on, and then follow the links to get to your desired shop, whether it's Amazon, Ebay, HMV, etc etc. Apparently they'll donate a small percentage of the money you spend to CMM.

5. Click on easysearch on the left hand side of the easyfundraising page

6. Follow the instructions

7. Make it your homepage or your default search engine, or both!

Whenever you search online for anything, easysearch will make a small donation to CMM from those who have sponsored links. The search engine is Yahoo, which is just as good as any other search engines.

Happy shopping and surfing!

A triple header...

What a fantastic day. My calculations suggest there were over 170 people taking part in the Inn Crowd in a day, including nearly 90 sopranos, 8 flutes and 3 trombones! The atmosphere felt really good, and the performance was incredibly joyful. I think Roger's newest musical was given a great launch, hopefully forward for lots more local productions around the country. The orchestra were wonderfully trained by Annie, and Paul did a fantastic job with the choir. Even the soloists behaved reasonably well, and Katie overcame feeling ill to produce two wonderful top C's. More photos to follow...

Then at lunch time, Roger and I slipped out to the Anglican convent in Alum Rock to lead the music at a special service commemorating Michael Whinney's 50 years as a priest and 25 years as a Bishop. He has been a great supporter of CMM over the years, and it was a real priviledge to be asked to play.

Following the performance of the Inn Crowd, I was whisked away to Kenilworth to lead a music workshop with 20 or so youth. They were a brilliant bunch, and very musical - a violin, a cello, a flute, a clarinet and some drums, not to mention numerous other instruments not played in favour of singing. After a bit of a ropy start, the workshop went well, and everything came together wonderfully in the end, thanks to God and a percussionist called Mike. The final performance in the Sunday morning service was something to be proud of.

Photo: Some of The Inn Crowd Soloists at the recording day: Simon, Helen, Katie and Devon

Cometh the hour...

The Inn Crowd in a day is almost here! An amazing 150 people have booked to attend, and some more are expected to come on the day. This should be a performance to remember. With over 80 sopranos and lots of flutes, it'll be like nothing ever heard before.

Hopefully the printer will deliver some vocal scores in time...

On a different note, Roger has returned from India full of stories about God's work out there. It seems they have had a brilliant time. I'll have to get him to write something on here about it one day. But his photos can be seen at:

http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb229/rogerwjones/

Travels afar

We are just coming to the end of several weeks where different members of the CMM team have been away from the office. Firstly, Roger has been out in India, with two of our regular soloists, Devon Brown and Ann Steer, and Mike and Barbara Rowarth, wonderful supporters and friends.

They started off in Kerala, leading workshops and seminars based around 'The Inn Crowd'. Have a look at

http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb229/rogerwjones/for latest photos.

On Monday they travelled to the teaching hospital in Vellore to begin a week of mission, which will culminate in a performance of Jail Break on Sunday evening. This will be a very challenging week, as Roger has to lead two teaching sessions a day, as well as a choir rehearsal.

Helen was away last week in Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. She was walking the St. Cuthbert's way in aid of CORD, a Christian charity based in Leamington Spa. The walk is from Melrose to Holy Island, and covers 100km (62 miles). Helen and her sister Deb managed well over three quarters of the walk before Helen's ankle decided to give up. Despite this, they have raised over £1200, which is an incredible figure. To look at photos, please visit:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9642650412 , or if you would like to add to the sponsorship total, go to http://www.justgiving.com/debandhelen .

Finally, Annie has been away on holiday visiting her father and stepmother in Somerset. She was hoping to travel to Anglesea with her stepmother, Gay, but they were forced to cancel this trip due to Gay's ill health. Annie has been able to spend time with them in Somerset instead, which will hopefully have been a restful time.

Musical Launch

Just a few excited thoughts today about 'The Inn Crowd in a Day' which is going to be happening on September 29th. So far 77 people have booked, and there's still a few choirs which haven't sent definite numbers.

It's always interesting on these occasions to see who turns up - nearly two years ago, we had over 200 people come and learn 'While Shepherds Watched' in a day, which was quite incredible. It was also the big retirement party for Phil though, so a lot of people came. Last year we held 'A Grain of Mustard Seed' in a day. That musical doesn't seem to hold the same appeal as the bible based musicals, despite some really good pieces and its strong message. We have already had considerably more bookings than for Mustard Seed, so I'm beginning to get excited.



It looks like it is going to be an interesting orchestra - so far we have:

2 drummers
2 guitarists
1 cello
1 violin
1 oboe
1 trumpet
1 trombone
and 4 flutes!

Not sure what instrument I'll play yet...



The choir is also going to be interesting:

5 altos
9 tenors
7 basses

and 42 sopranos!



God has a strange way of working sometime.

Photo: Trumpeters at 'A Grain of Mustard Seed in a Day' last November

In the beginning...

Helen...

I write this first post from a very quiet CMM office. Roger, Mary and Sally are away on holiday, Annie is working from home, and Lindsay and Katie aren't working today.

This is my first week working full time for CMM, and I am trying to work out what the most important things are in my long list of work to do! My major piece of work is organising what will be Roger's last big tour, Rock, the story of Simon Peter. He and Alison Fuggle are writing it at the moment, and work seems to be progressing fairly well, or as well as things usually progress this far from a deadline. The tour organisation is going well. Most of the venues for tour 1 and tour 2 are sorted out, and I'm just beginning to look at the third tour, to the South East. It'd be fantastic if we can make this the best tour yet.

I'm also organising and sorting out several events which will take place in Birmingham. The first is a dance day with Sally on September 22nd, then there's 'The Inn Crowd' in a day, on September 29th. I hope that over 100 people will come to that one. The other two are a bit further away - a day of singing workshops with Katie (from the office) and Penny (conductor of the CMM choir) on November 10th and a concert with Marilyn Baker on January 25th. Still got a bit of time for them.

I'm also hoping to reinitiate my schools work. Last Autumn I worked with a primary school just down the road from here, teaching the musical Away in a Manger for their Christmas concert. Each class took a different song, and then there were some which the whole school sang. The final performances went really well. Now there's 'The Inn Crowd' resource too, I hope to be able to work with a couple of schools this year.

Photos: top left: Mary, Annie, Lindsay, Roger and Helen at the CMM Christmas dinner 2006

bottom right: Lindsay, Katie and Mary sporting silly hats, Christmas dinner 2006