Urgent Request – Streetly Christmas Market

The wonderful Streetly Christmas Market at Wm. Wheats this Sunday is in dire need of a musician to entertain people arriving at the event. I had a plea today from Gemma for support because another person has been unable to commit.

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Open Dischord

I love playing live music, and Dischord has been a great way to enjoy this vice with little time commitment. The entire premise of the band is that we simply roll up on the day and improvise. We’re comfortable enough to mess about and we “win” by making beautiful music.

Dischord’s next gig is this coming Sunday 20th July in the Bandstand at Walsall Arboretum, and we’re throwing the doors wide open. Do you play an instrument well enough to jam in public? Pop down and give it a throw. We won’t judge you, (although the audience might!) and you might find it’s something you enjoy. There’s a Facebook event page and everything.

Even if you don’t want to play, please do come down and have a listen. We’ll be playing laid back music from 2 til 4(ish) for anyone who walks past.

Blues in a Bandstand

I went to the Churckery Festival gig yesterday at the Walsall Arboretum Bandstand. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and was happy to be in a place where my boys could come along and listen too. We even saw half of the Grey Goose Blues Band set. Being able to name the members and say I’d played with them was very cool.

Running Café Church … in a café

I went to church tonight. Except it was in Starbucks. Although it was definitely church. But the drinks were definitely by Starbucks.

Oh boy, another long winded rambling post about church and music and stuff. You can have the tl:dr version here: “Church in a café still looks and smells like church, which confuses me a bit.”

There.

Or read on to find out where I’m going with this.

Day 9 – Sunday 21st July – Chuckery Festival 2013

Another gig at the Bandstand? As if last weekend wasn’t good enough, there’s more.

It’s great to see the Chuckery Festival using this venue in Walsall Arboretum. It’s been getting a lot of use since the refurbishment, and what’s particularly special about this event is you can catch the Grey Goose Blues Band and Walsall Jazz Orchestra on the same bill, closing with Fat Lip and plenty of other musical gems to keep you entertained all afternoon.

I can’t recommend this line up enough, and according to the Met Office there might actually be a bit of Sun in our Sunday.

Worship Musicians Unconference

We’re going to host the most chilled out grass roots worship music event I’ve ever heard of.

Clued up church worship.

I’m a huge fan of “I’m sorry, I haven’t a Clue” on BBC Radio 4. One of their famous games, and one we’ve tried before is “One Song to the Tune of Another” in which, well, you can guess.

As it happens, organists have been playing this particular game for years, dropping alternative tunes onto the unsuspecting congregation, sometimes without even the foreknowledge of the presiding minister, and occasionally without warning the choir.

Sunday Service

In this modern age, one could be forgiven for thinking the nature and range of service in church is ever widening.

Aside from the minister and service leader (often the same person in smaller churches) there is the music or band leader and their team. At my own church we have two people operating the AV desk, one doing sound and the other overseeing projection.

Once you have the most visible roles filled, one must consider the coffee brewers, key holders and welcome team who are involved at the beginning and end of the whole effort,

Flower arrangers, cleaners, verger and wardens, and then the Children’s church leaders who miss the greater part of main church anyway.

Whatever happened to Sunday as a day of rest?

Here begins the rant.

Er, wouldn’t it be a good idea to provide considered support and praise for the people who do these things to support us? Every time I see that the prayer ministry team are only available during a time of sung worship, I wonder what help that is to the band. Are we tacitly suggesting that Almighty God is more likely to speak through the music than the sermon? Do worship leaders need no prayer ministry provision? What a load of rubbish is implied in these decisions.

Every time I lead the band at church I think prayer is a good starting point. Now I realise it may be crucial to the wellbeing of my band, because it may be the only deeply personal opportunity they get to pray together in the service.

Maybe I should close the sessions with prayer as well. You see if I don’t.