It’s LIVE LOUNGE tonight at 43 Lancaster Gate tonight at 7pm. EVERYONE invited. It is a great place to come and unwind and just let the music flow into your soul and wash away all those stresses and cares that build up through the week.

CHeck out this video of Isobel from the last session, to see what I mean:

All proceeds go to support the new Music Ministry project that is rising up from the LG basement.

You will not regret the journey....

We decided we wanted to make a music video for our LG church community, and keep working on our songs. The idea that we can reach out to others and each other through music that inspires is a good one.

Last Sunday a bunch of our music ministry team and some film crew people were working on the chorus to our unity song.

It’s not ready yet, but just wanted to give you an idea of what we are heading towards. Just imagine worship with a choir like this every Sunday:

and here is Kathleen conducting, while the choir has to sing without the backing track:

So, even though we have not arrived yet, we know where we want to get to. A BIG Thank you to Michael F, Teresa H, Rea, Kathleen, and the choir, some of who came a long way. Let the church arise.

it's good to have professionals around

waiting to record

Last month Chipmunk’s manager, Vash, from Playhard Ents, called me up and asked if we could help put together a choir of children for Scorcher’s new crossover single. So I called around a few of our church members, and some of the kids from our boys’ school to find some singers.

They all worked hard and sang well – let’s hope Scorcher does well with this new single.

This is just some clips from the day in the studio and it looks like they want to ask them to come back for another day to make a proper music video.

“it’s my time and nothing gonna get in my way…”

(thank U to Réa for fitting the editing into his v long To Do list!)

and then from 6 minutes 20 seconds in to 7mins 17secs in Kritikal’s mini documentary you can check out a bit more what the children sound like once they have had all their voices properly recorded and mixed. (if you watch prior or after the above times you may find some bad language)

recording

Feeling a bit like I need a day off, but tomorrow is Monday. You know when you just need something to lift you up and help you see the glass half full?

If you have had a long week and are not quite ready for the new one round the corner, then you could try listening to Marian Reynold’s version of the Mariah Carey song, Through the Rain.

She sang this before the message at our Lancaster Gate church. It’s always better when you are there rather than on a cheap camera, but I think this might just move you:

Also a big thank you to Kenta Barrett for making the back drop for our worship service, and to the music team for putting so much time in during the week to get things together. We had quite a few brothers and sisters join us online for worship which was inspiring. Thank you to Ajay and Réa for making that go fwd and develop.

our new backdrop for sunday worship

the music ministry

We are still developing this so be patient with us, but here is the latest from our online worship. The sound doesn’t kick in for the first 20/30 seconds, and just before the second song the computer died cuz it wasn’t plugged in, so….., there is an awkward 2 minutes of dead time, while we got the lyrics back up on the screen. But the beauty of the live recording is that you can just click on the time line and go fwd a few minutes when it’s not gripping you.

The message was a bit long in my opinion, and my main take away is: reduce my notes by 70%, be more concise, and hopefully allow the important points to have more impact.

Main theme: you can only effectively come to God on His terms, because He designed you. And two qualities that make all the difference are when we are willing to trust and be humble: Genesis Ch.12 and 15 (Abraham believed the Lord), and Matthew Ch.18 (unless you change and become like little children). Incredibly challenging but so true.

Went to Stratford to join the East London church for the first of their Saturday outreach programs.

stratford station is always alive

I love the East London community how though small in number they come together young and old and bring the entertainment the food and all spirit.
A few new people came who I had not met before, one of them was Marva’s neighbour.
The message introducing True Parents and the Divine Principle was called: “a vision that brings blessing to your life.”

And then came the entertainment. Here is a song that Terry Sweeney wrote along time ago and performed for us today. Felt like the soul man himself, Van Morrison was in the room. I already booked him for a performance for HQ church next Sunday 7th March.

And then came the breakers:

Nice moves by Julian, back flip and lot of upper body strength from Sean, and something about Jude, everything can fall out his pockets and somehow I think he wouldn’t even need to move to still be shower.

Big thanks to all of you in East London. It is exciting to get out there and share the good news about True Parents and the Principle. Looking forward to the next East London church outreach Saturday. Gotta think of something more concise.

Yes, I know the song is ‘be thou my vision’, but I am sure I heard a line in there which was ‘our vision’. I like ‘our’ because what’s a vision if it doesn’t go beyond me? Or to put it positively: a vision that goes from ‘my’ to ‘our’ has got to be nearer to God, one would hope so at least.

SO a big thank you to Steven and the choir for putting in the effort and taking up the choir ministry for the Saturday Service. Please have a listen to the low tech iPhone recording; they are not shy cuz they know they can sing, and will sing.

Seeing them in the back room in LG late on a Wednesday night lifted me up, because this is what I hope our worship can be about: coming together to prepare something for God and to move the hearts of others to feel closer to the grace of God.

If any students or anyone from the Saturday Service congregation wants to join the choir, please talk to Steven. As he said when he started to invite people to join in:

“…don’t worry, I welcome anyone to join who has enthusiasm. Don’t worry if you think you can’t sing, I’m in the business of creating miracles. Just feel free to give it a go.”

This goes back to January 09 when we had our FFWPU strategy and planning meeting. Natty’s got a great tone, and Bernard doing the Harmony with David and Matt on the flute and violin give it that extra lift. But, Natty’s voice just sends me to that dreamy place.

Hope you are having good dreams.

Just wanted to post you a brief edit of a few short clips from the latest live lounge event in Lancaster Gate. If there are any of the songs you would like to see more of, describe the act and I will post them up to the familyfireplace youtube channel.

a packed house

It was an attractive development at the latest live lounge to have a cafe area, where people could buy cakes, and drinks. Some great non-alcoholic cocktails by Michael Franklin and Steven. My favourite was the one with mint, sutar solution, and some other things…not sure what they were….

Also, again a big thank you to Sarah Hanna and Reamonn Bateman for another well put together event. There were two v cool Maltese MCs and as usual a very friendly and happy crowd.

We might be seeing something of the live lounge sound machine at the annual gathering at Cleeve House in August.

the first act...setting standards

Chris on the mic

I managed last night to get along to the 3rd open mic night organised by Sarah Hanna in conjunction with beeseemedia. Chieko came with me. Well worth it. Here are a couple of clips with more available on the familyfireplace youtube page.

Here is a beautiful acapella of a Christian song:

…and I always like Niall’s lyrics:

A Japanese artist:

Just want to let you enjoy some great live music courtesy of Sarah H and Reamonn B’s open mic night at Lancaster Gate in the Livingstone Room. Really nice crowd and some quality performances. Sarah made everyone feel at home and I think I actually relaxed, which is rare for me….

Here is Niall with “on the rocks”:

…and here is Aancod with “home”:

…and one more from Aancod: “My Sacrifice” by Creed.

And by popular demand here is another little clip from last night: Geneva and Chigo singing the song from Juno. Must have been one of cutest songs of the night….especially with the Maltese pronounciation of 1000 as “tousand”.

If you like grainy clips you can go to http://www.youtube.com/user/familyfireplace for more with a few little pieces from the LG debating society too.