Stuart Townend

More dates for solo tour

Thanks to all of you who have attended one of the solo events I've been doing throughout this year. Starting in Walthamstow with Doug Williams, then Connah's Quay, then a couple of dates in Glasgow, Cleethorpes, Muswell Hill, then last week in Barcombe - it's been great fun to get around and meet a lot of people in a lot of different parts of the UK.

There are several dates coming up very shortly, and I thought it would be good to let people know (a little late in the day I know, sorry), in case one was near you and you fancied coming along!

On Wednesday I am at St John's, Stoke Road, Guildford, although I have been told this is now sold out. However, I think other events may still have tickets. They are:

Fri 13th June, British Energy Theatre, Gloucester (philipgent@aol.com)

Sat 14th June, All Saints Church, Newmarket - SOLD OUT

Thur 19th June, The Grove Theatre, Dunstable (www.grovetheatre.co.uk)

Fri 20th June, Cripps Theatre, Northampton School, Northampton (kate2962@aol.com)

Please get in touch with the organisers to check about tickets before you come - I know there is limited availability for some events.

Now available - the new live album!

The exciting news is that the new live album is now available from this site! "There is a hope - live worship from Ireland" arrived at my door earlier today, and is available for purchase. Simply go to the "Stuart's albums" section on the right of the page, find the "add to basket" button below the review of the album, and pay either through your PayPal account if you have one, or with a credit card if you don't. (You can check what's in your basket on the main page towards the bottom left of the screen.)

It's actually not yet available in the shops, so this is a special opportunity to get your copy early!

(CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)

I've also loaded up some audio of a few of the tracks, so you can get an idea of what it sounds like. And when you get a copy, drop me a line to let me know what you think.

The DVD of the recording will also shortly be available, but there have been a few last minute editing problems, so that won't be available for a couple of weeks. But I'll let you know when it's ready.

"There is a hope" CD/DVD due out in February

As some of you will know, I got the opportunity to record a new live album and DVD in November. We hired the Riverside Theatre, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, for two nights, and recorded 14 songs, many of which were being performed for the first time.

Why Northern Ireland? Well, although I've made Brighton my home for the last 20+ years, I have been making regular visits to the north coast of Northern Ireland over the last few years, not least to lead worship at the annual New Horizon event, and I have to say it's become something of a second home to me. And the Riverside Theatre was the perfect venue to shoot a video - although it seats 300, there's a nice, intimate feel to the place.

I was privileged to have a great band with me - Andrew Small (drums), Kevan Frost (bass), Matt Weeks (guitar, trombone, flugel horn), Lawrence Johnson, Maria Martin and Ruth Waldron (bvs), Julian Ferraretto (violin), Troy Donockley (whistles, uilleann pipes), and Mark Edwards (keys, accordion) as arranger and MD.

I'm delighted with the way the album has turned out. A couple of the news songs in particular feel very strong to me - "Salvation's Song" (co-written with Andrew), and the title track, "There is a hope" (co-written with Mark), and I'm looking forward to seeing how they are received by local churches.

Both the CD and the DVD will be available for purchase shortly on this site, so watch this space.

New 'Best Of' album just released

I'm pleased to be able to tell you that Kingsway has just released a huge new compilation album, containing 31 live recordings taken from a number of different worship conferences. It's available from this website, as well as from your local Christian bookshop, and I'll be taking it with me to the various events I'm doing this summer.

For more info, check out the (very kind) review from Andrew Sutton in the "Stuart's albums" section; and to purchase, just click on the "Buy now" button you will find there.

Also... I'm planning to record a brand new live album and DVD this September, with a whole load of new songs (some of which haven't been written yet... I'm afraid...). We're actually doing it at the Riverside Theatre, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, and if you want tickets for the event, they are available from the venue. The album should be out at the end of the year.

I'd appreciate your prayers over the next couple of months as I seek inspiration for some new songs.

Coming to a church near you?

Some of you know I was involved in a short tour last autumn with Lou Fellingham and Phatfish, which was great fun and seemed to go really well. I'm looking to do another series of events again this autumn, this time performing solo in a more informal low-key atmosphere - more Personal Worship than Monument to Mercy!!

The evening will be a mixture of worship, performance, sharing, prayer and informal teaching.

The available dates are between 28th September and 14th October, and I'm currently looking for churches or organisations that could organise and host such an event. So if you're interested, and are confident you could gather an audience of 250 people or more, please drop me an email, and I'll give you more details.

(Weekends tend to get quickly booked up, so if you thought you could run something on a weekday, that would be particularly helpful.)

Hear the tracks

Just to let you know, following requests to hear sample tracks of the albums mentioned in the "Stuart's albums" section, I've now worked out how to do it!

Right now you can hear clips from several of the "Monument to Mercy" tracks, and over the next few days I hope to do the same on the other featured albums. Hope this helps you make a choice about the albums you might be interested in.

Also, "Monument to Mercy" can now be purchased as a DOWNLOAD on Kingsway's Mission Worship site for £9.99. Single tracks are also available on the kingswaysongs.com website.

Happy New Year!...

...I'm sorry it's a little belated! I trust you had a refreshing break over Christmas, and that 2007 will be a fruitful and rewarding year for you.

I thought I'd briefly update you on some new projects and dates that are coming up...

First, I'm planning with Kingsway a new 50 song songbook of my stuff. What will make it slightly different is that the songs will include full piano arrangement with separate melody line (I'll explain the thinking on this in a moment). It will also include all the songs from the "Monument to Mercy" album, with piano parts as close to the recording as I can get them!

Brighton gig

Well, we managed to pull it off! Over 70 musicians and singers, the whole "Monument to Mercy" album performed live, with string orchestra, brass band, choir, grand piano, tubular bells, air raid siren (a sample, I have to admit, although we did go on ebay to see if we could buy a real one!)... it was quite a  night. Plus a terrific string arrangement of "In Christ alone" to round the evening off, created by the very talented Patrick Harrex.

The whole evening was an amazing experience for me. Not only was it a privilege to have so many talented and committed people  working so hard to make  it work; but to have the opportunity of sharing the songs (and the gospel) with non-church people was very exciting.

Thanks need to go to far too many people to mention here! Suffice to say. the team was incredible, and I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Dave Fellingham, who had the vision and courage to make this incredibly ambitious project work - and to Mark Edwards, whose musical talent never ceases to amaze me.

NEXT BIG DATE!

Well, our short tour came to an end last night at Alton, where we had a great time with the folks there, who came from various parts of Hampshire, Sussex, and further afield. The night before we were in Wrexham, where we played to a full house of over 800. A huge thank you to all who were involved, especially the event organisers, Chris on sound and the two Sams on lights. It's also been a really fun time meeting and worshipping with lots of new people. So if you managed to get along to one of the gigs, thanks for coming! If not... well, it's actually not too late...

On Saturday 25th November, at CCK, Brighton (my home church), we are doing a special event where we will be performing the whole of the "Monument to Mercy" album with string orchestra, brass band and choir! It's aimed in part at unchurched people (there won't be any preaching, but I'll talk and share my faith a little between songs), but all are welcome. Lou Fellingham will be playing support.

Tickets are at the ridiculously low price of £5, but because of the orchestra, the venue will only hold around 450 people, so get your tickets early. Visit the website www.cck.org.uk to purchase tickets online, or phone the church office (01273 747687).

See you there!

Stuart Townend

Swindon gig

On Saturday we did the second concert in our "Stu and Lou" tour (with Lou Fellingham). It was a great evening, again sold out (350 people), and although the venue was smaller than Chessington, there was still a wonderful atmosphere, and people really went for it as we worshipped together in the second half of the gig.

We have a great team working with us on the tour. Chris Jones is on sound (we worked with him at the Brighton Leaders conference in Brighton), and Sam Tamplin is doing lights. These guys, together with the Phatfish band (with Dan Boreham on electric guitar), have really helped to make it look and sound special, without distracting from the dynamic of worship that is so important to us. And we're already getting reports from the two gigs of people's lives really being impacted by the Spirit of God as we worship and share.

So we are very grateful to God, grateful to Swindon Family Church for hosting us, and we hope to see you all in Streatham, Wrexham or Alton in the next couple of weeks! (Remaining dates and contact details are at the bottom of this page.)

Stuart Townend