James Townend playing Thomas in the 2013 stage production of Risen!
“Love is Patient, Love is Kind” from CD “Love is the Way” featuring Lucy Stimpson on vocals, Ross Gill on guitar. Arranged and produced by John Hodgkinson
My very special friend Bob Milliken, known as Rob to some and affectionately as Mr Mill to hundreds of Crofton School students had, together with his dad and Rev. Michael Christian- Edwards, been instrumental in me becoming a Christian (see blogs March 27th and April 3rd) Bob is a Trustee of our charity Mustard Seed Songs and six years ago was Best Man when I married Caroline (Miss Bocking to Crofton students.) Bob retired from Crofton last year and on September 20th we are having a party at the Fernham Hall, Fareham to celebrate his retirement together with the 40th Anniversary of Crofton School. All those connected with Crofton are invited. Tickets are on sale from July 1st and details can be found on my Facebook page.
Anyway I remember being in the school minibus for some reason and asking Bob what our second album should be called and he replied “Love is the Way.” In last week’s blog I talked about one of the album’s songs “Out of the Depths” and the week before I described how its last track “Great and Marvellous” came about. The song featured this week is another from “Love is the Way” – “Love is Patient, Love is Kind” and it is dedicated to my good friend James Kennedy who on Saturday is marrying his beautiful bride Leanne in Romsey Abbey. I have been given the great honour of reading at their wedding ceremony from 1 Corinthians 13 which is, of course Love is patient love is kind. It does not anger it does not boast…………… I would like to take this opportunity to wish them every possible happiness together.
My old mate John Hodgkinson arranged, recorded and produced the song and I have to say it really is his “piece de resistance.”
At the time “Love is the Way” was recorded we were producing more and more Mustard Seed concerts (see blog May 25th.) In one we were raising money for two ex -Crofton students – Jez Field and Clare Townend who were both off to Kenya to work voluntarily for Tearfund. I mentioned this in that May 25th blog and also explained that James Townend, Clare’s brother sung at that concert and that later I would tell you the story – well here is what happened:
Ever year at Crofton Mr Mill would organise a Charities Week and one of the fund raising events was an “Unplugged Karaoke.” I was sitting in the audience next to Lucy Stimpson when James Townend came on and sang “ Walking in Memphis.” It was fantastic and at the end Lucy and me instantly rose as one to give James a standing ovation as did the rest of the audience.
When it came to putting together a Mustard Seed Concert programme to support Jez and Clare I thought it would be a great idea if James sang – after all it was his sister that we were raising money for. I chose a song I had made up that I thought would suit his voice “You are my Rock.” Anyway to cut a long story short it was just not happening for James- however right at the last minute I had the idea of asking him to sing “Walking in Memphis” instead – when he did it sounded great so I then suggested he just sing “ You are my Rock” in the same way. James was reluctant as he was “putting on a voice” to sing “Memphis” and he thought that it would be dishonest if he did the same for “You are my Rock.” I assured him that this was not the case and he ended up giving a great performance.
James would then have been 16 then and although I stayed in touch with his family who went to Holy Rood Church I lost contact with James himself. However I was discussing our musical “Risen!” with my dear friend Dr Graham Giles and the fact that we needed some singers for a forthcoming production. Unbeknown to me Graham had recently been chatting to James who had just seen the film version of Les Miserables and so felt inspired to get involved with a musical himself. When Graham told me this my mind went back some 12 years to when James sang ”Walking in Memphis” and so James and me met at Holy Rood church and he sang me the part of Cleopas from Risen! which I had earmarked for him. However he told me that he had also practiced another song from Risen!- one sung by the disciple Thomas. I thought that I might as well hear it and when I did I was speechless – it was so emotional and powerful. So the part of Thomas has become James’s own- he has sung it for the last two Risen! Easter Sunday performances and also sings it on our forthcoming double Risen! CD. The 2013 Risen production included a number of professional singers and they all thought that James was professional as well! When you hear him on the Risen! CD you will understand why.
So what came after “Love is the Way?” Answer “Uplifted” but more of that next week.