Well, we’re standing by to receive the boxes of shiny new CD’s this coming Thursday, and so are excited – this is the 7th album we’ve recorded, and the novelty never wears off.
We’ll be using the songs in the children’s programme at Revive next week. People who’ve heard a sneak preview of some of the tracks have given us a rave response so far. We’ve started to put the page together in the Albums section of the website, and will get some MP3 preview samples up soon, and add it to the online shop in a couple of weeks.

Our real hope for this CD is that it inspires prayer – among children, teenagers, and adults alike.

Well, so much for my resolve to post regularly about the progress of the recording, but it’s been a busy month, what with the world cup, Wimbledon, and a heat wave…

I’m really pleased with the way the songs have come out – Richard Swan has done a fantastic job with the arrangements, and there’s a wide variety of songs, styles, vocalists and musicians, making it a very eclectic CD, with the theme of prayer and hope running all the way through like a stick of rock.

One of the songs even features a prayer specially composed and recorded for us by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury!

The CD is being mastered at present, and then we’ll get it manufactured ready for a mini-launch at Revive, the Ichthus Bible Week which starts Aug 5, and then a proper launch sometime in the autumn. Of course details of how to order the CD will be appearing on the website soon.

Most of the tracks are finished instrumentally, and the vocal are well underway now, so the songs are really taking shape. There are songs from Chris Juby and Anju Ebanks, both of whom have done lead vocals for their tracks in the past few days, and sound really good.
The children’s choir is being recorded today and tomorrow, and they sound excellent – loads of character and enthusiasm!

Adult BV’s and more solos will happen this week, and so by this time next week, the vast majority of the recording will be done, and the mix will be next.

Well, in one of the most thrilling cup finals I can recall, West Ham were winning all the way, and would have won, except for the brilliance of Stephen Gerrard. The silver lining is that we are in Europe next season anyway, and if Gerrard plays like that for England, the World Cup is coming home in a few weeks time.

In the meanwhile, the roughs of some of the songs from iPray so far are sounding just great – one or two tracks are going in a dance/loop direction, which is something new for us, and many others will have a great live rock feel, which reflects what we do best “on the road”. There’s one song, “This is my prayer” that is going in a very choral direction which is exciting. Live drums were recorded today for 7 tracks. Watch this space.

We’ve finalised the list of songs for iPray, and Richard Swan is busy with pre-production arrangements, and his ideas so far are sounding great! With a wide range of songs from 5 different writers, we’re really excited about this project and I’ll post the song list soon. In the meanwhile, I’m typing this just before the FA Cup Final 2006, where my team, West Ham, are hoping to upset the odds and beat the hot favourites Liverpool. Come on the Hammers!

It’s been 18 months or so since we released “Get into the Word”, the first of the “Nuts and Bolts” series of themed resource CD’s for children and all-ages. So, it’s high time to get on with the second in the series…

Provisionally titled “iPray”, the theme will be (surprise surprise) prayer. As well as brand new songs, we’ll use some of the best songs from our 1999 release “Teach us to pray” (which is currently out of stock, but we’re always getting requests for it, so this new project will help fill that gap)

We’ll try to keep the blog fairly up to date with progress – the provisional plan is to write this month (April), record in May, mix in June, and release in July. But no promises yet – meeting deadlines is not always a strong point…