Raised voices

FOR a growing number of people, participating in group singing is a stress-busting, joyful event. That’s because in recent years, choirs have undergone something of a renaissance.

Gareth Malone’s BBC series has gone down a treat and has inspired thousands to join local organisations.

The Choir That Rocks introduces somebody else who believes in the power of singing – Caroline Redman Lusher.

Five years ago she founded Rock Choir, which is now the largest and most popular choir in the UK, with 150 rehearsals in 90 towns across the country and more than 8,000 members. It counts classical and current pop and rock hits among its repertoire.

The three-part series The Choir That Rocks charts its history to date and reveals some of the stories behind its participants, including Stef Connor, from North Yorkshire.

Lusher started performing professionally at the age of 15, is a gifted pianist and violinist, has appeared on the West End stage and spent time as a teacher. But her life changed forever when she came up with the idea that became Rock Choir.

“In 2005, I decided to quit my job as an A-level teacher to offer Rock Choir to the public,” she says. “I handed in my resignation, put my house on the line, left my pension and borrowed £1,000 from my Dad to buy a portable piano and PA system.

“I put a poster up in a local cafe suggesting that anyone who loved pop songs and wanted to sing with me should come along and try out Rock Choir – ‘no audition and no requirement to read music’.

My father and I put out 40 chairs and more than 70 adults arrived.

“Word of mouth seemed to dictate the rapid growth of Rock Choir and I was asked to set up rehearsals in the local towns Guildford and Godalming. Very soon I was receiving letters, cards and emails from people all across the UK asking if I would introduce Rock Choir to their community.”

And that’s exactly what she did.

She describes Rock Choir as “an experience; it offers pop, gospel and Motown singing to anyone who simply wants to sing.

“Rock Choir is about using the great pop songs of our time to make the public feel amazing. It’s a life-affirming formula of singing, entertainment, teaching, learning, nurturing and excitement.”

Lusher admits that now, she sees it more as a way of life than as a way to make a living. “Rock Choir has organically grown from the love of pop music and the desire to make people happy. I’m on a journey and now there are thousands of people on that journey with me. None of us view it as a business; it’s more of a life-affirming journey of bringing people together,” she says “Rock Choir is unique and it’s a culmination personally of everything I have ever done, learnt or experienced, coming together to provide something special for the UK.”

‘THE thing I love about fishing is the connection and the solitude,”

explains Robson Green. “I pretend to be someone else most of my life with make-up on, but with fishing, it’s how we used to live.”

Yes, when it comes to celebrity fishing shows, the Waterloo Road star seems to have cornered the market, and it seems there’s plenty of demand for the series Extreme Fishing with Robson Green – At the Ends of the Earth.

“The viewing figures have gone through the roof,” Green explains. “Discovery I think have just bought it, hence they want me to do more and more, so it’s kind of a little thing I can dip into every year for a couple of months.”

In the last of the current series, Green concludes his adventure in Argentina and heads to the Parana river. He lays baited lines for the largest freshwater fish in the world – the short-tailed river stingray – before using a curried-fruit lure to catch a pacu for supper. He also visits the San Juan Poriahu ranch to fish for piranha in the surrounding lagoons.