The Story Behind the 'Give Me Hope' CD
by Graham

The inspiration for writing the song Give Me Hope came after Alison and I went along to a concert last December. The concert was organised to raise money for the Helen Rollason Heal Cancer Charity. The whole evening was superb but I was particularly impressed by the Chelmsford Citadel Songsters, a fifty piece choir led by Joanne Schultz.

It occurred to me that if it were possible, a great way to raise money for such a worthwhile cause would be to record a song with my band, The Redwood Band and feature the choir.

The song was written in early January and the title Give Me Hope seemed to sum up the important work the Charity does. My wife Alison had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour in September 2004 and we were introduced to some of the facilities they can provide offering help and hope to patients and their families that have been affected in some way by cancer.

After putting the idea to Joanne she agreed to arrange the choir and set the wheels in motion.

It soon became apparent that technically we would have to record the song in two parts, a band part and then the choir and finally mix the two parts together.

I called upon the services of Dave Booth and Sarah Springett of local band Alonme who kindly offered the use of their recording studio to record the band part. This we did on a warm sunny Sunday back in July.

We wanted to record as much as we could in one take to capture a live sound with as few overdubs as possible and also to save time in the studio. We had a bit of luck on our side and in one day the band part was complete.

Recording the choir however would not be quite so easy. We needed to find a venue large enough to accommodate fifty people and the recording equipment. I also needed to find someone who was willing to take on the task of recording this. Again luck was on our side as I managed to get the Little Waltham Sports and Social Club to let me have the use of their hall and freelance sound engineer John Reynolds offered his services to record the choir. In one evening in September after a couple of run throughs, the choir part was also complete.

We were able to get local photographer Douglas Blanks to offer his services and capture a shot for use on the cover of a the CD and in October after an anxious mixing session the song Give Me Hope was finished.

The total amount of time taken to write, record and mix this song was probably less than three days but because of the complexity involved in such a project it has taken best part of a year.The CD will now be available from December the 9 th with all the money raised going to the Helen Rollason Heal Cancer Charity.

This whole project has been possible due to many people offering their time and talent for such a great cause based here in Essex . My thanks go to everyone who took part in this project I am sure it will be a worthwhile effort.

Copies are available for £3 plus post and packing from the BBC Essex Helpline. 01245 348348.
Or they can be picked up from BBC Essex reception, 198 New London Road, Chelmsford, CM1 9XB.