In June of 2005 the congregation of St Nicholas Parish Church Arundel (click to visit the Website) were asked to fill out a talent sheet, stating what they could do or what they wanted to do or had done. One of the questions related to the ability to play a musical instrument.
After the sheets were returned it was discovered by Sarah Plumley, the organist at St Nicholas, that about six of the members had in the earlier years played in Rock bands. She asked them if they could form a band to do the odd piece here and there.
A few weeks later the band met at Robert Mechlans house, just to see what would happen. It became obvious after about ten minutes of a twelve bar jamm that they had the makings of a band. It was surprising to discover that several band members had played professionally at sometime during their earlier years and at some very celebrated rock venues like the Marquee Club in Waldor Street, London Theatres, the Brighton Festival and the Daily Express Pop Concerts at the Wembley Arena either with other bands or backing well known artists of the day to mention but a few.
It was suggested that the band try and get a few numbers ready for the church concert in July and the band made its debut to a captive audience later that month at St Nicholas. The audience appeared to enjoy it immensely. The band agreed to continue, However, the next engagement was not going to be so easy. They were asked to play at the church fete in the town square on August Bank Holiday Monday with all the acoustic problems of playing outside and with an audience that would be mobile and could easily walk away.
A program was put together of well known and popular rock numbers that most people would know and the band was asked to play two sets of about forty minutes each, at 11 o’clock and 1 o’clock. The 1 o’clock set was so successful that they were asked to play a third and unscheduled set at about 3 o’clock. Those of you who were there will know that the 3 o’clock set almost stopped the traffic going through Arundel completely as about three hundred people had gathered around the War Memorial to watch and hear the band. That afternoon Arundel rocked! It was obvious that the band should carry on playing.
It is an assumption by most people that a rock band with attachments to a church is going to be a bit on the tame side. But, with music influences ranging from Steppenwolf to Dire Straits and Def Leppard to Eric Clapton, this band was going to be far from tame!
January saw an engagement at the Arundel Football Club This raised over £500 for charity and with everyone up on their feet, it was quite a sight. The evening started with Chris giving a finger blistering interpretation of Mark Knopfers ‘Sultans of Swing’, followed by Will’s harmonic version of Wet Wet Wet’s ‘Love is all around’. The evening finished with Gerry’s gritty rendition of the Mark Bolan classic ‘Get it on’, with John, the keyboard player standing on his chair and playing, it was more reminiscent of Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard and according to one observer, even the tables and chairs were dancing at the end.
The most recent performance was sold out a week before the band's appearance before a capacity crowd in St. Mary's Hall, Arundel. After the meal that had been provided, everyone was once again dancing and as the evening drew to a close it was clear that well over £1000 had been raised, to be split between Arundel Hospital and St. Nicholas Church.
Future engagements for the band include an invitation to play for Arundel’s twin parish, Stegaurach in Germany in July of 2006 to see if they can stop the traffic there and repeat the performance in the town square of Arundel in August.
The band, as far as rock bands go, with six members is quite large. It was discovered quite early that the band had good vocal ability which meant that it could play some of the more harmonic numbers as well as the usual single numbers. It is Arundel’s home grown rock band (all the members live in Arundel or the surrounding villages). It was also decided early on that the band would mainly donate any fees to suitable charities. So far they have raised a considerable sum of money for the charities.
The present line up consists of: John Prideaux – Keyboards, guitar vocals and musical director, Chris Monaghan and Gerry Kelsey – joint lead guitars and main rock vocals, Will Spurway – rhythm guitar and vocals, John Ward – bass guitar and backing vocals, Neville Bonner - Saxophone. Nigel Constable has taken over from Chris Grout-Smith who replaced Robert Melchin on drums, following his return to live in the USA.
If you wish to know more about the band or enquire about bookings, click here.
The content of this page is based on an article in the June 2006 edition of Arundel's magazine "The Bell".
