The Arundel Festival and a date in Haywards Heath are on the calendar for the Bexley Phoenix Choir this summer under their founder John MacKenzie.
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00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspaper. It's lovely
00:06this afternoon to speak to John Mackenzie of the Bexley Phoenix Choir. Now, John, you're
00:10bringing your choir on tour to Arundel and Hayward's Heath in August, and this is a choir
00:16that goes back a long time with you, doesn't it? So the predecessor as well. It's a choir
00:20you founded because you weren't able to walk away from the previous one.
00:24Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, I ran Bexley Phoenix Choir for 20 years. And when I finally
00:33came to retire in 2007, I couldn't bear to leave them.
00:38The youth choir, of course.
00:41The youth choir, yeah. So I said to those who were leaving the same time as me and some
00:47who'd left years before, how about, because most of them had gone on to university, how
00:53about we meet every holiday time and learn a programme and do a tour like we've always
00:58done? And they were up for it. And so we started in 2007, went on our first tour in 2008.
01:08And here we are 17 years later. Originally you thought give it five years, but clearly
01:13again you are failing to walk away from it. But the point is, you enjoy it, don't you?
01:19Absolutely. And I just feel that the love of music I have for myself, if I can impart
01:26that on to these youngsters and instil some of that into them, that'd be great. And so
01:33it is. And they're very, very loyal. There's one girl in particular who has been with me
01:40since 1987, when I first went to Bexley Music Centre. And she has been in my choir ever
01:48since then and done every tour that we've done.
01:51Oh, that's a fantastic record, isn't it? And just give a little idea of the programme
01:55that we can look forward to in August in Arendelle and Hayward's Heath. What sorts of things
02:01have you got coming up?
02:03Yes, well, what I usually do is to make a serious first half, sometimes church music,
02:13sometimes secular music, madrigals, early church music, going through romantic, classical
02:21romantic periods. And then in the second half, I lighten up and we do gospel stuff and things
02:29by the Beatles, things by Billy Joel, Carpenters. And we always end up with the rhythm of life.
02:42And it's great fun. But in Arendelle, we'll probably keep to a more sort of church music
02:52and serious music. We won't put in the Carpenters and the Beatles, stuff like that. And it's
03:00a shorter programme in the Cathedral. And we're there as part of the Arendelle Festival,
03:05actually.
03:07Brilliant. Well, lovely to meet you. Good to speak to you. And I hope you have great
03:12dates then in Arendelle and Hayward's Heath with the Bates Phoenix Choir. Thank you, John.
03:18Hayward's Heath is the Methodist Church on August the 17th at seven o'clock.
03:25Perfect. Thank you.