Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Ray Lee and this is the Gillingham Podcast
Speaker 1: for anyone living in the Gillingham and Spa area.
Speaker 2: I'm talking to award winning vocal coach and founder of
Speaker 2: the Rocket Choir Mark James. When did you start the choir?
Speaker 3: Mark?
Speaker 4: I think I started it in two thousand and eighteen
Speaker 4: Septemb twenty eighteen, So yes, with the notes, this is
Speaker 4: our eighth year.
Speaker 2: No lovely yea And what's your musical background?
Speaker 4: Well, I was the kid at school that was told
Speaker 4: not to bother do music because it's not my thing.
Speaker 4: So I just grew up. Basically, I went to see
Speaker 4: lame Is when I was eight years old, and when
Speaker 4: that's what I want to do for a living, That's
Speaker 4: what I want to be when I grow up. And
Speaker 4: then is that whole thing of if you don't have
Speaker 4: the right people sort of like showing you how to
Speaker 4: do it and going from there. So I didn't get
Speaker 4: into it until I was really late, and it wasn't
Speaker 4: until I was about mid twenties when I started doing
Speaker 4: amateur dramatics and I went for a role and they went, oh,
Speaker 4: he's all right, you can sing a bit, which I'd
Speaker 4: always loved singing and I've always done some bits and pieces,
Speaker 4: but yeah, I went from sort of like doing like
Speaker 4: amateur dramatics to people going, oh, can you come and
Speaker 4: do some stuff for us, and that kind of that
Speaker 4: kind of work from there, and then people would offer
Speaker 4: me a bit of paid work. And then I was
Speaker 4: doing a gig with a duo that I knew, which
Speaker 4: I met on line, and they asked who I trained with,
Speaker 4: and I said, well, I haven't trained at all, and
Speaker 4: they said, well, we need to get you training because
Speaker 4: if that's where you are without training, we need to.
Speaker 4: So I then went to go and see somebody in yoga,
Speaker 4: and I trained privately and I qualified as a musical
Speaker 4: theater singer, so I got diplomas in musical theater. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: he passed away really soon after I got those, so
Speaker 4: I went through other bits and pieces and one of
Speaker 4: the things that he told me was to always make
Speaker 4: sure you keep on training. So I kept on training
Speaker 4: and I found a specialist voice college. So I then
Speaker 4: went on and trained to be a singing teacher, like
Speaker 4: properly because my kids were young at the time, so
Speaker 4: I couldn't go out and do the performance side of things.
Speaker 4: And I got loads of qualifications in that through the
Speaker 4: Voice College when I then became a tutor with them
Speaker 4: as well, and then it just sort of like snowballed
Speaker 4: from there.
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 4: I then got some TV gigs and I was working
Speaker 4: on TV, and then after that, when my kids got
Speaker 4: older and Smellia I went off and I went off
Speaker 4: and started doing my own performing thing as well and
Speaker 4: running the choirs.
Speaker 3: So it's I've been a gradual build.
Speaker 4: It's one of those things that once you're if you
Speaker 4: if you've got music, or if you've got that creative
Speaker 4: itch inside you. It's not like an office job. If
Speaker 4: you do an office job, you can do an office
Speaker 4: job and you'd sort of come home. You put away
Speaker 4: when you're When you're creative, there's something in you that itches,
Speaker 4: and if you're not doing it, you will always find
Speaker 4: some way to do that. So I think that's what
Speaker 4: it was, even though at school it was something I
Speaker 4: always wanted to do. And unfortunately again when we when
Speaker 4: I went to secondary school after primary school, there was
Speaker 4: no outlet. There was no music department of such, there
Speaker 4: was definitely no drama department. It was an all boys school.
Speaker 4: It was a comprehensive. We had all failed eleven pluses,
Speaker 4: so there was no sort of like way to find
Speaker 4: where that that expression yeah would come from. So it's
Speaker 4: sort of like all led from there, if you like.
Speaker 4: So there was always I was always looking for that,
Speaker 4: those ways to be able to to get that, to
Speaker 4: get that sort of creativity out, and it just eventually
Speaker 4: managed to come out, and I managed to find a
Speaker 4: way of being able to make a living from it
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 2: So how many members you've got now with Rocket?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: So we've just opened our fourth choir in Sturmus and
Speaker 4: Newton on a Monday, So along with the other three,
Speaker 4: which is Gillingham, Blandford and Wincanton, we're up to around
Speaker 4: about one hundred and eighty six members now, which when
Speaker 4: we started on the very first night we had forty
Speaker 4: four people walking through the door, and then we had
Speaker 4: regular numbers of about thirty, which I thought was really
Speaker 4: really good. So to be where we are now is
Speaker 4: is yeah amazing, amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah amazing. Is it? Is it a serious choir? No?
Speaker 3: Not all No, I don't do serious no.
Speaker 4: So it's it's the idea of Rocket is it's supposed
Speaker 4: to be there for anyone that wants to come along
Speaker 4: and enjoy music and anyone that wants to just have
Speaker 4: a bit of a laugh with it. We put the
Speaker 4: emphasis on having a bit fun. They still make a
Speaker 4: really good, really good sound, and everyone will it's really
Speaker 4: hard to be able to create that. But what we
Speaker 4: don't do is put the pressure on. Nobody gets shouted
Speaker 4: at for getting it wrong. Nobody will ever get told
Speaker 4: off if they get the words wrong or anything like that.
Speaker 4: And we also don't sort of like, we don't have
Speaker 4: this what serious choirs have, So we don't use sheet music.
Speaker 3: It's all used in guide tracks.
Speaker 4: So it's a way that anybody that wants to get
Speaker 4: involved can come along and get involved with and just
Speaker 4: have fun with it.
Speaker 2: And the choir has done quite a bit of charity work.
Speaker 3: Over the time.
Speaker 4: Don't like to talking about the charity work obviously, you know,
Speaker 4: or the charity work we've done.
Speaker 3: No, yeah, we have.
Speaker 4: I think we're coming close to now around about twenty
Speaker 4: thousand pounds that we've raised for charity.
Speaker 3: So yeah, So we we started.
Speaker 4: Off doing little bits and pieces, won't it When we
Speaker 4: first started for local causes like the local carnival and
Speaker 4: bits and pieces like that. So we did a concept
Speaker 4: for Ukraine and we we were really really sort of
Speaker 4: like stunned. We raised over a thousand poundful that I
Speaker 4: think it was, it was coming up to about nineteen
Speaker 4: hundred pounds we raised for that one in the end.
Speaker 3: And then after that, a year after that, there.
Speaker 4: Was the earthquake in Turkey, which obviously hit everyone, some
Speaker 4: people in the local community that were from Turkey, and
Speaker 4: we were sort of like talking to them, so we
Speaker 4: actually raised more money again and we ended up with
Speaker 4: about two and a half thousand pounds for the Turkey apial.
Speaker 4: So that's I've got everything going. And then unfortunately a
Speaker 4: few years ago one of our one of our choir
Speaker 4: members in Blamford lost his son who took his own life.
Speaker 4: Which one of the things I'm really really proud about
Speaker 4: with the choir is that they all support each other
Speaker 4: and everyone sort of comes together. There's no clicks, there's
Speaker 4: no bitchiness or anything like that. It is just one
Speaker 4: big sort of like group of people that comes together.
Speaker 4: Really yeah, and that that's across all choirs as well.
Speaker 4: So once we say you remember a rocket, you remember
Speaker 4: of all of rocket, not just one of the groups.
Speaker 4: So everyone sort of came together and we did this
Speaker 4: concert for in Ben's name, and for that one we
Speaker 4: did it for bad CO. We set a target of
Speaker 4: one thousand pounds for that one, and the idea is
Speaker 4: that for every three hundred pound we made it got us,
Speaker 4: it got us one person through counseling. At the at
Speaker 4: the end of the night, by the time that everything
Speaker 4: had come in, we'd raised over three thousand pounds. So
Speaker 4: that was when we put it into that's ten people
Speaker 4: that went through through counseling because of that, and so
Speaker 4: that for us was was, you know, set us on
Speaker 4: a journey. And we've done other bits and pieces since then.
Speaker 4: Some of the choir have gone off and done other
Speaker 4: charity work for it as well on their own. And
Speaker 4: then it it came to two three years ago we
Speaker 4: did a charity ceed for bad CO, which actually the
Speaker 4: choir funded themselves, so they paid for all the rights
Speaker 4: of the music and everything else that we needed, so
Speaker 4: that when it went on sale, all the profit from
Speaker 4: the charity from the sales of the CD went directly
Speaker 4: the charity. And again that one raised over one thousand
Speaker 4: pounds just just.
Speaker 3: From the CDs.
Speaker 4: So yeah, so that and then, you know, and then
Speaker 4: we've just always sort of like found charities that have
Speaker 4: meant stuff to the choir and they've been able to
Speaker 4: attach themselves to it, which has made us want to
Speaker 4: do more for it. Things like Julia's house when unfortunately
Speaker 4: my cousin who was really she was she wasn't even
Speaker 4: a teenager and she passed away, we did a race
Speaker 4: night and raised money for her. And more recently we
Speaker 4: unfortunately lost one of our choir members to her heart condition,
Speaker 4: and she was really really keen to talk about Cardiact
Speaker 4: risk and the young or cry the charity. And so
Speaker 4: in a couple of weeks on the eleventh of April,
Speaker 4: we've got a charity concert for or for Claire.
Speaker 3: It is called the.
Speaker 4: Win Canton Together, and it's the Claire Language Memorial Concert.
Speaker 4: And we've got all the all the different groups in
Speaker 4: win Canton coming together, like the Silver Band, We've got
Speaker 4: the we've got the Youth Theater, we've got the Core Society.
Speaker 4: So they're all coming together to basically raise money for
Speaker 4: christ so that we can do in her memory what
Speaker 4: she wanted to happen, which is which is really you know,
Speaker 4: which is really really lovely.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to play a track now from the Charity.
Speaker 5: C D.
Speaker 6: Don't happen. They like there's no mony that.
Speaker 3: Ve so.
Speaker 6: They take.
Speaker 5: Let's just thinking about being out without the same way
Speaker 5: that same sad a ring this is sounds sound, so
Speaker 5: they don't like using silent.
Speaker 6: Let's me know that song you saying, don't say as
Speaker 6: you're a fan, you don't not tap nothing for you.
Speaker 6: They'll not tea the place they are all people like
Speaker 6: you that a table save the south, just so that
Speaker 6: would be something inside.
Speaker 5: You'll be a lot to the robing have been robby
Speaker 5: this sasside beside, so they're gonna be a taking sound.
Speaker 5: Ask me now that so say say you know not
Speaker 5: same as mask thereck the kay were locking away the
Speaker 5: love ways so sid show itself.
Speaker 6: M music inside as we got that song.
Speaker 5: Writing say no sames you shot side.
Speaker 2: That was don't just sing it rocket from the Charity
Speaker 2: c D. Rocket around the Christmas tree and that was
Speaker 2: in a bad cot And I understand it's still available
Speaker 2: on your website.
Speaker 4: It is Yeah, you can go on to uh yeah,
Speaker 4: should I do my best radio bos good? So it's
Speaker 4: www dot rocket choir dot com. That's r O K
Speaker 4: I T Rocket choir dot com.
Speaker 3: Sorry, more recently, you've.
Speaker 2: Done a couple of flash mobs at some wedding fairs
Speaker 2: we have.
Speaker 3: They went well.
Speaker 4: I don't know if the people listening will understand what
Speaker 4: a flash mob is, because it could sound a little
Speaker 4: bit sort of like wrong. A flash mob is basically
Speaker 4: when you have one person starting to sing, which nobody's expecting,
Speaker 4: and then all of a sudden, more and more people
Speaker 4: turn up and then you end up with a room
Speaker 4: full of people singing. So we did one at the
Speaker 4: wedding fair in Stone It's Newton at the Exchange and
Speaker 4: that one was the first one that well, we've we've
Speaker 4: done them before pre pandemic, and we did one when
Speaker 4: we first started in win Canton at a Christmas fair,
Speaker 4: but this these are the biggest ones we've done. So
Speaker 4: the one that we did at the Exchange actually started
Speaker 4: at the bottom and the bottom floor and we worked
Speaker 4: our way right the way through the exchange, up the stairs,
Speaker 4: into the cafe and then into the big theater. So
Speaker 4: we started off with one soloist and by the time
Speaker 4: that finished we had over one hundred people singing in
Speaker 4: the main theater. So that was that was phenomenal listening
Speaker 4: to that and then this Saturday or this Sunday just gone,
Speaker 4: we were asked to do it again at the Crown
Speaker 4: Hotel in Blamford, and again it was one person started
Speaker 4: singing and by the end of that one we had
Speaker 4: about eighty eighty to ninety people singing at the end,
Speaker 4: which is always great. The only people I feel sorry
Speaker 4: for are the traders because all these traders suddenly see
Speaker 4: the place getting busy, thinking they're going to have loads
Speaker 4: and loads of business coming in, and then everyone starts
Speaker 4: singing at them and then they just walk away so
Speaker 4: they see their profits. That I die away straight away,
Speaker 4: But now all the other people seem to enjoy it
Speaker 4: and had.
Speaker 3: A bit of a laugh.
Speaker 2: So you got some gigs coming up in the summer. Yes,
Speaker 2: Shafty Fringe again.
Speaker 3: Yeah we are. We're back at the Fringe. So we again.
Speaker 4: Last year we were raising money for badco. We raised
Speaker 4: two hundred and fifty pounds for Bacco last year. This
Speaker 4: year we're going to go back. We haven't chosen the
Speaker 4: charity yet, so we'll do it again for charity and
Speaker 4: we tend to use that as a bit of a
Speaker 4: warm up for our summer concert, so we get where
Speaker 4: the choirs can come together sing some of the songs,
Speaker 4: and then it's the week after we'll be doing our
Speaker 4: main summer concert at the Exchange again in Stuminster at
Speaker 4: the end of July. That's the end of July. That's right,
Speaker 4: it's the last Saturday July. Last year we had ninety
Speaker 4: people on the stage singing, and this year we're hoping
Speaker 4: to have well, we're hoping to have in excess of
Speaker 4: one hundred people all singing together to go from there,
Speaker 4: and we've got an amazing special act coming down. We've
Speaker 4: got opera Leiley who are a comedy opera ukulele duo
Speaker 4: who don't There's just no real way to describe what
Speaker 4: they do. You've got to see it to believe it.
Speaker 4: But at the same time, they are phenomenally talented and
Speaker 4: really really funny is that they're those type of people
Speaker 4: that will make you just absolutely cry with laughter, but
Speaker 4: at the same time will make you go wow. They're
Speaker 4: brilliant with their voices as well. So you know, both
Speaker 4: George and Manda, you know, friends of mine, and every
Speaker 4: time I hear them sing and perform, I always just
Speaker 4: hate them because they're too good.
Speaker 2: So do you have you any ambitions now for the Rocket.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's always ambitions. I mean I've never I've never
Speaker 4: really set a plan of where I want to be
Speaker 4: because I find the plans can get dismissed or they
Speaker 4: can get pushed down, and if you do that, then
Speaker 4: you you can get a little bit disheartened by it.
Speaker 4: What I what I like to do is look for opportunities.
Speaker 4: So I look for where the best opportunities are, and
Speaker 4: when I see an opportunity, we run with it. And
Speaker 4: so I think a lot more performing Definitely, We've got
Speaker 4: more and more people coming in now, so it gives
Speaker 4: us the opportunity to be able to do more parts,
Speaker 4: more complicated songs. We've We've got a really good reputation
Speaker 4: in the area for fun, you know, for fun songs,
Speaker 4: and forgetting an audience involved. If anyone comes to a
Speaker 4: Rocket concert for the first time, they don't really know
Speaker 4: what they're letting themselves in for. Because it's not just
Speaker 4: a case that you will sit down in the audience
Speaker 4: and watch people singing at you, you know, for two hours.
Speaker 4: The audience will get involved. We want people to have fun,
Speaker 4: we want them to be part of the choir as well.
Speaker 4: At one point. At last summer concert, we had an
Speaker 4: audience of three hundred people and we turned the three
Speaker 4: hundred people in the audience plus one hundred people on
Speaker 4: the stage into one big choir. So it's really the
Speaker 4: ambition is really just that and just keep on going
Speaker 4: and spreading it as much as we can and giving
Speaker 4: as much joy to people in the local community from
Speaker 4: you know, Gillingham, Wincanton, Blamford, sturmuson Newton. Just give everyone
Speaker 4: the opportunity that wants to take part in music. Just
Speaker 4: you know, go from there and that doesn't matter. Seventy
Speaker 4: percent of the people that come along to Rockets say
Speaker 4: they can't sing. That's the first thing they say to
Speaker 4: me when they come in, Oh, you know, I can't sing.
Speaker 4: And then when they suddenly realize what they can do
Speaker 4: when they're surrounded by a group of people and they
Speaker 4: have that, they have that safety in.
Speaker 3: Numbers, you know.
Speaker 4: And that's what Rocket's about. That's what I love about
Speaker 4: my job. It's taking somebody that says, oh, I can't
Speaker 4: do that, and then going you just did. That's that's
Speaker 4: the best part. So I would say that the the
Speaker 4: the aim for Rocket going forward is to make more
Speaker 4: people feel that way, biant, because that's that's what it's
Speaker 4: all about.
Speaker 2: So anybody interested enjoining the best way to get in.
Speaker 3: Touch, so you can go on to our website.
Speaker 4: So it's www dot Rocket Choir dot com. Yes, so
Speaker 4: you can get to go on there. You can have
Speaker 4: a little bit of a look to see what we're
Speaker 4: what we're about. You can also find us on Facebook
Speaker 4: and also on Instagram as well, so there's the main
Speaker 4: Rocket Choirs pages, but we've also got as well. There's
Speaker 4: on the Facebook pages. There's one for each of the
Speaker 4: different choirs. So if you want to see what's going
Speaker 4: on with that, or if you want to you can
Speaker 4: just turn up on the night, come along and take part.
Speaker 4: It's seven pounds a night, so it's not expensive.
Speaker 3: Pays you go.
Speaker 4: You don't have to come every week because I know
Speaker 4: that sometimes life gets in the way. It's absolutely fine.
Speaker 4: It's just about coming along, finding your voice, having a
Speaker 4: bit of fun, making a few friends and having a giggle.
Speaker 2: Well that's great, Well, thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 3: I promise, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: I having by.
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