From the Messenger, July-August 2005 edition:-
It seems so long ago when we first decided to ask Noel if he would be able to fit Salem into his schedule.
We needed to be flexible on the date and it was changed a couple of times before we confirmed 5th June.
Noel was touring America in May and after our concert and a concert in Bridlington the day before us, he was off
to Germany twice in June. July was left fairly clear, probably for holidays, then off to Slovakia in
August and a tour of the USA in September. So you see fitting little old us in was tricky.
I would like to think it was my initial letter explaining about our 200th Sunday School
anniversary that persuaded him to come but I acknowledge that a higher power than me had something to do with it!
Ticket sales started very slowly and with only a month to go I was getting extremely worried as to whether we would actually cover the cost of staging the event. With so many other aspects to worry about I was fast becoming a nervous wreck.
With a week to go I thought I would send an e-mail to Noel's office to clarify a few points, i.e what
time were they arriving, how many would there be, what food should we provide, how long would the service be,
would they be selling merchandise, where should this be, did they need a map, what songs would they sing,
could we suggest some favourites, did they want our P.A. for announcements,
could we use their website for our programme?????
So many questions to worry about.
The question I was probably least worried about was the one regarding the P.A. system, although
I did naively wonder why we couldn't use his sound system for announcements.
The e-mail reply that came back was a bit of a bombshell!! Apparently they only bring instruments
with them, - all the amplification systems were to be supplied by the host venue....
I went very cold and my worry turned to panic.
What could we do? Christof, my contact at their office, was very helpful and suggested where we could hire it from.
It would only be around £900 and we had a full week to arrange it. Aaaaaarrrggghhhhh!
We were already struggling to meet the appearance fee from the ticket sales and I was pretty sure that Geoff would have noticed another invoice for £900!
It was at this stage I called for the cavalry. Andrew Stringer came to the rescue and spent most of the
preceeding week sorting out the mixing desk, the foldback speakers and all the things electrical
which Neol needed to lead our service. I think it is fair to say that without Andrew the show would
not have gone on, and we all owe him a huge vote of thanks for all that he did.
Well the day arrived so fast it was untrue. I'm sure that there weren't as many days in that particular week as usual.
David Spriggs led the morning worship and we then waited for Noel to arrive after the service.
Fortunately he didn't keep us waiting too long and I was so relieved to see him drive into the the car park at 12:20.
I could stop worrying now - or could I? Would the PA be ok,would the food be ok,
would more people turn up on the door? Well as you know everything went great. Andrew's PA was 1st class,
185 people turned up as we worshipped God together with Noel leading us in his own special way.
I hope that everyone enjoyed the day and felt the love and the passion that Noel has for Jesus. Let us pray that he
goes on writing new songs and bringing more to know the Lord. As I said in my introduction, Noel has been an inspriation
to me and has given me the will to stand before people to sing the songs that speak of our love for the Lord.
Don't forget, as we tool that leap of faith to host the concert, so has Noel. The Olympic stadium in Berlin is booked for Saturday 15th July 2006 with the contracts now signed. In that stadium which has heard so many celebrations for sporting champions, wouldn't it be great to fill the stadium with all mouths singing praises to our Champion of the World, Jesus. Plenty of cheap flights, see you there!
PS. I went in to the lounge after the sound check only to find Noel being filmed by his son on his phone. On asking why, it appears that they have the same 3pc suite as one we have and the gas fire is also the same as theirs at home. I think this is what's called "making them feel at home".
Steve Benn.