Latest News from VRUK

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2010-04-07T14:03:00.001+01:00

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Song recommendations

2010-03-09T13:47:00.003Z

Check out these great worship songs on the new 'Discover Vineyard Worship' release from our colleagues across the pond:

Jesus' Name
Clean
All I Have

Burn Band Videos

2009-12-22T11:21:00.002Z

You're The Love

Falling In Love With You

Beautiful

Cage Free or Free Range?

2009-11-01T15:36:00.000Z

This article has been written by Alex MacDougall.
Alex is a veteran of the US Christian Music Business not only as a Musician, but also in management, especially in marketing and A&R. Alex has been associated with the Vineyard since 1996 and has been part of some of the most successful recording projects in the history of the Industry. However first and foremost Alex loves worship in the local church.

Have you ever wondered the difference is between Free Range Chickens and Cage Free Chickens? If you've been confused at your local grocer over this quandry, let me help you. "Free Range", according to the USDA, means that the chicken has had access to the outside, but is not necessarily grown outside. "Cage Free", on the other hand, is a commercial designation identifying the chicken as not being grown in a battery cage. Both designations have come about over the past few years as a direct result of the "inhumane treatment" of chickens. Which brings me to my point.

Churches with drum cages are inhumane! The plexiglass world that drummers animate themselves in should be the LAST on anyone's list of acoustic problem solvers, yet have increasingly become the first solution that music ministers, worship leaders and pastors are much too quick to adopt.

Recently, as a listener and worshiper, I've personally been subjected to 3 separate and horrific drum setups. In one, the drummer was placed in a completely separate ROOM, with a large plate glass in front of him. He was isolated enough for a studio recording to take place. At another church, the drum cage had a roof on it so low that the drummer had to hunch over to get behind his drums. You couldn't even hear him, but he was moving his arms, so I guess he was playing. And finally, the ultimate sentence to drummers, a church with TWO enclosures- both with roofs! The first cage for the drummer and the second for the poor percussionist. You could see his shaker and tambourine on a stand next to his wind chimes. His domicile was located next to where the brass section sat. I wondered what these monsters must do to deserve such treatment!

I detest these cages. I abhor them.
The presense of one of them tells me that...

1. As a drummer, I am not trusted to possess any sense of musical dynamics or sensitivity, or any reasonable disciplines of nuance.

2. I am out of control and a "rogue" on the platform, and do not know how to work with the venue, players and singers.

3. What I do is offensive to the ears of the congregation, and not necessarily a calling given to me from the Lord.

4. I am not a valued member of the worship team, nor do I need to really participate in the worship experience. They are simply placating me.

5. The PA system and house mixer are sophisticated and amazing, and I don't need to be worried about being heard. The pristine skills of the part time mixer are well-honed and his/her ears are finely tuned instruments in themselves.

King David said to MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE and TO PRAISE HIM ON LOUD CYMBALS. Not obnoxious cymbals mind you, but loud nevertheless.

What if guitar players were told to wear a blanket over their instrument, or were forced to use a frozen dill pickle chip in lieu of a guitar pick? What if a pastor with a high-pitched or harsh voice had their microphone run through a digital device to "smooth-out" their tone? Perhaps King David's tambourine, cymbal and drum players should have been relegated to a tent on the side of the palace. Selah.

I learned to play drums during a time when the ride cymbal had many more possible sounds than simply beating on it like a trash can lid. The cymbal had various areas and characteristics to it. A rim. A bell. The top. The edge. Underneath. Ridges. You learned about how to read a room, play with finesse and dynamics, and control yourself. You learned to provide a foundation AND COLOR the music where appropriate. I agree with Carl Albrecht's (see Worship Musician July/August 2009 issue) call for drummers to become more versitile and flexible to their churches acoustic needs. Using "smaller venue" kits, cymbals and drums (if you have that kind of money), and building your stick bag to include brushes, mallets and hot-rods, is sound advice. You can also modify your playing to include some drums and hand percussion. In short, know how to creatively ADAPT to the situation. I've been in circumstances where I only used a cymbal, conga, and some hand percussion, and it all worked out great. But the immediate "fix" of acrylic panels and enclosures is a degrading solution to anyone serious about music or worship drumming as a calling.

How many churches and venues are still "Cage Free"? I suspect fewer by the day. With such a beautiful legacy of historically causing the arts to flourish, I think this time the church has adopted an egg.

Worship Team Leaders and Pastors...Think outside the box!
And Drummers...Pursue cage free! ADAPT, don't adopt.

"Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel,
but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that are in the home". (Mt. 5:15)

Reprint used by permission of Christian Musician Magazine

Editors Note : Personally I play drums behind a screen like this twice a month, and I think that there are occasions where the screen are the right thing to do. However I do agree with Alex that they are far to prevalent and often used in situations where they really aren't necessary. On the occasions when I do get to play outside "the cage" I have to say its feels much more like the band is together.

Please do let us know your thoughts on screens and send in your drummer jokes to and we will try and post some of them on the blog. Email dave[dot]mitchell[at]vineyardrecords[dot]co[dot]uk

Post Strike - Expecting Pick Up Today.

2009-10-23T11:21:00.001+01:00

We are expecting a pick up of our post today (23rd Oct). All orders are being sent 1st class to minimise any delays caused by the strike action.

Royal Mail Strikes

2009-10-21T14:50:00.003+01:00

So It looks like we will be having Royal Mail strikes on Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd - any orders placed during this period will be sent as soon as the service is available again.

Full details of the strike action can be found on the Royal Mail website here.

Should all be back towards a normal service by Monday 26th October.

Free 5 Song EP Download

2009-10-16T13:37:00.002+01:00

We are constantly looking for new songs and new ways to get them into the hands of worshippers, so this autumn we are giving away a 5 song EP of new songs and ones you might have missed.

Get the EP at vineyardrecords.co.uk/newsongs

Available as a free download, these mp3's and the PDF chord book are only free for a limited period of time – on 1 December 2009, they will still be available but there will be a cost to purchase them. So, if you know of any worship leaders (or anyone else for that matter) who would be interested in getting some new songs to learn, let them know about this before then!

Do let us know which songs are your favourites. Drop a line to info[AT]vineyardrecords[DOT]co[DOT]uk

New SongTeach.com

2009-10-08T12:18:00.003+01:00

We have a newly designed SongTeach website live, and lots of new videos on their way.

The new site is easier to navigate and there are no more annoying pop ups for the videos to display. Plus you can now subscribe to an RSS feed so you will know as soon as any new videos are posted.

If you all ready have an account your existing user-name and password should work - but if you have forgotten anything just pop your email address in here and we will email you your details.http://songs.vineyardrecords.co.uk/vruk/user/password

Take a look at www.songteach.com and let us know what you think at songteach@vineyardrceords.co.uk

New Review of Trent Live - Burn Bright

2009-09-29T16:53:00.002+01:00

A new review of Trent Live Burn Bright has been posted up at http://www.everythingchristian.co.uk/

Take a look and if that has wet you appetite you can get the DVD/CD here...

http://www.vineyardrecords.co.uk/vruk-shop/trent-live-burn-bright-dvdcd

Or just the music on iTunes...

Photos from Greenbelt this year

2009-09-03T13:40:00.002+01:00

This August bank holiday Trent played at Greenbelt in the Centaur venue. As ever, they played a cracking set and pulled in a big crowd/congregation especially for a morning slot.

Check out the photos from this and their acoustic slot in the G-Music tent below.

New Shop

2009-08-27T08:57:00.002+01:00

After about 6 months of fighting with our new website about a month ago we made the decision to abandon it and move to another system. To those of you who were effected by the glitch we are very sorry.

Rest assured that the safety of your information is always our very highest priority and throughout the change there has been no compromise in our security.

Massive thanks have to go to Nick at zumzing.com who has been working night and day to get the new site up and running - and make the change as smooth as possible. You should only notice slight differences.

Your user-name and password are the same as they were before if you have shopped with us before, but you can easily get a new password here if you need one.

https://www.vineyardrecords.co.uk/vruk-shop/user/password

Thanks

Books @ VRUK

2009-08-06T11:38:00.001+01:00

We now have a range of books including books by John Wimber available at the VRUK shop.

Have a look at the range here...

New GBG Songbook

2009-07-15T14:34:00.004+01:00

The new Great Big God Piano songbook has arrived in stock, after a short wait with customs.

For the first time EVERY song recorded on a Great Big God CD or DVD can be found in one place.

Just to prove it has arrived here is a mobile phone pic of my copy...

Just wish I had stuck with the piano lessons a bit longer now!

(EDIT) oops - forgot the link... Great Big God Piano SongBook

VRUK supports Ukraine orphanage

2009-06-03T09:11:00.003+01:00

Vineyard Records UK has been supporting work in Ukraine for over 4 years. This work is two-fold in its approach:

1. We help with leadership training for church pastors and worship leaders.
2. We support both financially and with man-power an outreach programme with an orphanage just outside Odessa.

I recently had the privilege of leading a 10-strong team to spend a week at the Andreevo orphanage where we embarked on a programme of drama, sports, arts & crafts and general craziness! This is the third such trip to the orphanage and we are beginning to see the fruits of our labours both in a spiritual sense and also in seeing improvements to the orphanage itself. The director likened our visits to a big drop of water falling onto a stone and each time it fell it made a deeper hole. I think he was trying to say that we are making a significant long-term difference!!

Through the VRUK network with Vineyard churches around the UK and also in Ukraine itself, there are now 3 UK Vineyard churches involved in orphanage outreach and 2 Ukrainian Vineyard churches. As time goes on we hope to be able to resource further orphanages in the Ukraine by expanding the number of churches involved with the ultimate aim of bringing the love of God into the lives of many children who have very little hope.

Off to Ukraine

2009-05-27T16:25:00.002+01:00

Our boss Chris has left this week for the Ukraine along with a team from the Hull Vineyard Church.

They are leading a week long club at an orphanage, using games, craft, music and lots more to have fun with the children there and to share Gods love for them.

Your prayers would be most welcome for fun, friendships and safety as they travel.

Spring Harvest

2009-04-15T13:06:00.003+01:00

I got back from Spring Harvest in Minehead yesterday. We had a great week in the All Age Worship celebration, playing messy games, dancing to funky songs and learning how to be an apprentice of Jesus. (The theme in all of this years SH venues.)

Nigel Hemming headed up the team along with Amy, Amy, Dave (Hull Vineyard) Kat, Zara, (Network Vineyard Birmingham) James (Bristol Vineyard) and another Dave (Causeway Coast Vineyard) with invaluable help from the other Hemmings - Jo, Becky Zac and JJ.

We used a bunch of songs from the new Great Big God Live DVD that went down a storm, had a few technical difficulties with some phone in games; (and what I think we would all put as our highlight) had some amazing opportunities for ministry to pray with the families who came and for the children & parents to pray with each other. As Dave said one night there is no junior Jesus or mini Holy Spirit, we all get to play no matter how young or old.

A brilliant week - if you were with us - thanks. :-D

Great Big God Live Premiere

2009-04-01T10:47:00.006+01:00

The Great Big God Live DVD is available right now through our webstore - click here to jump to the product page or read on for some more Great Big God news!

The DVD looks and sounds amazing - and last Saturday we met up with Nigel Hemming and all the dancers and choir from the DVD for a premier screening at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham. It look superb on the big screen as well as home TVs and DVD players!

Here are some photos from the day:

Trent DVD Live filming photos online now!

2009-02-17T16:57:00.003Z

Photos don't take nearly as long as 7 video cameras worth of footage, so I thought you might like to see some of the photos from last Thursday's spectacularly good night of worship at the Trent DVD filming. Enjoy!

Latest from the Trent DVD Rehearsals

2009-02-11T18:57:00.000Z

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vineyardrecordsuk/sets/72157613659086824/show/The rigging and lighting is going up, and after we eat dinner we will be moving all the gear from the rehearsal space to the hall in the warehouse. Voices are just about holding up in the cold winter weather.
Things are shaping up nicely!

Here's a few pics from today:

Latest from the Trent DVD Rehearsals

2009-02-11T18:48:00.002Z

The rigging and lighting is going up, and after we eat dinner we will be moving all the gear from the rehearsal space to the hall in the warehouse. Voices are just about holding up in the cold winter weather.
Things are shaping up nicely!

Here's a few pics from today:

Photosynth of the Trent rehearsal room uploaded now

2009-02-11T13:31:00.003Z

As promised yesterday here's the Photosynth of the rehearsals (it's like a 3D tour of it). It should load up below if not click on the title to browse to it.

Lastest news and photos from Trent DVD rehearsals

2009-02-10T19:26:00.002Z

Tuesday has gone very well - the band have been running through the set, the string section have been in to join us today and half the lighting and stage crew have arrived with half the gear (the rest are arriving tomorrow!).

We've just had pizza for dinner and settling in to the evening session.

In the meantime here's some pics for today. Tomorrow I will do a "photosynth" of the rehearsal - a kinda 3D photo album... it's a bit geeky, but very cool!

Trent DVD Rehearsals in full flow

2009-02-09T17:43:00.005Z

Dave and I are down in Nottingham with Trent who are rehearsing for this Thursday live DVD filming (along with Trevor Michael, the producer and Lionel who is mixing for the rehearsals). The new songs are sounding seriously good as are the new arrangements of older ones. All in all it's shaping up to be a cracking night.

Anyway here's a few photos from the warehouse we are in:

DVD Filming 7.30pm 12th Feb

2009-02-05T09:28:00.003Z

We have so much to pack in on the night that we need to bring the start time forward a little - we're going to start at 7:30, but if you could arrive in advance of that it would be great! We're expecting to be pretty full!

Directions to Trent Vineyard can be found here...

www.trentvineyard.org.uk

Oh and the bar will be open afterwards too!

TRENT - Live DVD Recording

2009-01-09T10:19:00.002Z

We are recording a new Live Album!

Just over 4 weeks from now we will be recording a new live album with TRENT, and we would love it if you could join us to pack Trent Vineyard to the rafters. Not only will you be adding your voices to the recording but as this album is being released as a DVD you may even see yourself.

Here's a short note from the TRENT boys...

"Well - it's all go! We're pleased to announce that we will be recording a live worship album in February this year. But this isn't any live album - this will be a live DVD. The date is February 12th and we will be recording the DVD at our home church, Trent Vineyard in Nottingham. We would love it if you could join us and take part in this unique event. Directions for finding Trent Vineyard are available at http://trentvineyard.org.uk/downloads/directions.pdf . For more info, email info@trentband.com and we'll anwswer any questions. Oh... one more thing... the event is free and will start around 8pm." TRENT

If your on facebook the event page is...

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=113736640326