Mike Rimmer journeyed to Milton Keynes to attend the launch of the [focus] label.

On August 31st the [focus] label was launched by Word with a gig by the label's three acts at a club called The Pitz in Milton Keynes. Shelley Needham is head of music at Word and label boss of [focus] and she confesses that the aim of the label is "to concentrate on a limited quantity of artists. Each artist becomes a priority and a 100% focus."

The Pitz club is housed as part of a leisure complex and as I arrive there's a crowd milling around the entrance slowly filing into the venue. A mixture of record company staff, media people and fans of the band pack the place as Riverdeep stroll out and do their stuff. God Digital are filming the event for a later screening and energy levels are high as the band reveal their chunky funky pop rock sound. Lead singer Esther is the perfect front woman and her brother Sam is the perfect guitar showman, posing and jumping off the drum riser. They confidently interact with the crowd, clearly having fun but also taking time to share the faith that's motivating them. Later Shelley Needham describes how she feels about the band, "They are a fun family. I love the unity in this band. They are an absolute pleasure to work with. Young and worth the investment."

Norway's Salvation Street are next to play with their edgier style of music. Preferring to let the music do the talking, the band's live performances this summer have won them many new fans and witnessing this performance, it isn't hard to see why. A guitar band of the first order, the gritty passionate live show immediately connects. Shelley is a fan! "Salvation Street's music stood out to me straight away. A genre of music I am into personally. The name, product and outreach influences are evangelical. Musically strong and lyrically challenging, I've yet to see anything else like them." Certainly by the time the band leave the stage with an anthemic version of "Open", I'm left hoping that it won't be long before they return to the UK.

Headlining the evening's show were Phatfish and Shelley shares what attracted her to the band. "Phatfish are a high profile band with strong elements of worship, yet still able to rock with the best of them. They have had an established relationship with Word for some time." Indeed the band choose to play songs off their last two albums which have both been distributed by Word. Moving smoothly from crowd-moving uptempo songs into soul-moving moments of worship, the evening closes with the focus undoubtedly on God as Lou Fellingham ministers from the stage and leads the crowd in worship.

Afterwards, bands and guests mingle together and the evening is deemed a success. So will [focus] be signing any other artists? Shelley confesses, "Eventually for sure, I'm always keeping my ear to the ground checking out what's out and about." For the moment she is definitely optimistic about the future of the label, "I'm excited about investing into lives," she explains, "either investing into the band or using their music to affect other people's lives. I'm excited to be out there in the marketplace, quietly and confidently."