Reviewed by Brian Edgeley

This hybrid album is the prequel to Festival Manchester 2003. One of a two part series, the other being the Limited Edition ‘Welcome To The Party’, its aim is to give you a taste of the bands that will be at the festival. What a taster it is! If this is the starter bring on the main course! Tim Hughes, Paul Oakley, Vicky Beeching, Matt Redman, Brenton Brown and Johnny Parks to name but a few are all here. Parks delivers the inspiring song “Beyond Us” which encourages us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to the community around us; this highlight’s Andy Hawthorne’s vision for Festival Manchester - the Church revealing Christ through community action on the streets and in the park. Andy, as director of The Message, commissioned some of the aforementioned wordsmiths to write songs to “motivate the church for mission”, so every song on the album has been handpicked because of its strong evangelistic theme. None is better than the opening track “We Will Go”, which is written and performed by Brenton Brown. In this up tempo song he cries “Soften my heart, make me a flame/Set me on fire to be a light in the world!” and this sets the pace for the songs that follow. Vicky Beeching reminds us that it’s the Church that is God’s chosen vehicle to shine his “light into the darkness” in her emotively delivered “Nothing Is Impossible”. I can just imagine the community teams singing this as they take church on to the Mancunian streets! Tré Sheppard (onehundredhours) reinforces the evangelistic theme with an excellent rock‘n’roll version of the 1991 Bryn Haworth classic “Have You Heard (Out On The Streets)”; it’s good to hear Paul Jones on Harmonica and Paul Evans playing the drums on this track. Now drummers don’t usually get much of a mention but Evans really shines here and shows himself as a versatile drummer - he actually plays on seven tracks on this album. His passion for the beat keeps all the other musicians in time as does the likes of drummers Nathan Fellingham, Matt Leach and Dez Minto. This CD is a fabulous collection of 12 tracks that reveals the quality of young worship leaders and musicians we have at our corporate disposal today. I cannot finish without complimenting Cathy Burton on her excellent BVs. She is a singer in her own right but here takes a back seat to compliment and bring out the best in others. There’s servant heartedness for you!

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