The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

Story of Distinction: The Rock Choir Queen & Goddess, Caroline Redman Lusher (MBE). On Transforming Communities through the Gift of Choral Singing - with Heart, Harmony & Sparkle - and the Life-Enhancing Joys of being a Rock Choir 'Rockie'!

• Chris Grimes - Facilitator. Coach. Motivational Comedian

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Join me and Caroline Redman-Lusher MBE, ('The Rock Choir Queen & Goddess!') the visionary behind the much-loved national choral singing phenomenon, the Rock Choir. Caroline joins us for a truly inspiring discussion on the reshaping of community music with heart, sparkle and harmony. 

With over 30,000 members across 400 locations, Rock Choir isn't just about singing; it's a movement of transformation and joy. Caroline opens up about the profound emotional impact of their performances of classics like "Hallelujah" and Coldplay's "Fix You," revealing how these songs resonate with audiences and embody the choir's mission to sprinkle happiness into lives.

As Caroline shares her personal and professional journey, we gain insight into what fuels her passion for music and teaching. From her days as a lounge singer to becoming an A-level Performing Arts Teacher, Caroline has always had a knack for bringing communities together through song. Her story is peppered with influences from her family, especially her father, who bolstered her spirit and entrepreneurial drive, and key moments like performing at the BBC Proms in the Park, which solidified her path.

Listeners are treated to a heartfelt exploration of Caroline's resilience and the power of kindness, as she recounts her journey through infertility and the comforting support of friends. The episode wraps up with a delightful storytelling segment, celebrating creativity and the essence of music with Rock Choir's chart-topping track "Keeping the Dream Alive." This episode is a testament to the enduring spirit of music, community, and the joy of sharing our stories.

The journey of our conversation:

• Celebration of Caroline's MBE recognition and accomplishments

• The impact of Rock Choir on mental health and community well-being

• Inspiring testimonials from Rock Choir members

• The significance of creativity and community in building connections

• Reflections on Caroline's teaching background and its influence on Rock Choir

• Emphasis on kindness, support, and philanthropy within Rock Choir

• Caroline's personal story of resilience and finding joy through music

• Invitation for listeners to join Rock Choir and experience the joy of singing

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening!

Speaker 2:

Welcome to another episode of the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, chris Grimes, the storytelling show that features the Clearing, where all good questions come to get asked and all good stories come to be told, and where all my guests have two things in common they're all creative individuals and all with an interesting story to tell. There are some lovely storytelling metaphors a clearing, a tree, a juicy storytelling exercise called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, some alchemy, some gold, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare and a cake. So it's all to play for. So, yes, welcome to the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, chris Grimes, are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin and we're in.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to actually quite an emotional day here in the Good Listening To Show, because I'm delighted to have Caroline Redman-Lusher MBE and that's hot off the press quite new news right there. You were just in the King's New Year's honours list Before we even get on the open road of blowing some extra oxygenated happy smoke at you. Have you been for your gong yet? Have you met the King for the gong?

Speaker 3:

I haven't received my gong. I was invited to go on february the 12th and I'm afraid I'm out of the country and I felt terrible, writing back um saying please don't remove it from me, please can I come another time.

Speaker 2:

And they said yes, of course, so I'm waiting for the date lovely, and I believe you've been at highgrove for the king's 75th birthday, in any case, with the rock choir, so Choir, so it's not like oh, here's Chuck, here's Charles again. This won't be the first time.

Speaker 3:

And also at his Christmas event. So we've been twice recently and I have actually been to Buckingham Palace months before, so I know the ropes, I know where the corridors are and where to park. So, yeah, I know what's coming.

Speaker 2:

You're, um, the corridors are and where to park. So, yeah, I know what's coming. You're in full curtsy mode. You know exactly what to do, which is outstanding. Let me get on with the happy smoke. You are, I know, you know who you are, but it's time to blow some oxygenated happy smoke at you.

Speaker 2:

This is caroline ridman lusher, who is the rock choir queen and goddess, as I've been calling him. You're awesome and may I say you've created the most beautiful institution I did mention. It's going to be quite an emotional day because whilst I've been researching you today, I've been going of 6 000 people with you at the front, all singing hallelujah, which is your most recent uh single, which is there for I think it's cash for kids is the current perspective. And even before that I was looking at um fix, the Coldplay song that I also found him moving initially, and thank you for being here. I saw you speak at the Entrepreneurs' Convention a few months ago and as I sat there I had an epiphany watching you. I was thinking I've got to get all these speakers on my show. And then, since then, I've been in pursuance of you and you've been kind enough to say yes, here you are today.

Speaker 3:

Well, thank you very much for having me. Yes, it was a really good fun speech in Birmingham, wasn't it? It was an interview on stage and I came out onto stage with smoke and fireworks and Eurythmics playing, so I was slightly overwhelmed. I've never come out on stage like that before.

Speaker 2:

May I say it was a great entrance. Then we also saw a representation of one of your Rock Act or Rocky's cohort singing, which was wonderful too and as I understood it even I mean it could have even expanded since. But it happens in 400 locations, could be more. There are 30,000 members to the Rock Choir and it happens in 400 locations, could be more. There are 30,000 members to the rock choir and it happens in groups of up to 100, I'm gathering. Is that right?

Speaker 3:

Well, it depends. Each choir rehearsal could be maybe 40 people in the room, up to even 250 people in the room, depending on the community and how long we've been going 20 years of rock choir, 400 rehearsals across the country every week, leading to local, regional and national performances. So, um, sometimes the choirs come together, sometimes members miss their rehearsal and they go to one nearby.

Speaker 2:

So the numbers change all the time and on facebook as well this morning, and I knew about you in any case. People are saying such beautiful things about how life enhancing it is, and one of the testimonials was if we can help just one person in a dark place. You've just got such a beautiful movement and it's great to watch, and the liberation of having the common purpose in pursuance of achieving the beauty of song is wonderful.

Speaker 3:

It is fantastic and we're introducing pop music, the favourite song from the decades to all ages, but in a very different way where, instead of just listening or singing along with the main melody, we're deconstructing the song, rebuilding the harmonies and teaching it um, connecting with everyone and putting them in the center of that song so that they can enjoy the song, learn about the song and then perform the song when they're ready I'm going to point people to the videos of Hallelujah and Fix you.

Speaker 2:

They are so moving and they are the essence and the quintessence of what it is you're achieving. And on your website it's new friends, new experiences, new you is the bish bash bosh of the rockchoircom imperative.

Speaker 3:

That's right, and it's all about finding your sparkle again. You know, we all go through life. We get into new patterns. Maybe some patterns aren't so good for us. We forget who we are.

Speaker 3:

This is about time out every single week, or as much as you can accommodate in your timetable, and it's all about giving yourself something very special to engage with that will lead to a burst of self-confidence, new friendships, new experiences and, of course, the all-important music and education, which keeps our brains going and releases here's the signs endocannabinoids into our brains, which creates the natural high. Then that's what I'm after for everybody. They leave an hour and a half rehearsal on a natural high. They engage with the music, they start to rehearse, they start to perform. Music becomes a huge part of their world again and um, and they, they bond with one another from performing, from going off on social events, uh, and we're ticking all the boxes. From sociology point of view. Communities combine, they connect, we raise money for charity. It's literally it's. I see it as a cycle where everybody benefits, everyone wins and can I commend you for the endi?

Speaker 2:

what he who be zones that you're releasing?

Speaker 3:

endocannabinoids. Cannabinoids suggests cannabis suggests a natural high and that's what's being triggered in the brain. We actually worked with the late dr Michael Moseley. We did a TV show with him where he tested some Rockies a group of 20 Rockies dancing, cycling and then a rock choir session to see from their saliva and blood how much of the uplift they experienced. And although dancing and cycling were 20% more endocannabinoids, rock choir was 40% more endocannabinoids. Rock Choir was 40% more endocannabinoids, so Rock Choir won.

Speaker 2:

Wonderful. When you spoke at the Entrepreneurs' Convention you did say one of the testimonials that I wrote down which really moved me is you brought as you've already said, but it was broader you brought my sparkle back. You brought back the wife. I remembered was what a husband had said about his wife going and being part of Rock Choir.

Speaker 3:

Yes, and that was a very moving moment. It's not the first time actually. I receive a lot of letters from husbands and partners who've been married a very long time and their partner is engaged with Rock Choir and they've started to see the woman that they married, the earlier version of her before. Life set in and took its toll in some way. Not everybody's in rock choir because there's a problem, but some are in for well, a lot of our rock is 15 years plus and you, you can't get through 15 years without something happening. That's challenging in your life.

Speaker 3:

And, of course, the, the platform of rock choir, the social aspect, the confidence, the, the natural height, puts that person in a much better position to deal with the challenges. It doesn't fix the problems, but they're in a better, more positive position to deal with what's going on. And this husband he actually found me. We were at breakfast after a show the night before and he found me at breakfast and he got on his knee in front of me and took my hand and he had tears in his eyes and the whole space went quiet where he said you brought my wife back to me. She's found her sparkle again. I can only thank you and Rock Choir for doing that and we were all kind of mopping ourselves up at eight in the morning at breakfast because of this speech. You know it's wonderful.

Speaker 2:

You've been kind enough to say that you're happy to let us texture in three tracks during the course of the soundscape of what we're doing. So that seems like a perfect first segue into the first track you'd like to introduce so we can hear for ourselves what it's like to be in or what it's like to listen to the Rock Choir. So what's the first track you'd like to tee up?

Speaker 3:

Well, the first track is actually Hallelujah, leonard Cohen. We've recorded a very special version of this with a lovely pop video that you saw earlier today. We just toured with this particular song and recorded over 11,000 Rockies performing it, so this track is special to me because it includes their voices, and we released it in December.

Speaker 2:

Lovely and it's in black and white and it's an absolutely beautiful film. Dan, my podcast editor, will know exactly what to do.

Speaker 1:

Here it comes. Hallelujah with the rock choir. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Speaker 2:

It is my great delight, privilege and pleasure to now curate you through the good listening to show Storiescape, in which I invite movers, makers, shakers, mavericks, influencers and also personal heroes into a clearing or serious happy place of my guests, choosing as they all share with us their stories of distinction and genius. And how eminently qualified you are, caroline Redmond-Lusher. This is a true story of distinction and genius as to what you've curated and created with great love. I think you've been doing it well. How many years have you been doing it for now?

Speaker 3:

20 years officially, and before that probably four years leading up to it.

Speaker 2:

Wonderful, so let's get on the open road. So, first of all, where is what is a clearing or serious happy place for you, caroline Redmond-Lusher, goddess and queen of the rock choir, do?

Speaker 3:

you know what? My home is very important to me. Me and I am surrounded by everything I know and love and I'm very comforted at home. So I'm a real homebody. So I've chosen my home. I'm in Tilford, in Nithan, I'm in Surrey, and the gate is closed, the sun is shining and I'm just very calm.

Speaker 2:

What a wonderful sense of presence to be where you are now, right now. Here and now is where you're happiest. That's lovely, and you're sitting in a studio and, if I may just have a look at your backdrop, you've got some lovely accolades on the wall behind you parents bought me in the 80s when I first learned to play piano.

Speaker 3:

Um, he signed that a couple years ago. So that was a bit moment me and I've got some. Um, well, I've got my the records that I've sell on. I got a double platinum uh award and then, of course, it's just, it's just rock on. My whole world is rock hard.

Speaker 2:

It's all around me love that and I live in Bristol, by the way, where I've been animation is and, like the whole empire, has been built around the idea of somebody who used to spend their time in a garage playing with plasticine, which is now art and animation. You have made a rock, you've curated a rock choir and now you're sitting right at the heart of it. So here we are then, in your clearing, which is your version of rock choir hq. You've created a monster, if I may say so, and that's a compliment because you've got you. And then you've got all those other people, and then the thousands, the tens of thousands that actually are part of the well, the Rockies, as we now know they are called.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Now I'm going to arrive with a tree. Within your caring and because of my hectic background, this is a deliberately waiting for God, oh Beckety, and a bit existential and profound. We're going to shake your tree to see which apples fall out. How do you like these apples? And this is where you've been kind enough to have thought about four things that have shaped you, three things that inspire you, two things that never fail to grab your attention, and that's where the squirrels are going to come in. We've all got shiny object syndrome squirrels, monsters of distraction. That'll come in later. And then the one is a quirky or unusual fact about you, caroline Redman-Lusher. We couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us it's not a memory test. So over to you to interpret, first of all, four things that have shaped you.

Speaker 3:

Shaped me. So first of all I would say my father. My dad has shaped me. We are very close. We even share a birthday, very close, we even share a birthday. He has supported me and shaped my entire interaction with the world. We're both very positive. We both love being around people, and my work ethic, my ability to not let people down or at least my commitment to not let people down, or at least my commitment to not let people down has come from him. The standards have come from him.

Speaker 3:

He actually spent a lot of his youth trying to come up with an entrepreneurial type idea and, of course, when rock choir came along, he realized that it was coming from me and he could be part of it. So he's been with me right from the beginning. It was him who believed in me. It was him who persuaded me to leave my life in London as a lounge singer. He's supported me. He's always been there financially if I've needed any help which fortunately I haven't, particularly over the time. And really he's the one who used to drive me to those nightclubs when I was underage where I used to sing and lie about my age. He would pick me up in the early hours. He would take me to some cool rock band that I'd been asked to join. He would give up all his time around his career to support me through that. So he is very, very important to me and I would say, was a key person who shaped me beautiful answer and, if I may ask, where's your mother in this?

Speaker 3:

my mother is very, very um lovely. She's very quiet. She tends to sit back and observe rather than engage. So they are still uh with me. They're very local, six minutes from here. They are both in their 80s and they're slowing down very visibly slowing down now, but they love coming to see us all the time and they, of course, have a grandchild now who they love engaging with, so that's given them some energy and some oomph back into their lives. Um, so my mother is very much part of the family, but it's my dad who's the proactive, um big supporter of of what I do.

Speaker 2:

And father, manager and impresario, which is fantastic. And are you an infant child? I?

Speaker 3:

have a sister. I have an older sister, elizabeth, who lives half an hour from here as well. So she is. She's always been rooting for me. But the music she's very proud. Yeah, we're very close.

Speaker 2:

And there's a lot to be proud of. That's a great first Shape it. Shape it Number two, please.

Speaker 3:

Number two I would have to say it's my school, my schooling. I was lucky enough to go to a girls' school up in Solihull in the Midlands. I grew up in a village called Knoll, nearby, and I spent the best years of my life at that school. I won the music scholarship when I was 11, and I was there till I was 18. And I absolutely loved the social aspect of it. I loved the timetable, the structure, the teachers. I'm still in touch with them, I message them, I'm with them all the time when I visit and I really had a great time there and they were very supportive of my music.

Speaker 3:

I always used to get out of hockey and swimming because I said I had a music exam violin and piano and they were always really, really supportive. So I really think that those happy years spent in Knoll in Solihull and at the school were a huge part of the reason for Rock Choir. And in fact, when I was writing my book I realised that I had created a community a little bit like my girls' school, in that there's structure, there's this timetable, the education side of it. I realised, you know, those happy years have stayed with me, and now I've you know those happy years have stayed with me and now I've, you know, got that environment around me and is there a particular?

Speaker 2:

it sounds like there's a squad of teaching around you there, but is there a particularly luminary music teacher?

Speaker 3:

Yes, Frances Hooper and Claire Heaton drama, music and drama. They were my two go-to teachers. The headmistress was Mrs williams, who trained me in english andi I believe that that english training she's very, very strict with it has really helped with rock choir writing those initial early years of press releases and also the book. Of course I couldn't have done and I sent mrs williams the book, uh, and she wrote to me swiftly afterwards because I was nervous about have I made any grammar mistakes, type, because I went through that book so many times. It took me a long time to write it and um, and she was very proud and thrilled and, of course, wrote to me after the MBE as well.

Speaker 2:

So I've had two messages from Mrs Williams um, and what a lovely, lovely resonance there in in the phrasing, phrasing within singing, but also phrasing within the book that you've written and the copy that you've written.

Speaker 3:

Yes, and I think, to still be in touch with those staff and the girls. You know we're called old girls now. At the school I regrouped with as many as I could actually a couple of years ago, where we recorded the two school hymns, because the school actually is over now. It ended, it ran out of money, it had financial problems and it ended just before lockdown began in 2020. And I went straight up there to say what's happened? How can I help? You can't let the school die. It was a really difficult time to accept that nothing I could do could fix it. So we said goodbye to the school, but I gathered everybody and recorded the two school songs and we released them out onto all the music platforms so that any old girl from the decades can access those two school songs.

Speaker 2:

You're very obvious through and through, everything that you're doing is the sense of community, because even that, going back to your community of where it all began and now the Rockies, is of itself a really perfect. So your sense of community is like a golden thread.

Speaker 3:

Oh, it is, and I absolutely love people. I love engaging with people, listening to people, understanding behavior, working out. Where has this come from? Where's the root of the problem when there are problems? Um, and just trying to to connect people as much as possible, because if there's anything that makes the world go around, you know it's people. I wouldn't agree with money, I say it's people. We all need to look after one another and you just don't know, when you're talking to someone, what they're going through, what troubles that they're dealing with, and sometimes just one kind word from a stranger can lift someone's day. The same way it can ruin someone's day. A bit of road rage or something awful can ruin your day, and I think everyone should be more aware.

Speaker 2:

So the therapeutic nature of community, and then, of course, being part of Rock Choir again it's therapeutic and it's all sensitive.

Speaker 3:

That's right. That's absolutely right. Um, so, as well as school, um shaped me, I think I my role as an a-level uh teacher. I was a performing arts teacher and I trained on the job. I took night school and got a qualification uh in further and further education and higher education and my role.

Speaker 3:

I was really thrown in the deep end. I'd come from being a lounge singer all those years, getting a degree in music, but being invited to go and teach performing arts when I'd never taught before and I was really thrown in. It was quite stressful but I absolutely loved shaping the lives of those kids and I really took to it. And those four years of teaching allowed me to then create Rock Choir. Without that time I wouldn't have created, I wouldn't have learned, I wouldn't have understood. I had a natural instinct and affinity with teaching, but to know the rules, to know um, the theory behind it and understand how to manage groups, the dynamics, all that led, helped lead to rock choir. So I'm really grateful that time. It certainly shaped me and allowed me to explore options after being a performer for for so many years you're such a living testament to the transferable skills that come from teaching, which people often forget.

Speaker 2:

People get stuck thinking it's this, but actually there are so many transferable skills and everything that you've done has played the adages. I've prepared my entire life for this moment. It seems like everything you've been doing has been putting in your bank of this is preparing me for now, the time, and that's exactly right.

Speaker 3:

And when I created rock choir, I and there was there was a time when we tipped into this. There was a huge reaction after the first year that I was running it in my community and this huge all these people arrived to take part. I ran what's called Bring a Friend session. All these people and I looked at this room. It was full of hundreds of people wanting to engage with Rock Choir. It was full of hundreds of people wanting to engage with Rockwell. For the first time.

Speaker 3:

I thought this is what I was meant to do, this is plan A, and I hadn't ever felt that confident before about what I was doing. I mean, I was always trying, really for a lot of my early life, to get a record deal. That was what I was training to do. So difficult to break the industry and get in. But here I was thinking, oh, I wasn't meant to do that. I was meant to do this. I was meant to share the joy of popular music with my community. Um, and and I still feel like that 20 years on that there's no doubt everything I had done led me to that moment and helped me in that moment lovely crafting of the shaping, lovely.

Speaker 2:

Is there a full shape?

Speaker 3:

there is um. It was. It was a performance at bbc proms in the park. We were invited by the bbc two years in a row 2018, 2019, hyde park 40 000 people bbc concert orchestra. I was out front soloing. I had 80 of my rock car leaders, the rock group performing with me, and we were live on radio 2 and live on red button, and that performance changed everything for me. It was the most I got the most exhilarating high that lasted for 16 days. Afterwards. I felt like I was floating.

Speaker 2:

It was the most magical experience is that music piece number two, please? By, by any strange coincidence, are we not going with that one?

Speaker 3:

Yes, don't you worry about a thing. We performed it with them.

Speaker 2:

And then just tear that one more time. What's the piece of music? Don't you worry?

Speaker 3:

about a thing Stevie Wonder, the rock choir version. Don't you worry about a thing.

Speaker 1:

Don't you worry about a thing.

Speaker 2:

And we're back. Fantastic, thank you for that. I'm loving how effortlessly easy it is to sort of weave the music in. This is good and now, as if by magic, I know what I'm doing. We're now on to three things that inspire you, caroline.

Speaker 3:

Okay, three things. The first always will be the greatest pop songs of our time. Whether it's watching the pop video or listening to it, I'm immediately transferred into feeling like we could do anything. We could be on stage, we could be doing the arenas, we could be touring, uh, the music, even a couple of bars, the initial bars of the song. I'm uplifted, I'm straight in and inspired to do more with music as much as possible. So inspired like that, I'd say the next part.

Speaker 3:

The next thing that inspires me is when I hear or witness the goodness in people, when I hear about kind behavior, when I hear about a selfless act of some sort and of course, we hear about this a lot in rock choir, because the ethos and culture is about kindness and love and support. Um, especially after the pandemic, when I, uh, I toured, I toured 80 nights to see all the Rockies after the pandemic to say thank you to them for supporting Rock Choir, for keeping us going, and they were telling me all sorts of amazing stories of helping one another in the community. When one of them went down, the rest came in to save them and it inspires me to, I guess, on those tough days that I have with Rock Choir me to, I guess, on those tough days that I have with rock, while the challenging days it inspires me to continue to make sure that we uh have longevity and carry on uh supporting one another. So hugely inspired by, I I know, just having that knowledge that it's working out there. What I'm hearing, um, and the other thing that inspired me, I'm afraid, is the 1980s. I am a 1980s girl, um, but you know, if my team were here, they'd just roll their eyes. I can hear them rolling their eyes somewhere.

Speaker 3:

As I say, the 1980s, um, I I was born in 74, so, um, the 80s were, uh, it was a prolific time for culture, for pop music, and I was hugely inspired, of course, by the music, by that period of time, and I'm often referring back to those songs from the 1980s. They were well-crafted, well-shaped examples of brilliant, brilliant songs and although a lot of people, oh, it's a bit cheesy, oh, it's a bit cheesy, it's a bit this, it's that they were brilliant, brilliant examples of, um, beautiful melody, great structure, um, and great themes. You know, a lot was happening in the 80s, uh, generally with with fashion, with music, with art, and, um, a lot of my choices of songs do relate back to the 80s. When I say let's do another 80s song and my team go oh, I say listen, I will protect the 80s till the day I die from having connected with the artists that made the music in the 80s and they know that rock choir are doing it and they're there.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I I know we're not talking about the 80s now, but when, when you did, uh, fix you. I wondered whether chris martin was there.

Speaker 3:

No well, no, but we do. We do have interaction, we do get social media comments from artists when we, when we cover those songs and I've had the odd call from record producers would we do such and such a song? Um, and I said, and I will say, I will, if you come and say hi to the rockies you know, come and show yourself. And we had, for example, we've been working on the Keane song, somewhere Only we Know, highly emotional, and in fact that's a single that's due to come out this year and the lead singer of Keane, his sister, is in rock choir and he popped up at her rehearsal to say hi to everyone. So we like that.

Speaker 2:

And did you know all along that she was there and he could turn up? No, I didn't know. Or was that close to you?

Speaker 3:

So that was lovely. And who else? I mean loads of just. I think people are now aware of rock choir much more Dare I say. It's become a household name. You know, it's popped up occasionally and I've thought, okay, in the Coronation Street script it was suggested by one character to another to join Rock Choir. That was a very interesting moment. That's iconic, yes, iconic, right there. And also, I mean I've mentioned Dr Michael Mosley already, but I bought one of his books this Christmas and I thought, right, I'm going to see what he suggests. What am I missing in Rockwell? What can I add to help that natural confidence? And I saw a chapter singing. I thought, oh great, let's see what he says about singing. And it was all about Rockwell. The whole chapter was about Rockwell. I thought, okay, that's another indication of household name.

Speaker 2:

um, there's a lovely point in your story where you've just seeped under the doors of the nation in a really beautiful way. Your music is singing out and it's resonating because of course that's the, that's the perfect musical phrase the presenters.

Speaker 3:

When I, when I'm interviewed on tv, the presenters don't explain what rock choir is anymore, and they used to, and I used to have to explain every single time, and now I don't. So, for example, new Year's Eve, bbc Breakfast invited me to sit on the red couch. They announced the MBE and they put together this amazing piece of video clips of us and they didn't explain what it was. They talked about the huge mental health benefits. They talked about the MBE, but I didn't feel I was at the beginning. Still, I thought, yes, we all hopefully most of us know what it is now Wonderful.

Speaker 2:

And now I think we could be at the two. Oh squirrels, let's borrow from the film Up. By the way, what are your monsters of distraction?

Speaker 3:

I'd have to say houses, architecture. I love driving around looking at beautiful houses. I love my two magazines that arrive every well, one is every week Country Life. I only buy it to look through the houses, really interested. You get to know through people's houses on the page without going and yeah, and housey stuff, and I don't get a lot of time, but what I do to calm down is go around the house clearing. It sounds boring but I like to be in a beautiful setting and if I have spare money I will put it into the house because this is my space and where I like to be.

Speaker 2:

It sounds like you've found a house for life in where you are. Is that right?

Speaker 3:

It's definitely a keeper. Yeah, and I was always used to moving and just moving and moving. You know, midlands up to Manchester, into London, into Farnham moved three times here and I was just used to moving. When the pandemic hit. My husband said is there any reason why you want to move? Because you're already talking about moving? But why can't we stay here? And I thought, wow, yeah, we can stay here, so distracted by homes and house and that, I guess, guess that nest, the concept of the nest and making it wonderful, and the other and this isn't a shiny object or anything but I think the thing that can distract me and cause me conflict and cause me stress so it's kind of a negative one is when somebody is struggling, when someone is in a bad way, I need to go and fix it, and that can distract me, especially family. I have to down tools and I will go and I will fix it and I'll fix it even if it's detrimental to me.

Speaker 2:

Lovely, and having a family member as a pet squirrel is a great answer. And now a quirky or unusual fact about you. We couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us.

Speaker 3:

My quirky fact is that I am very drawn and very keen to watch horror supernatural movies my daughter would like you.

Speaker 2:

She's obsessed with horror.

Speaker 3:

And a lot of people think that's odd because Rock Choir is so this big bubble of love and so joyous, and I think maybe there's a part of me that just needs something scary to happen sometimes, just to balance things out a little bit. But I don't like gore. I'll only watch supernatural.

Speaker 2:

We've shaken your tree, hurrah. Now we move away from the tree, we stay in the clearing, which is where exactly you're sat, and now we're going to talk about alchemy and gold. You've been given me gold by the bucket load in any case, but when you're at purpose and in flow, caroline, where or what is that like for you? What's your alchemy and gold and what you're here to reveal to the world?

Speaker 3:

My moment when I'm at my best is in front of an audience, on a stage with a head mic and I am delivering music, I am talking, I'm making people laugh and I'm singing, and that's my world, and I'm at my best. Everything that's a skill, that's that's good in me, comes out at its best when I'm in that moment well, your soul is chiming musically and gloriously in your clearing of being in front of an audience.

Speaker 2:

Lovely, and now we're going to award you with a cake. So here's a comedy prop of a cake that you get to put it. Do you like cake? Of course, yes, it is a metaphorical cake. But if I can get, if I'd like to meet you in person, I'll bring you a cake. But what type of cake would you?

Speaker 3:

like. I'd like a vanilla with rainbow sprinkles on the top, please. Vanilla sponge.

Speaker 2:

It shall be yours. And now you get to put cherry on the cake with stuff like what's a favorite inspirational quote that's always given you sucker and pulled you towards your okay.

Speaker 3:

Well, I have three quotes now. They're not from a person of distinction of any, they're more. The first three are kind of sayings, but I do have a formal quote at the end. So I have a postcard with the caption you own your stress. You own your stress and I love that. And and I love that and I carry it around with me because when I do and I do get stressed you know, it's a thing for most of us I believe that I think, okay, just remind me, I'm creating this stress, I don't need to react to that, it's up to me. If I want to react to that, I'm better off if I'm calm. So it's a reminder you own your stress.

Speaker 3:

Okay, that's the first thing, um, and then my father, who I love dearly, his, his quote, and he's used it year after year and he's famous for this quote in rock choir, cause he's captain rock choir. Um, he says the line, and he says it when we are in a drama, so when things are crazy or difficult or horrifying in some way, his line is we are where we are. And sometimes I get irritated with that and I say that doesn't help me in any way, dad, we are where we are. I know we are where we are, we need to fix it. And he says, yes, but we are, and it almost. It just gives a moment of rest in the drama where he says, well, look, this is where we are. We can't, you know, we just have to accept where we are and move on. Okay, it does seem to work, but that's his life.

Speaker 2:

So big shout out to Dave Lusher. We love that.

Speaker 3:

He was chief pilot for British Airways for many years until he retired at 55. He's now 82. So he was Captain Dave Lusher, which is why he became Captain Rockwire when he transferred. Yeah, and then another line is and we all use this and it's a little bit dated as a line, but it's go with the flow. Now, very good friend of mine, one of my best friends, marilyn, she helped me a lot when I went through multiple rounds of IVF and I actually went through 13 rounds of IVF in the end and she would come with me to the various operations. There were a lot of operations and procedures and as time went on on I would get more and more stressed and, um, uh, frightened, I guess, and she would just say to me go with the blow, go with the blow. And I would hear her words as I was wheeled into the next procedure. Yeah, and it would work and it would calm me down. And it's because it came from her, I think.

Speaker 2:

Um so, and I'm so happy for you that you achieved it after 13. That's tenacity and courage.

Speaker 3:

Well, I couldn't let it go. You know, I couldn't let it go and it took me six years and I lost many along the way and in fact my book is at number one in the infertility chart on the Amazon book chart. Because I talk about what happened? Because it was trying to keep Rockquad going at the same time as dealing with trying to be a mother. But of course Hamilton came along you hear the expression miracle baby. But it really was wonderful that we could end that part of our lives where we had to keep trying like that. So go with the flow really helped me to calm myself down. But the official quote and I wonder if you might guess who said this, I'm not going to say you won't get it, because that's not fair, but here we are. Here's the quote have courage and be kind. Where there is kindness, there is goodness, and where there is goodness, there is magic. I where there is goodness, there is magic.

Speaker 2:

I'll have a pop of Shakespeare, but probably not.

Speaker 3:

I'm afraid wrong, it was Cinderella. I have it on a little bag and I have it in my. It's like a makeup bag, you know, and I have it. I don't use it. I don't want to ruin it, so I keep it empty. But I have it next to my bed and it says have courage and be kind. Where there is kindness, there is goodness, and where there is goodness, there is magic that is gold right there, and factually as well.

Speaker 2:

One of my favorite quotes is from finding nemo and dory, the fish going, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming. So now, um, what notes, help or advice, with the gift of hindsight, would you proffer to a younger version of yourself?

Speaker 3:

um, I would say to myself relax and enjoy and socialize, being a being a teenager, because I grafted all the way through and I didn't socialize and I didn't have those years of parties and things. I was singing in nightclubs from the age of 14 and grafting, so perfecting my art as a singer, pianist and lying about my age to many nightclubs and bars in Birmingham whilst everyone else was just having a good time.

Speaker 2:

As my daughter says to me Dad, you need to take a chill pill. You've reminded me of Jungle Book and Baloo going. If you're working as hard as that bumblebee working, uh-uh, cool it. You work in japan. Have you done any jungle book music like the bare necessities or stuff like that?

Speaker 3:

um, if we, if we run a kids choir again, we might bring that back. They are some of the greatest songs from that movie. Yes, in fact my husband knows all the words. He sings it to Little Hamilton. So yeah, big fan of Disney here.

Speaker 2:

And Little Hamilton is presumably not named after the musical.

Speaker 3:

No, it was named after the capital of Bermuda because we used to go to Bermuda a lot and in the end we would go after another failed attempt of IVF and we would go to try and just recover and the capital is Hamilton and that just transferred into calling him that and we took him within months to Hamilton to introduce him to the city and had a lovely time.

Speaker 2:

So Hamilton and Bermuda is obviously another resonant happy place for you because of that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's a really lovely place. It doesn't get talked about a lot but we found a lovely hotel where the staff got to know us very well and they were almost queuing up when we arrived with Hamilton to show him off and they were thrilled for us. So it became another social kind of family over at that hotel. But we haven't been for a few years.

Speaker 2:

We're now ramping up to Shakespeare in a few moments, but just before we get there. And Shakespeare is going to talk about legacy in a few moments, but just before we get there. This is the Pass the Golden Baton moment, please. Now you've experienced this from within. Caroline Redmond-Lusher, who would you most like to pass the golden baton along to, in order to keep the golden thread of the storytelling?

Speaker 3:

I would like to pass the golden baton to a very dear friend of mine who is a Grammy and Emmy award-winning record producer called Kipper Eldridge. He is amazing, he's spiritual, he's extremely talented, he has supported me a lot, he's the godfather of Hamilton, the godfather, the godfather and he has worked with many, many brilliant artists over the years and is just a guy that everyone needs in their life because he's so positive and happy.

Speaker 2:

Love that. Everyone needs a Kipper in their lives. I love that. What a name.

Speaker 3:

Kipper, that's glorious Well he's called Mark, but everyone knows him as Kipper from school days, I guess.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I'm intrigued to ask why now I?

Speaker 3:

don't know actually. No, I can't remember what I like. It's one thing very basic, yes, very basic.

Speaker 2:

And at school it's normally very basic, isn't it? But anyway, I'm sure it's not because of that. Okay, and now inspired by Shakespeare, and all the worlds and siege, and all the men and women, merely players, and this is now tapping into my hefting background. This is borrowing from the seven ages of man's speech. Um how, when all is said and done, a caroline redmond lusher would you most like to be?

Speaker 3:

remembered. I think this is the phrase I would like. The phrase is she sang, she danced and she enabled others to experience joy, and I love reincorporating deliberately.

Speaker 2:

Just say that once again, please. He sang, she danced and she enabled others to experience joy, and I love reincorporating deliberately. Just say that once again, please.

Speaker 3:

She sang, she danced and she enabled others to experience joy.

Speaker 2:

Where can we find out all about Rock Choir? Caroline Redmond-Lusher on the old interweb, and I'm going to show you your QR codes in a minute.

Speaker 3:

Okay, so it's rockchoircom If you're interested in. Any of your viewers are interested in joining rock choir. All they'll need to do is book a free taster session and put their postcode in and it will come up with all the local rehearsal times and nights and venues and they just book in and they'll be welcomed at the door and they can try it out before committing and as it says there on the very small title is you are, we know this the uk's original award-winning contemporary choir experience.

Speaker 2:

And then we've got your personal website, which is hold the line caller here, please, do you want to?

Speaker 3:

talk caroline redmond lushercom. It's got all the latest facts. It's got my biog on there. It's got links to songs and videos and my social media posts, so all my information's on there. And of course there is a bit about rock choir on there as well, because that's my world.

Speaker 2:

Lovely. And what's the title of your book?

Speaker 3:

My book is called oh, I thought I heard it. It's called Sing the Story of Rock Choir.

Speaker 2:

And when did you publish that?

Speaker 2:

It came out on the 15th of October, and it's available on all the platforms available on all the platforms and I it was enamored in researching you before today and this morning I watched this. It's fix you the official um. You know chris martin cold plate song, but it's beautiful, beautiful, very um emotional I I challenge you to watch it without before the end. So that's that um here. Here comes a deliberately coachy final question, as this has been your moment in the sunshine, in the Good, listening To show Caroline, redmond, lusher, rock, choir, queen and Gordis. Is there anything else you'd like to?

Speaker 3:

say. I would like to say even if Rock Choir isn't the thing for people to join that please sing. Please sing every day and feel the good vibes and those endocannabinoids are released when you start singing and have a lovely, happy life caroline redmond lusher, brought to you by the words cannibal endocannabinoid and you've created a phenomenon in the rock choir.

Speaker 2:

That's all fantastic, wonderful. So you've been listening to caroline redmond, a phenomenon in the rock choir. That's all fantastic, wonderful. So you've been listening to Caroline Redmond-Lusher, the rock choir, goddess. So I've been Chris Grimes. This has been Caroline Redmond-Lusher. Thank you very much indeed. Good night. You've been listening to the Good Listening To Show with me, chris Grimes.

Speaker 2:

If you'd like to be in the show too, or indeed gift an episode to capture the story of someone else with me as your host, then you can find out how care of the series strands at the goodlistening2showcom website, and one of the series strands is called Good Books. If you've written a good book and you'd like more people to know about it, then a large audience awaits you in the clearing as you tell us all about it. You also get to put your good book on a metaphorical plinth within the clearing plus read an extract from it too, and then, very importantly, we find out exactly where we can come and find your good book to buy it from. You Tune in next week for more stories from the clearing and don't forget to subscribe and review wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back as a quick surprise for you all.

Speaker 2:

I thought it finished because I forgot to get track number three, please. So sorry about that. That was me, um you know, getting sucked into the vortex of my own structure. So, caroline redmond, this is a postscript. What is the third rock choir track that you'd like to gift to the program?

Speaker 3:

the third rock choir track is keeping the dream alive. We recorded it, uh, during 2020, in those difficult times, and it reached the itunes christmas number one boom, take it away.

Speaker 2:

Damn the podcast editor. You'll know what to do. Good night.

Speaker 1:

Tonight, the rain is falling Full of memories Of people and places, and while the past is calling In my fantasy, I remember their faces. The hopes we had were much too high. We're out of reach, but we have to try. The game will never be over because we're keeping the dream alive.