Keep Britain Singing with Rock Choir

Rock Choir is the largest contemporary choir of the UK and remains unique with over 32,000 Members participating in approximately 400 local communities across the UK. With coronavirus gripping the country and with many of their Members in isolation, Rock Choir Founder and Creative Director, Caroline Redman Lusher, has pledged that Rock Choir will ‘Keep Britain Singing’.

Rock Choir is known for its unique formula that leads to a natural high and change of mood experienced by its Membership on a weekly basis and confirmed by a singing experiment featured on BBC2’s Trust Me I’m A Doctor. Rock Choir is built on an uplifting ethos of family, fun, friendship and community spirit and for many thousands taking part, it’s a lifeline! Not only does Rock Choir improve lives, but some Members have reported that they’ve come off anti-depressants, found new confidence in themselves and discovered pure happiness. When the entire UK public went into Lockdown isolation, the natural and immediate step was for the Rock Choir Team to find a way to support every individual and family across the UK to offer them a daily boost of Rock Choir.

The current and future well-being of the general public and the Rock Choir Members continues to be the biggest priority for Rock Choir and even with Lockdown restrictions starting to be eased there are many individuals still in isolation. Therefore, Rock Choir are continuing to encourage the whole country to join with them for a daily fun sing-a-long-of uplifting contemporary pop songs via their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheRockChoir/

Since Monday 23rd March, Rock Choir has been going ‘live’ from their Facebook page at 3pm and have committed to this event EVERY DAY until lockdown is lifted fully. The Rock Choir Team of talented musicians and singers will take part in leading the singing and will rotate in front of the camera on a daily basis to deliver an uplifting, positive song via Facebook Live. Each individual or family in isolation will be encouraged to join in and sing with the Leader along with the thousands of Rock Choir Members who will be excited to be singing every day too. The Rock Choir team is committed to making this event happen every day to give everyone some stability and a routine until the self-isolation guidelines are lifted.

Rock Choir has positively impacted not just its Members but their relationships around them too; their family, friends and colleagues. With their ‘Keep Britain Singing’ project, the hope is that everyone will continue to feel better and stronger the more they sing.

Each song will be announced the day before each session is broadcast and the activity will include the mass sing-a-long as well as fun extras, singing tips and ideas to help everyone connect with music over this period of time. Song requests and interaction will also be very welcome!

Rock Choir are currently teaching their normal choir rehearsal schedule using live interactive teaching sessions online. All Members are asked to login and participate at their normal rehearsal time and will therefore be able to interact with one other and their Leader. None of the current Rock Choir Membership will miss out on any of their sessions and this is vital for morale and wellbeing in these testing times.

Last month as part of Mental Health Awareness Week, Rock Choir held a live 24-hour fundraiser which incorporated ‘Keep Britain Singing’ as well as musical events and social musical sessions, messages from Members and celebs in a virtual Rock Choir Music Festival. The event raised £45,000 in just 24 hours!

Caroline Redman Lusher Comments:“The well-being of our Members is and will always be our absolute priority and now we have the whole country to consider too! We have 32,000 ‘Rockies’ in Rock Choir who, along with the rest of the general public, will each be facing uncertainty. Some will be scared, some lonely and others will be in isolation potentially for a long length of time. As well as committing to running our normal rehearsal schedule we are encouraging them and the public to join us daily and benefit from the well-being effects of Rock Choir whilst we ask that our Rockies reach out to their family, friends and neighbours to all become part of a much bigger community of support. We have been hearing some inspirational stories from our Rockies who are already true community heroes during this crisis. I implore everyone to join in and sing with us each day. We can then contribute to everyone’s daily routine and be a reliable and constant source of support for our Members and the UK community.

We know that singing boosts our levels of Endocannabinoids – neurotransmitters thought to be the cause of the ‘natural high’. As well as giving us a ‘buzz’, these chemicals are linked to improving mood and reducing anxiety and stress. This is essential to our well-being and we aim to try and replicate these feelings with our online singing activities!”