The choir that saved our lives

By Amanda Cable

YORK, SURREY, UK — At five am on February 12 this year, the
most unlikely hit squad ever boarded a coach in Surrey on a secret
mission which had been organised with military-style precision.

Dressed in black, the gang consisted of 100 coiffured ladies and
dapper gents from Farnham who set off under cover of darkness,
driving north to carry out their ‘attack’.

Their target was York’s bustling McArthur Glen shopping centre,
where, at noon, a dark-haired woman jumped up with a microphone and
began to sing Dancing In The Street.

As stunned shoppers ground to a halt, a grey-haired lady nearby
put down her coffee cup and stood up to join in the song. Her
husband took to his feet, singing and dancing. Suddenly, from all
corners of the shopping centre, the Surrey gang members joined the
song-and-dance routine.

These scenes, which sound like something from TV hit series
Glee, came courtesy of the biggest choir sensation of our time. The
members of Rock Choir — ages ranging from six to 88 — now number
8,000 in total.

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Founder Caroline Redman Lusher, who led the singing in York,
says: ‘I think the public were in total shock. As soon as we had
finished, all the choir members mingled back into the crowd, or sat
back down drinking coffee as if nothing had happened.’

The extraordinary scenes are shown in a new ITV1 series about
the Rock Choir, which started six years ago with an advertisement
displayed in the window of a coffee shop in Farnham. It asked for
adult members to join a new choir — with no audition, or ability to
read music required.