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GRAND FINALE–Confetti showers the Pasadena Tabernacle Songsters at the end of their performance at the Royal Albert Hall. The concert, celebrating 100 years of Army Songster brigades, capped a week-long tour of the United Kingdom.
The Pasadena Tabernacle Songsters brought Fourth of July fireworks a month early to London’s Royal Albert Hall as they represented the United States in the celebration of 100 years of Salvation Army Songster brigades.
For their final number the Songsters performed the “Hallelujah Chorus with Worthy is the Lamb”–a contemporary Gospel adaptation of the classic piece, complete with special confetti cannons that showered the arena with red, yellow and blue confetti and streamers.
The Tabernacle Songsters also conducted a seven-day Celebrate tour of Great Britain, accompanied by Tab Corps Officers Majors Chick and Margaret Yuill, prior to their participation at the Royal Albert Hall. Beginning at Portsmouth Citadel, then moving on to Birmingham, Blackpool Citadel, Wellingborough, and finally Regent Hall, the Songsters sang to sold-out crowds at each location.
“The tour went beyond our expectations. We were overwhelmed by the crowd’s response and enthusiasm,” Songster Leader Bill Flinn said. “I was proud of the Songsters and their ability to communicate the message in an exciting and relevant way.”
For the Tabernacle Songsters the stop at Regent Hall was a reunion for the group, who stopped at that corps during their 1990 tour of the United Kingdom. While there this time it was a record-breaking attendance day for the Regent Hall Corps, according to CSM Richard Stock, who reported that they had a total of 2,000 people in attendance that day.
“When [the Tab Songsters] came in 1990 they introduced this territory to a fresh approach to the presentation of the message through Salvation Army music,” Stock said. “[Their] ‘refresher’ visit has helped to maintain the impetus.”