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April 2008

on the 1st of april i got on a flight from heathrow to beijing china. this was a project that had been talked about for a while and the day was finally here. Mark tedder is a worship leader i'd met a few years ealier at the spring harvest event in skegness in england. i love him. he's a great guy and has a great voice and a great family. i'd worked on some demos for him, and recorded a live dvd at his church in colorado spings in 2004. he's living in beijing now leading worship in the 'beijing international church' and he'd decided to get the old team together for live dvd number 2.

we had pretty mch the same band as before (the worshiplannet band) who come from all over the world. Iceland, usa, germany, italy, czech republic. i love this band. i hadn't seen most of them since the last recording but they are a great team. i arrived on wednesday the 2nd and spent the day hanging out with mark and carrie. the rest of the band started arriving from lunch time onwards on various flights from around the world.

THE THURSDAY AND FRIDAY WERE SPENT IN REHEARSLS GOING THROUGH THE SONGS, MAKING SURE WE HAD ALL THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF THINGS SORTED OUT. THAT HAD BEEN A BIT OF A NIGHTMARE. I'D BEEN TRYING FOR MONTHS TO TRACK DOWN THE GEAR I NEEDED TO MAKE THE RECORDING HAPPEN AND HADN'T BEEN ABLE TO SOURCE WHAT I NEEDED OUT THERE. MARK HAD INTRODUCED ME VIA E-MAIL TO DOUG WHO CAME FROM HAWAI AND HAD BEEN LIVING OUT THERE FOR A FEW YEARS. HE HAD A HOME STUDIO AND BETWEEN WHAT HE HAD THERE, AND WHAT I MANAGED TO FIT IN MY SUITCASE WE HAD COME UP WITH A PLAN WHICH IN THEORY SHOULD WORK BUT IN REALITY I REALLY WANTED TO GET IT ALL TOGETHER AND MAKE SURE.

I MET DOUG ON THE FRIDAY. A REALLY COOL GUY. HE WAS a true pro and really helped me out a lot. we got our gear together in the theatre on the saturday and made it happen. saturday afternoon the band came in for soundchecks and we recorded a complete run through all the songs. everything went great now all we needed was the audience.

the whole team after the dvd shoot in beijing

the next day was sunday and we recorded 2 church services which had been given over compeletely to mark and the band for the dvd shoot. the recording was a success. the band did great. now my work really was to begin. i spent the rest of that day in my hotel room editing and going through the best takes to use from each service until i was happy i'd got the best of everything. it was a lon day and night and i felt sorry for georgio who i was sharing a room with as he slept in bed and i sat up at the computer with my headphones on tap tap tapping till the wee hours fo the morning.

china is an amazing place and you haven't really tasted chineese food till you've been there. mark looked after us all really well.

i spent monday in dougs studio fixing up a few bits and pieces, and also tuesday morning before heading off the rest of that day to see the great wall of china.

overdubs at dougs place. Doug on the left and mark with the toast.

me and manu the bass player on the great wall.

i left for home early wednesday morning and then on thursday was on another flight to toulouse in france for a couple of days holiday with rach and the boys. I got back from there on sunday 13th and began work mixing marks project. iworked on that up till the 19th, and on the 20th was off to sydney australia to start another delirious tour, and this really was the last time stew would be playing drums for them.

we played 2 nights in sydney, then melbourne, gold coast, adelaide and back to sydney and hillsongs church for stews last gig. it was a very emotional night for everyone and all through the show ian the tour manager and me were trying not to make eye contact because we knew we'd start crying. obviously we never did. we're much too tough for all that soppy stuff...

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