In our ongoing series where we bring the lowdown on cities across Britain to discover what is happening on the Christian music scene, John Baugh reports on Reading.

LARRY MILLER
STYLE: Blues Rock
LINE UP: Larry (guitar, vocals), Andy Aust (drums, keyboards), Mel Waters (bass), Julian Turner Bell (drums, vocals)
BACKGROUND: Blues rock guitarist Larry Miller is firmly in the mainstream musical arena. Playing guitar is all he has wanted to do since he picked up his brother's guitar and within a year had put together his first band - and written all their material. Larry and his band have built up a large following all over the UK and have performed alongside artists as diverse as Peter Green, Ian Gillan, Climax Blues Band, Thunder and Walter Trout. Thousands have now seen Larry perform at the Reading Festival, Kent Bike Show and the Massive Bulldog Bash. One of "the most innovative performers around," said Kerrang. His most recent recording live n Loud' (2001) speaks for itself. ABOUT HIS MINISTRY: "God invented rock'n'roll and I see the great power it has on people all the time. Some folk come to our gigs, and you can almost see the clouds over their heads, but by the end of the evening, those clouds have totally disappeared."
WHY READING FOR THECALL ENGLAND?: "Having lived in the Reading area for about 15 years, I am aware of the diversity of religious culture in this one town, and despite there being a lot of churches dotted around, I am not sure that many take up their commission in preaching the Gospel of Salvation in order to lead people to Jesus. However, I see this event as a statement that God is alive and answers prayer. I'm sure the organizers would have sought him for a suitable venue and trust that the people of Reading will be moved!"

RENDERED
STYLE: Rock
LINE UP: Matt Greener (drums), Graeme Moorcroft (bass), James del Rio (guitars), Dan Buchanan (vocals), Jess del Rio (guitars)
BACKGROUND: The band formed in 1998 with a view to having fun and being available for whatever God may want them to do. This led to three years of gigging all over the country in pubs, student unions and youth events. In February 2001 they felt that they needed a break as God was telling them clearly to stop. Now, after a 14-month break, the band are back but with a very different objective. They feel that they need to share their lives as well as the music with the people they meet and so for now will be playing more exclusively within Reading pubs and clubs but more importantly developing relationships within the Reading music scene. They also feel that the standard of music must never be compromised so will for the foreseeable future be writing new songs and rehearsing the live show. The band have so far recorded two independent albums, 'Journey' (2000) and 'Rendered' (2001).
ABOUT THEIR MINISTRY: Jess de Rio: "We want, as much as possible, to remain unknown among Christians as we see this work as no different to what any other unsung Christians are doing all over the country. We are very excited to be in Reading as the spiritual temperature continues to rise!"
WHY READING FOR THECALL ENGLAND?: "God is doing so much in Reading with the Boiler Room and the focus of recent prophetic words being towards the town. Things seem to be really kicking off."

WITH ONE VOICE
STYLE: Gospel
LINE UP: 45-member choir plus Junior Bernard (musical director), Ruth Bernard (choir director)
BACKGROUND: For a while the idea of a gospel choir with members taken from across the town was there. There was also a desire for a choir to help at cross-town events with as many people as possible being involved rather than just a more usual small band of musicians. It took the planning of a conference this May held by the Church Of God Worldwide Mission to bring it to reality. The desire is to link cross-church, cross culture, black and white praising God together. This has worked to an extent with at present nine churches represented. Also it has become a cross-generational expression of worship with an age range about as large as you could get.
ABOUT THEIR MINISTRY: Junior Bernard: "The choir is here for whatever God leads the Church in Reading into in terms of joint events. Apart from the music, a choir full of worshippers in full flow is such a motivation for a congregation to 'go for it'."
WHY READING FOR THECALL ENGLAND?: "There are certainly good practical reasons. A good size venue with good transport links and close proximity to London. Also there is a godly history that God could want us to reconnect with. Reading has also been referred to as a town 'most ready for transformation'."

SHOPS

GREYFRIARS BOOKSHOP
LOCATION: Greyfriars Church Centre, Friar Street, Reading
FACTS: There has been a Christian bookshop linked to Greyfriars Church in Reading town centre for 19 years. More than just a town centre Christian bookshop, the location within Greyfriars Church Centre is important as the Centre includes a cafe and the link between the two is very much part of the vision, with people who wouldn't otherwise come into a Christian bookshop coming into the cafe and having the opportunity to taste and see. ABOUT THE MINISTRY: John Brown: "The bookshop is there to serve the local church and local schools."
WHY READING FOR THECALL ENGLAND?: "Well, Reading is needy as anywhere else. There are good things happening here with an increase in churches working together and a weekly meeting of 40-45 church leaders meeting at Greyfriars to pray."

ST ANDREWS BOOKSHOP
LOCATIONS: Holme Grange Craft Village, Heathlands Road, Wokingham 60 London Street, Reading BACKGROUND: The two outlets of the St Andrews chain are of quite different character. The Reading one serves more typical "in town" shoppers and is in a location that has had a Christian bookshop for a very long time. In Wokingham the placement of a shop six years ago in an out of town craft village means the customers are more likely to be on a special trip out and have probably traveled from further afield. Both shops have a full range of types of stock although Reading, being larger, can cover a wider pan. The commitment to music (the area of highest sales growth) is demonstrated at Reading with about a quarter of the shop being CDs, tapes and videos and having a listening post providing a chance to hear new releases. Also linked in is a Music Club, not a typical club where you can only order from the provided selection, you can also use your membership to get a discount on anything in the shops themselves.
ABOUT THE MINISTRY: Tony Bronnimann (director): "We serve the local church through partnerships and relationships. Following the demise of old style church book agents there are now two schemes allowing church-based bookstalls access to the ever increasing range of high quality books, music, etc, that is only possible by a link to a larger retailer such as St Andrews.
WHY READING FOR THECALL ENGLAND?: "I have no idea, but Reading is certainly privileged."

Organisations

THE BOILER ROOM
Forbury Vaults, 21 Abbey St, Reading.
BACKGROUND: The Boiler Room is the product of a number of years of strong youth work in the town of Reading and particularly through the 24-7 prayer initiative. For many years churches in the town have been working together and in February 2000, when Greyfriars Church organized a week of round the clock prayer, many others got involved. From there it grew into months of 24-hour prayer and a number of amazing answers to prayer took place. It grew into a group in excess of 200 local young people involved in 24-7 prayer, many of whom were still investigating what faith is all about. From there The Boiler Room became a question of joining up the dots, of joining up these weeks of prayer to make continuous prayer throughout the year. On Saturday 20 October 2001 at 9pm, a massive Come On signaled the beginning of prayer, which may never stop. The Boiler Room has been a place of 24-hour prayer since then and has already become a place of peace for a great many people, from inside and outside the Church. The Boiler Room has played a sizable role in the build up to TheCall with many of the prayer and worship events using it.
ABOUT THE MINISTRY Andy Freeman: "The Boiler Room has a number of specific aims, all of which were inspired by the work and life of the monasteries - particularly Reading Abbey, which dominated the town until the late 16th century.
(a) Continuous Prayer - At its heart The Boiler Room is and always will be about passionate prayer.
(b) Creativity - The Boiler Room is about encouraging and resourcing an explosion of creativity in expressive worship and prayer to God. There aims to be something for everyone, whatever their ability. In the music sphere there is often impromptu music and worship going on - some have written songs in The Boiler Room. We try and resource local bands and worship leaders - like Rendered and Jericho - just trying to get people into them -people like Paul Cook - giving some support and help. Music is always a part of what we're about even if it's just on the stereo.
(c) Serving the poor and mission - Prayer without action is empty religion. So from the start The Boiler Room has been a place to get stuck in particularly by linking into what local charities are doing.
(d) Community - The Boiler Room isn't meant to be based on hype, technology, fashion or status. It's based on a God who said 'love me and love each other'. So that everyone who visits should know how valued they are.
(e) Pilgrimage - The Boiler Room offers limited accommodation for pilgrims. Anyone can - by booking ahead - stay and pray a night. The Boiler Room does endeavor to make the long-forgotten spiritual gift of hospitality a core value."
WHY READING FOR THECALL ENGLAND?: "To be honest I don't have a clue. That's helpful isn't it but I've got to be honest."

SOUND FOUNDATION
LOCATION: Unit A4, Acre Business Park, Acre Road, Reading
BACKGROUND: What started as a hobby in 1990 when Mark Payne and Graham Preston got interested in providing sound and lights for events as well as recording and production services became according to Mark" monster", needing their full time attention, so they went full time with it. As the business has grown they've chosen to employ staff rather than use freelancers and they now have a total staff of 10 (and a turnover £750,000). They are often called upon to resource local Christian events and as such could be described as being at the hub of what's going on (for example they are doing a lot of consultancy work for TheCall). As a way of giving back to the Church community they sometimes provide technical services at or below cost.
ABOUT THE MINISTRY: Mark Payne: "This is a Christian company which is run as a business but we find opportunities along the way to support local Christian bands, local events and local charities. We apply Christian values (eg, an open approach to sharing opportunities) and find that it does make an impression on non-Christian business partners. Our policy on employing staff, then encouraging them to grow and learn the business, means that as people have moved on into the industry we feel like the parents of several little production companies that in turn cover areas of work which would be too small for Sound Foundation."
WHY READING FOR THECALL ENGLAND?: Mark confessed that when thinking about a big event like theCall his professional/technical thoughts hold sway - "I don't really know why Reading was chosen and I'm not really trying to find out."
John Baugh provides bass-ics at Kings Church, Reading. He acknowledges the use of material from the various artists' websites.