[15 May 09] Lourdes Pilgrimage 2009

On Saturday 23rd May, several hundred pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Birmingham will set off to Lourdes, under the leadership of Bishop Philip Pargeter and Bishop David McGough. It promises, as ever, to be a wonderful, faith-filled adventure.

As has been the custom in recent years, the music for the pilgirmage litrugies will be led by Jo Boyce, Mike Stanley, Andrew Ross and a team of able volunteers.

A new Mass setting - Mass of St Bernadette, has been written especially for this year's pilgrimage, which has as its pastoral theme The Path of Bernadatte.

Pilgrims wanting have a preview of the new settings - which uses the text as set in the forthcoming new translation of the Roman Missal - can click here to launch the Lourdes Music player. (opens in new, pop-up window)

listen: Mass of St Bernadette

[15 May 09] Rejoice 'n' Sing Audio CDs - OUT SOON!

It's been a while coming, but this Summer will at last see the release of the Rejoice 'n' Sing Audio CD Collection! Hooray!

This long-awaited 4 CD set includes recordings of all the songs in the recently released Rejoice 'n' Sing Digital Songbook. Many of them are the original recordings from the much-missed and oft-requested albums, Imagine A World and Again I Say Rejoice! (Alleluia! I hear you mutter under your breath...)

To delight you even further, if you order both the Digital Songbook and the forthcoming Audic CD Collection you'll save £5.00!! So what are you waiting for?

shop: order online now

[23 April 09] Age to Age Spring Concerts

Spring has spurng and while we are basking in the joy of the Resurrection and the light of warmer longer evenings, the ever-busy duo of Boyce & Stanley are preparing for the Spring leg of their Age to Age pilgrimage.

WHEN & WHERE
SAT 09 MAY, 7:30pm	//	Our Lady's WELWYN G'DEN CITY
SUN 10 MAY, 6:00pm	//	St Francis' Church KENILWORTH
SAT 27 JUN, 7:30pm	//	St Edmund's School DOVER
SUN 28 JUN, 6:00pm	//	All Saints Church HARROW
TICKETS: £7.50.00 (£5.00 conc)			Book now: Boxoffice

[23 Apr 09] Walk With Me - Easter Podcasts

Following on from the Lenten series, the current, FREE Eastertide podcast series features prayer and reflections led by Lord David Alton, Bishop Malcolm McMahon, OP and Charles Whitehead

As we journey toward the feast of Pentecost, this current podcast series and Walk With Me programme is an invitation to surrender once more to the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can be more attentive and responsive to the Word of God that is spoken to each of us.

more: Walk With Me podcasts

[06 Jan 09] Radio 4 Sunday Worship

If you are a "morning" person, you may be awake early enough on Sunday 11 January, to catch BBC Radio 4's Sunday Worship broadcast at 8:10am.

The Eucharistic celebration for the Feast of the Baptism of The Lord will broadcast live from St Thomas More RC Church in Coventry. Music will be led by our own Jo Boyce and Mike Stanley, alongside the musicians and singers of the Parish.

If your eyelids aren't accustomed to being open at 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning (and who can blame you?!), you can always "listen again" via the BBC website.

[16 Oct 08] Good Morning Aled!

Boyce & Stanley are now regular favourites of BBC Radio 2's Good Morning Sunday show with Aled Jones.

They made the jaunt down to the London Studios on Sunday 12th October, to chat about their current tour, new album, Age to Age II- the Journey Continues, and share a live rendintion of When I Survey The Wondrous Cross. Only the brave few offer to sing live at that time in the morning!

Listen: AGE TO AGE PODCAST SERIES:

[15 Oct 08] 150 Years + 150 Voices

The current leg of the Age to Age pilgrimage got off to a fine start in Plymouth on Saturday 4th October. The concert was the final part of a fantatsic youth day entitled 150 Voices, organised by Plymouth's Diocesan Department for Formation as part of the ongoing celebration of the 150th Anniversary of Plymouth Cathedral.

More than 40 young people joined Boyce and Stanley on stage to add their voices to the songs of Age to Age. It was a perfect way to end a day that had encourged the youth to find their own voice and expression while remaining faithful to the truth and tradition of the Church.

The 150th Anniversary of the Cathedral of St Mary and St Boniface is not so much a celebration of a building as it is a celebration of a people. A pilgrim people, whose songs of faith echo down the generations.

The journey continues...

"I just wanted to say thank you for what was an absolutely fantastic week at our parish and a breath-taking concert in Plymouth. Thanks to the happiness your music brought, our parish is starting a youth music group that will provide the music at Mass at least once a month, possibly more."
[JAMES]

[28 Sep 08] Age to Age II + The Journey Continues

NEW ALBUM, OUT NOW!

The much talked about follow-up to Boyce & Stanley's 10th anniversary album, "Age to Age + The Journey Continues" has at last hit the streets and is causing a bit of a stir. Not least because the duo are trying to figure out how to get back the iPod nano they gave to the Pope last year so that they can update it for him.

Age To Age II + The Journey Continues, features more well-know and well-loved classics including Come Back To Me (Hosea), Eagles Wings, a reworking of the much-loved Boyce & Stanley classic, Song to The Trinity and much more.

info: www.agetoage.co.uk
info: pressrelease [word document]

[16 Jun 08] Good Morning Pilgrims

Fresh (or not so!) from their week's pilgrimage in Lourdes leading the music for the Archdiocese of Birmingham's annual pilgrimage, Boyce & Stanley appeared live on Good Morning Sunday to share their memories and reflections.

Mike summed up the experience in the following reflection which he read on air:

"I came across a quote earlier this week, it said: 'Young people have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love gossip. They contradict their parents and tyrannize their teachers'. You might think that it came from one of our national newspapers, but actually it's a quote from a Greek philosopher, Socrates writing in the 5th century BC. It seems then, young people have always attracted a bad press.

In reality we have a very different picture. During this past week thousands of pilgrims from the United Kingdom and Ireland have been in Lourdes on Pilgrimage. Almost half of those travelling with the Birmingham Archdiocese were young people, who gave up a week of their holiday to do something different. And of those receiving a special award for service in Lourdes, 80% of them were young people.

They pushed wheelchairs and trolley's - they made tea for those in hospital. They cared for those less fortunate than themselves in so many practical ways, and they prayed.

Each day during services and masses, during night prayers in the hospital, they prayed with and for those who a week ago they had never met and who are now etched on their hearts and in their minds.

And how proud we can be of them. The kindness, love and generosity of these teenagers and young people won't be on the front pages of tomorrow's press, but for the many pilgrims in Lourdes for whom they have been the heroes and celebrities of this past week, they will certainly have made their headlines."

AGE TO AGE PODCAST SERIES:

[16 May 08] Age to Age - US Release

Friends and fans across the proverbial pond, will be pleased to learn that Boyce & Stanley's latest album, Age to Age has just been release in the USA by World Library Publications (WLP)

WLP are the exclusive North-American distributors of the studio albums of Boyce & Stanley and other works published by CJM Music.

If you are based in the USA, or other parts of North America, click here to order Age to Age online now.

[25 Apr 08] Uncanny Resemblance...

Meet Australian pop stars Guy Sebastian and Paulini. Is it just us, or do this pair bare a more than passing resemblance to our own singing double act, Boyce & Stanley?

Guy Sebastian came to prominence as the winner of the first Australian Idol in 2003. Since then, he has released three top five albums and seven top 20 singles, including three number one hits

Paulini's rich, angelic voice belies her tender age and she is no stranger to the top position in the Australian ARIA charts.

The Australian songsters have come together to record Receive The Power - the theme song for this Summer's World Youth Day.

If you're coming to see Boyce & Stanley at either of their forthcoming gigs in May (see below) you'll hear our lookey-likey duo perform their own interpretation of this uplifting invocation of the Holy Spirit. Not only will it be Pentecost weekend, but many of the young people involved and attending both concerts are busy preparing and fundraising for their own pilgrimage to Sydney for World Youth Day.

Sadly, we won't ALL be going to Sydney in July, but the world youth day pilgrimage is but another stop on a much bigger pilgrimage that we all share - from age to age and from one generation to the next.

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses"
ACTS 1:8

[18 APR 08] Rejoice 'n' Sing Digital Songbook

This new CD-Rom contains ALL the songs and acclamations from BOTH volumes of the popular - but now out of print - Rejoice 'n' Sing music books.

In this age of computer technology and environmental awareness, rather than simply reprint the music books, we have put the music on this CD-Rom in PDF format. Simply insert the disc into your computer and you can print music as needed. "Wow!" I hear you say.

shop: find out more and order online now

[15 APR 08] We've been on Songs of Praise

Our intrepid singing duo, Boyce & Stanley and their handsome band featured on BBC Songs of Praise back on Sunday 30 March.

What do you mean you didn't see it?! Fear not, we've have highlights of the performance right here, recorded live at St Anne's Cathedral in Leeds.

watch: Boyce & Stanley on Songs of Praise
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[18 Feb 08] Welcome Baby Stanley the Third

Mike and his wife Yvonne are delighted to welcome their third son into the family Stanley.

Luke Anthony Stanley was born on Tuesday 12 Feb at 10:50am, weighing a very healthy 8lb 1oz. Luke's parents, and his "big brothers" are over-joyed with the new addition to the clan.

At just six days old, Luke attended his first ever Boyce & Stanley concert and slept all the way through it. Is that a good sign?

[04 Nov 07] Welcome Baby Scott

As if there isn't enough excitement in "cjm world" our small but perfectly-formed team is even smaller at the moment. Our events co-ordinator, Anne Appleton, is on maternity leave until April.

Anne and her husband Jez welcomed bouncing baby boy Scott into the world on Sunday 4th November.

The family are doing well and looking forward to their first Christmas with their new bundle of joy. Our love and prayers are with them all.

[25 Sept 07] An iPod for the Pope

'Boyce & Stanley's brand new album Age to Age hit the streets on 15 September and it's already causing a bit of a stir locally and internationally... Partly because the duo has taken the unprecedented step of sending the album to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI on a personally engraved iPod nano.

As well as recent features in the Catholic Press, news of the Papal iPod has been the talk of BBC Radio 2, BBC Midlands Today, Times Online and many an Internet chat forum.

Not surprisingly, at a time when there is much discussion about what style of music is appropriate within the liturgy, opinion is divided. Even less surprisingly, the traditionalists are the most vocal in their critique of the album.

But Mike's 4 year old son is going around the house singing Salve Regina (so what if he's making up his own words, he is only 4!) Primary school teachers are telling us that they can't wait to teach Sweet Heart of Jesus to the children (calypso disco and all).

A whole new generation is ready to claim these songs as their own because, for the first time, they are hearing them in a genre they can relate to. That's good enough for us.

more: read the full iPod story
google: get online and join the debate

[24 Sept 07] Age to Age - The Brand New Album!

What began as a 10th anniversary celebration and a memorial to the life of a dear friend, has grown into a milestone project celebrating more than three generations of song and faith.

This collection features new arrangements of many of the well-loved, classic Catholic hymns that are etched onto the lips and hearts of churchgoers of all ages.

Many of these songs have - until now - only been heard with the sounds of organ and choir. These beloved favorites are skillfully reinterpreted here with modern instruments, faultless musicianship and the unmistakable sound of the Boyce & Stanley vocal partnership.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols describes the project as "a wonderful bridging of generations which does so much to support the life of prayer and the devotional life of Catholic faith". It is all that and much more.

shop: order the album online
more info: Age to Age mini website
watch: Album launch featured on BBC Midlands Today
read: Studio Diary - the making of the album

[12 April 07] New Instrumental Album

Every Secret Longing is a collection of instrumental piano meditations inspired by the songs of Boyce & Stanley.

Performed and arranged by Andrew Ross and Aidan Pepper, some of the pieces are instantly recognisable as the songs that inspired them, while others take on a new life under the gifted fingers of the pianist.

This collection is ideal for use in all sorts of settings: reconciliation services, quite times of prayer and meditations and - dare we say it - even dinner parties!

shop: Every Secret Longing, CD