Hi! I'm Adrian Cherrill and welcome to my website!

I'm a musician, singer-songwriter and Christian worship leader based in south east Essex.

Use the links at the top of this page to find out more about me and what I do.

All the latest news and updates can be found below:

Latest News

A belated Happy Christmas and a not so belated Every Blessing for 2008!!

Yep, finally got round to an update of sorts. We're in the new house (but I still haven't got round to getting broadband yet), and decorating, surrounded by boxes, dismantled wardrobes etc. We now have a new boiler, which was thankfully installed just before it got really cold.

Spoke to Richard just before Christmas, looks like we'll be going ahead with the idea of me going down and kicking off some of the acoustic tracks, maybe lay down some guide guitar and vocals or something. Mark is chopping at the bit to get practicing again too.

I was involved with a piece for one of the carol services which was sorted out by Faith Gurel, where 6 of us (Trev, Rachel, Heather, Clare Parry (from Taste), Faith and myself) sang to a Hillsongs backing track. Was certainly good fun, and got a lot of positive feedback too. I'm hoping it's done my vocals some good too.

Have been getting some song ideas again (including a venture into 6/8 time!) but the house is taking a bit of priority at the moment.

The dates are up albeit a bit after the show, so to speak, but it serves as a good reminder of just how much opportunity to play the Lord blesses me with, for which I'm very grateful. 

Next update I will try and review the best and worst bits of the year.

BFN :)

There's even less going on at the moment. We're moving on the 30th, so this'll probably be the last update of any kind for a while.

I have been in touch with Richard about the recording. He's got some more gear, including Cubase, which should allow us to get much better results from the recordings. I'm still toying with the idea of going down there on my own and starting on one or two acoustic tracks (possibly 'Sinner's Lament' and 'All For Love' or maybe a re-recording of and older one) just to get things started. Although we have a lot on our plates at the moment, I kind of feel that once we've started it'll kick things off, if you get my drift.

Christmas Street Witness is confirmed as 15th Dec, and Nov's is on 10th, not the 3rd. I should be able to get November's dates up next week before the PC gets packed down but other than that, that's all for now :)

There isn't much happening at the moment. We're signing contracts tomorrow for our house move, so that'll bring it one step nearer, hopefully before the end of October.

James & Laura's wedding was great (but tiring) day. The band we put together for the service sounded awesome (even though I do say so myself!!). We had Matt on lead guitar, Ness on percussion, Sonia & Catherine on BVs, Stu on bass, and myself on vocals & acoustic guitar, with friends of Laura and James on piano (Liam) and drums (Shane) who arrived safely from Canterbury despite the close attentions of a lorry on the M2. As usual for a wedding in a church like RBC, a number of people seemed surprised at the contemporary sound, even of the one hymn we did (How Great Thou Art). Attention then turned to the evening, were I did a short set (Travis' 'Sing' and Snow Patrol's 'Spitting Games'), as did several other friends of the newlyweds, and finished off the evening with Lucy (sister of the bride) with a rendition of the Counting Crow's 'Accidentally in Love' from of all things, Shrek2 (Lucy's choice, I just sang and played guitar............).

October's a quiet month, we're away a few Sundays, but the dates are up.

Ach! Gretl's do is off. Shame really, I was looking forward to that, but the circumstances are unavoidable, so never mind.

Preparing for James and Laura's birthday, and already have a 'booking' for next year, Matt (as in Menlove) and Jayne are getting married and want me to lead the worship band at there wedding which I was honoured to accept. Jayne is from Liverpool, so that'll be the furthest I've ever played away from home!!!

I'm slowly getting to grips with that half-capo. You can get some nice sounds out of it. There's a song definitely in the pipeline.

Street witness tomorrow, hopefully a last appearance from Heather, before she goes off to uni. Other than that, it'll be me and Ness as usual, with Les doing his bit when we take a breather. 2pm-4pm in Rayleigh High Street, home in time for the football (though whether it's worth rushing home for remains to be seen).

Cheers for now.

Soul Survivor was wet! But still great.

I did buy a djembe (still not sure of spelling) and it sound cool and not a little 'tribal' (but then it would do wouldn't it?), don't bother asking how much it was though....

Got to three of the gigs, Spoken Groove were their usual excellent selves, had some good chats with both Peter Nevland and Paul Finley, and you can check them out here, they were even working in the resources centre for Soul Survivor. Also saw [dweeb] (yes, with the brackets...), well any band whose debut cd is called 'Moose Moose Moose Chicken Moose' has got to be checked out haven't they? Have to say they were pretty good but not totally my cup of tea, like a cross between Muse (who I do like), nu-metal and modern punk (which I don't like really). Also saw the new expanded OneHundredHours line-up and despite Tre Sheppard being ill they still rocked. Must get their new CD. Didn't get to see Electralyte but then I had seen them a few weeks ago at Solid.

The worship was as good as ever. Ben Cantelon doing the bulk, with Tim Hughes, plus a few new people from SS Watford who all did really well. The talks were also much better this year too. Quite a lot of testimonies which I think is often as effective as expounding the Word, especially to young people.

What's happening on my music front then? Not a lot really. The next major thing will be preparing a set for Gretl's birthday bash, which should be fun. It'll be the first time I've played live in front of an audience almost all of whom won't know any of the material (other than any covers) since I played in Norwich.

The recording stuff has gone a little quiet over the summer, everyone has either been away, busy or both, but I've still got plenty of ideas buzzing around. One involves using one of those cut capos that only covers the A, D and G strings. As usual it's really the lyrics that are the hardest bit, but Matt and I have promised to get together soon to start bashing some ideas into shape. Naturally, I'm praying for inspiration too. There is a little update over on the New Album Songs page.

September Dates are up, click here to have a view, busy month. Sometime within that lot we hope to be moving!!

Off to Soul Survivor on Monday, with a load of the Young People from church. Looking forward to it, it's still good even for a 39yr old!!!

I'll post up a review of the bands there when I come back. Two are Electralyte and OneHundredHours (again), both good for a rock out. Looks like Ben Cantelon has his debut out, so should pick that up whilst I'm there, and I'm hoping to buy a djemby (spelling anyone??) too. That's a drum btw.

On the music front, Simon Black is giving up the Black Cat Music nights and showcases in Norwich, which is a shame (his website says it's time, not enjoyment, that's the issue). Someone has been been found to run the Saturday showcases (I'm assuming Phil Rowe will still do the sound), but he's still looking for someone to run the Friday nights. I hope someone is found as these are an excellent resource for the acoustic scene in Norwich, I really enjoyed playing.

There's a few new reviews on Cross Rhythms, have a look for the Valuable Fools and Tom Whitman. I'll post the links when I get some time.

Anyway, that's all for now....

Just a quickie, August dates are now up. Quite a busy month, but a lot of others are away so I fit in where needed.

Don't forget Street Witness next Saturday, 2pm-4pm in Rayleigh High Street.

Yikes! Nearly a month has gone by since the last entry! What news then?

The Men's event at RBC was good, and we all thoroughly enjoyed playing.

Well Midnight Ash's debut gig came and went and we didn't win :(

There were only two bands, and the other band suggested before we started that we shared the evening set instead of having a competition but the organiser was having none of it. The set list was Break the Chains, Spitting Games (Snow Patrol), Look at Us Now, Heal the Pain, It's Time and Creep (Radiohead, and of course, the clean version!).

Despite the loss we seemed to go down well, although the audience was made up chiefly of the RBC rent-a-crowd, some mates from Billericay and a few others (THANKS ALL for coming). It was fun though.

We've been away on holiday, and we have also bought a new house so we'll be moving soon too. It's all a bit mayhemic (is that a word?) at the moment.

So on the music front things have gone very quiet. I've been in touch with Richard about the recording again, but myself and the guys need to get together again at least twice before we can be confident of having anything worth putting down. It's unlikely we'll meet this side of September.

I'm contemplating making the new CD only worship material now, adding the new version of My God and possibly rerecording Your Love is Greater as well, and holding back the one or two newer contemporary songs. But I'm not sure. It has to be said, the surprise of the Midnight Ash set, for me anyway, was how good Look at Us Now sounded done as a full band song. With Heather's (Clarkson) BVs added it would sound even better. Matt came up with a really good and simple riff for it that was very effective. But of course, it's not a worship song, so in a few months time I'll probably change my mind......

Also at Solid was a guy who did a really good acoustic set called Rob Halligan, who knows Simon Black in Norwich who runs the acoustic nights / showcases that I played at back in April. Check out Rob here.

Dates will be updated soon for August, and the party gig in Sept (for a work colleague) is now on. Check back to see when I'm playing next.

Well we have a 6 song set for the Midnight Ash debut at Solid. And no, I'm not going to reveal the set but it definitely won't be including Vertigo. There's a couple of covers and 4 originals. If we somehow win it (there are still only two bands in it), then the crowd (ahem!) will get the same set in the evening too.....but at least it'll have had another run through!

On a serious note, we really gelled well as a band and that augers well for the recordings and future stuff, even if this debut is going to be based on just 6 hours rehearsal.....watch out for the Midnight Ash myspace page which Stu is hopefully setting up at some point. I'm assured it'll be somewhat tongue in cheek (no! really?).

This coming weekend is the men's event at Rayleigh Baptist entitled 'All the Kings Men'. I'm playing in the band which is Trev Campbell (vocals/acoustic guitar), Me (acoustic & electric guitars/vocals), Dave Brown (bass), Steve Cooper (Drums) and Adrian Eves (piano). Steve and Adrian are from CCR and the rest of us from RBC. Trev's heading the group up, and I'm his right-hand man, with a chance to get the electric guitars out for a spin in a worship setting.

Dates are updated for July, have a look here. The rota's proved a bit of a pain again as Tiscali have started blocking all emails sent to lots of recipients, meaning that the request for availability didn't get to anyone. Now I have to send it out in blocks. August's dates will follow soon.

There's the possibility of another party gig, probably in September, maybe soon after the wedding on the 22nd. I'm trying to put together a good set of recognizable covers to go with the old standards 'Baby One More Time' and 'Teenage Dirtbag'.

Had a good chat with Andy Clark (from Taste) about getting some recording done at their studio. Just waiting for him to come back with some dates (they've had a really busy year and still are). He might not want to after seeing us at Solid!

That was supposed to be a quick update....

Busy weekend ahead. Helping Stu move house tomorrow, followed by a practice in the evening for the Mens Event being held at RBC on 30th. Saturday is the 'Midnight Ash' rehearsal for Solid. Stu is trying to persuade us to try and cover U2's Vertigo. It's a great song but......

I finally have a power supply for the boss micro recorder, so now I can try and use it without it running out of battery power every hour.

Had a blast from the past last week when Sonia and I went to see OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) at the Cliffs Pavilion in Southend. Great show with the original 4-piece line up. Nearly all the hits, but they didn't do Secret which was a shame. The support band 'Lovers Electric' are worth checking out too.

Yikes, time really does fly. There's not a lot happening on the music front really.

I have finally got my hands on the Baptist Union DVD (i.e. my own copy....!!). They arrived Saturday. At some point I'll add it to the CDs page. It's called 'A Baptist People: United in Mission'. It can be bought from the Baptist Union shop (I'll sort out some links for that too).

Next rehearsal is 23rd June, but this may be devoted to getting some songs together for Solid. Stu has entered us for the Battle of the Bands competition (yes, really, he has...), and even used an online random band name generator to come up with 'Midnight Ash'. Yep, you heard it here first, so Stu, Mark, Matt and myself will be playing under that moniker and vying with currently one other band for the title.......

Dates page is updated (sorry it's a little late). Have a look here for the latest details.

Demo day was a real success, between Mark, Stu and myself we managed to get four songs down, plus another two just me and the acoustic guitar. There's more details on the New Album page, plus an update to the songs page too. Next practice is 23rd June.

There's a gallery up and running now with a few pics that the mrs took in Norwich, click on the link at the top or go here.

DVD News: I've seen it, and it's quite good really, but I haven't actually got any copies myself.......Rowland and Mark at Church saw it first, as the church copy arrived in good time......then Mark had the whole of youth group watch it with me.

I'm hoping to get some recording done soon, probably a new version of 'Look at Us Now' with Heather Clarkson and another, as yet undecided, song, in order to release the DVD version of 'My God' as an EP. Watch this space.

Dates are updated for May, have a browse here.

Cheers!

Main News: The Baptist Union DVD with the re-recorded version of My God should be with me early next week. If you want a copy, they are £5 each and I can order them from the BU. Drop me an email if you want one. D'you know I forgot to ask what the whole thing was called........

This coming Saturday, finally, Mark, Stu and I are getting together for a rehearsal and to start demoing up material for the new CD.

Had a much improved session with Dan & Bob over in Basildon today. Bob's mate Keith came in to do bass duties and it was much better and certainly more coherent. Early days yet though.

The Adrian Cherrill spring tour 2007 is over then!! We had a great weekend in Norwich with Phil, Helen and Phoebe. The Friday evening slot at the Black Cat was, from my point of view, a bit rough. I certainly didn't think I played all that well, especially on the first song (which I had, rather ironically, chosen because it was fairly straightforward...) but it all seemed to go down well with the regulars and I had some encouraging comments. Saturday was much better, despite the fact that the other artists on the bill were all much more accomplished musicians than me. Simon (who runs it all) ordered the set list just right so that although every act was a bit different, it all worked quite nicely and by the time I came on (last...) it was quite good to come on and just do my stuff. I certainly felt I played better anyway, and again it seemed to go down well. For the record the set lists were:

Friday: Blizzard (which is a song I wrote with a friend years ago), Heal the Pain & Look at Us Now

Saturday: Blizzard, Heal the Pain, Ardnamurchan (in a higher key with a new middle section), Look at Us Now and a cover of Snow Patrol's Spitting Games to finish.

Now all I need to do is put together a Summer Tour.....I hope to have some pics from the Saturday up at some point (taken by the Mrs).

Meanwhile, it looks like 28th April will finally be the next rehearsal day for the new CD material. Finally, it'll be good to get this going again.

The latest Cross Rhythms review is up, the links are here, and the Biog's had a refresh, have a read here.

More recommend listening: Tim Hughes - Holding Nothing Back (it's so much better than When Silence Falls), Magnum - Princess Alice & the Broken Arrow.

Well, 28th April has been penned in for Mark, Stu and myself to have another go at practicing. We'll get there in the end!

April dates have been updated (here), the two little acoustic gigs in Norwich are getting ever nearer so I'll be trying to sort out a set list at sometime. The Saturday one will probably include one cover, but I'm not sure what the rest of the songs will be. The list currently includes Heal the Pain, Blue Skies, Look at us Now, Hanging by a Thread, Ardnamurchan and Break the Chains. I'd like to have one or two more but I haven't had the writing time in recent weeks, what there has been has gone into worship material.

I finally got one Cross Rhythms review done, I'll post the link when it's up on their website (admittedly, they've been chasing me for them but I'm not as free as I was when I started doing them so....). There seems to be a recurring theme on time here.....

I'm beginning to think about the nice Avalon guitar I've promised myself soon. The money is there and I need to organise a trip to Northern Ireland to have a look at the factory. Why? Because they offer big discounts if you by direct from there, enough to make it worth jumping on EasyJet and flying over to have a look. The more my Yamaha's electrics play up the more I feel the urge to go.......(btw, anyone have any knowledge on the electrics in Yamaha acoustics?)

When your working full time, and the rest of your cohorts are too, then plans tend to get thrown into disarray very easily. And so it is that April will probably pass without any rehearsals. Bah!!!!! We'll see though....

Matt and I got together last Saturday to try and get some more songs on the burner, and although we didn't finish anything, we did get some good ideas milling around in the pot. 3 possible songs, but nothing concrete, so I haven't added anything to the updates yet.

I've got a pile of Cross Rhythms reviews to do too.......

A nice relaxing 4 days or so in Derbyshire at Life in the Spirit was all to soon over. Some good preaching and teaching, worship and prayer, plus some good downtime and a chance to chat with a few people in church that I know, but don't actually have a chance to chat to very much. Weather was a bit naff though.....

Tried to get some time there to read the manual for the digital recorder but failed miserably......

Rehearsing for the new album is a bit up in the air at the moment, Stu (and Catherine...) have decided to move house, rendering him unavailable in March, and the church wasn't available on the two possible dates anyway. Still, maybe it'll give me a chance to catch up on some jobs at home (we're supposed to be moving too sometime in the near future....), or maybe I'll get writing on some more new material. Watch this space as always.

Various absent people mean I will be on my own (apart from Les doing his slots as usual) for April's street witness. Anyone want to join me?

The re-recording of My God (So Faithful and So True) is done! We had a great time at Richard's new 'Worthman Studio' in Bracknell. 16hrs of hard graft and the result was certainly worth it. My thanks to Richard who engineered, played lead guitar and coaxed me thru quite a few vocal takes, Paul Kerslake (so that's his surname...) who came in and did the drums after two runs through and 3 takes and then came back in the evening and mixed it all, and Stu who provided the bass line, and Richard's wife Claire who kept us fed and watered at various intervals thru the day.

It's all delivered to the Baptist Union and I think the resultant DVD will appear in May some time. Of course, I'll keep you all posted here on that, and whether I release the song as a kind of single at some point. I have some ideas on that one, but not sure yet what I'm going to do.

Have bought a couple of new toys, a Boss Super Overdrive pedal to replace my Blues Driver pedal which just didn't do what I hoped it would (so I sold it to Richard..). The Super Overdrive is great though, especially cranked right up!!

I've also got a Boss BR01 micro recorder, which is apparently the worlds smallest 4 track digital recorder. It's not much larger than an iPod actually, and weighs hardly anything. Has nearly 300 preset drum rhythms on various kits, guitar and bass fx and it'll fit in my guitar case!! The manual is bigger than the recorder.......

March's dates are up, here.

Off to Life in the Spirit Men's Conference next Monday, so probably no update for a week or two, but check back soon. Hopefully I'll get some time to relax, do some song writing and read that Boss manual.......oh, and update the biog.

Well another busy weekend has just gone....lots of bits to update you on.

Had a productive time Saturday afternoon with Stu and Mark going through some of the new songs. Some good ideas coming out. Next time we'll be recording what we do to enable us to remember what we did!!! Blues Skies and I Will Sing sounded particularly good.

Tonight I had another jam with Dan (Green) and Bob over at Swan Mead church in Basildon. There's a possible drummer in the pipeline, and Dan is covering bass at the moment, leaving me as the only guitarist. It'll be interesting to see where this goes.

The recording is rapidly coming into view this coming weekend. Taking some time out tomorrow to think about the arrangement.

Phil has confirmed the rearranged dates in Norwich. These are Friday 13th April and Saturday 14th April, check out the dates page for details. Expect to see them confirmed on the Black Cat website soon.

Three new reviews for Cross Rhythms are on line, check out the reviews page here for links.

Some recommended listening: Let Love In by the Goo Goo Dolls.

Update on the hurried re-recording of My God:

Recording will now be taking place on 16th/17th/18th February at Worthman Studios in Bracknell.

Personnel will be Stu Conway (bass), Richard King (guitar), Richard's mate Paul on drums (d'you know I still don't know his surname....). Richard and Paul will be doing all the button pushing and knob twiddling.

The rehearsal for the summer recording of the new CD will now be this coming Saturday.

A number of people have already inquired about getting copies of the DVD. In truth I don't know whether they'll be available to the general public as such, but I was thinking of trying to get a couple of acoustic tracks done and releasing a 3 or 4 track 'single' (for want of a better description). Let me know what you think, drop me a mail.

BIG NEWS!!!!

Well, big for me anyway :)

Just before Christmas I was forwarded a 'cutting' from an email that both the pastor and youth coordinator at RBC get regularly from the Baptist Union GB. It requested any Baptist Church based songwriters to submit material for a resource DVD they plan to release in May. So I did, and sent in an 8 track disc of songs including 4 from Here I Stand and 4 newer ones. Yesterday I received an email from them to confirm they would like to use 'My God (So Faithful and So True)'. To say I was (and still am) gobsmacked is a bit of an understatement!!! Apparently around 3,000 copies of this DVD will be sent to Baptist Churches and affiliated organizations around the country. It will be the single biggest piece of exposure I have ever had for any of my material. God has really blessed me in this and I cannot thank Him enough for this opportunity.

What I need to do now though is get the song completely re-recorded as the Here I Stand version is not really up to the standard they need. A few frantic phone calls this morning to Richard King has seen a window of opportunity to do it on the 10th Feb. Just praying now that his mate Paul is available to drum (he'll be teching on the new CD anyway and lives nearby), and Stu can fulfill the bass role.

On a lighter note, the dates have been updated for February (still no confirmation on the Norwich gigs in April though) and a new song has appeared in the list of material for the new album (find details here).

I'm off to calm down....... :)

P.S. Don't forget Street Witness in Rayleigh High Street this Saturday (3rd, 2pm-4pm). Looks as though Heather will be joining the usual crew.

Crumbs, two updates already this week!

Just a couple of quick ones. Looks like the first rehearsal for the new album will be 17th February.

Just found out that Allan Gordon, the PA equipment shop in Diss where I got my PA gear from has closed. Allan has apparently decided to retire. Shame that, good prices and always helpful.

Well that's the old news and dates archived. If you're really interested then the old news is here, and the old dates are here.

Had a great weekend at Letton Hall with the youth leaders from Billericay and Rayleigh Baptist Churches. It was a cool time, and a new experience for me, having to work out what to play for each worship time. It sounds simple but I'd not had to approach leading from the perspective of doing several sessions before. As usual though, I had a great team supporting me: Stu on Bass, Ellie on Flute, Matt and Ben alternating on 2nd guitar from Rayleigh, and Faith on vocals and Barry on percussion from Billericay. Gareth and Andy on the sound and Mike beavering away at the laptop for the overheads.

Have another jamming session with Dan and Bob on Friday, hopefully with a drummer, as well as a guitar lesson beforehand. My fingers are hurting already!

Dates:

I've requested 14th April for the rebooked showcase in Norwich, and 13th April for the rebooked slot at the music House (see Dates page), just waiting to hear back from Phil on that. Street Witness succumbed to the inclement weather in January, so the next one will be 3rd Feb.

That's pretty much it, just waiting for confirmation on a date to start rehearsing stuff for the CD, well, Stu and I will probably get together regardless on 17th Feb, not sure yet if Mark or Matt can make it. Got to get started soon though!! Song-writing is proving a little difficult as all the gear is packed away but there is a small update on the songs for new album page.

Welcome to the first update of the New Year. I trust you all had a great Christmas and fun New Year celebrations!!

It's a busy January, I've just come back from a 1st rehearsal for a prospective new worship/outreach band. No names or anything yet, but it does include Dan Green, ex-SoundStory bass player (but on lead guitar) and a friend of his (Bob) on vocals. It'll make a change not doing lead vocal duties, Bob has a great voice. I'm worrying about the rhythm guitar.....we'll see where it goes over the next month, but it won't be getting in the way of the new CD or solo stuff that's coming up.

Talking of which, the January dates are online here. It's street witness tomorrow, and I'm going to air a couple of new ones of mine, as well as a few new covers and a few old ones Ness and I dug out in November and fancy doing again.

Also in January I've been asked to lead the worship at the youth leaders weekend we are having with our friends at Billericay. I feel privileged to have been asked to take this on, and am looking forward to it already!

I should have some news about the rescheduled Norwich gigs soon, I need to confirm the dates with Phil and Simon.

There's no update on the new CD yet, but hopefully we'll have some rehearsal dates pencilled in soon and I'll let you know how we get on.