Celebrating 50 years of Jerusalem Joy

After a successful and joyful event at Bromsgrove Baptist Church last July, when Roger and Mary Jones celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, the couple will return to the same venue on April 22nd to mark the 50th anniversary of the first musical Roger ever wrote.

Award-winning musician Roger was born in Birmingham and trained at the Birmingham School of Music. He then spent 16 years at Aston Manor School in Birmingham teaching music, and eventually became head of lower school.

It was whilst Roger was working as head of music at Aston Manor School that he found the choir were running out of suitable material to perform at the Easter concert. Roger decided that rather than scouting around to try and find suitable songs, he would write some of his own Easter material.

Roger did not know this at the time, but the decision to write these Easter songs was the first small step onto a ladder that was to lead towards writing his very first musical, the musical we now know as Jerusalem Joy. This was the first of many musicals, 24 in total (and counting).

The musical gained national recognition and was performed on BBC radio and TV, featuring as a complete programme on BBC’s Songs of Praise.

Michael Shoesmith, head of the BBC’s religious broadcasting at the time was delighted with the music, but worried that such modern material wouldn’t resonate with the audience’s more traditional tastes. He decided he’d play it on BBC Radio 2’s Sunday Half Hour regardless.

Expecting a flood of complaints, Michael instead received hundreds of letters requesting copies of the music. Jerusalem Joy had made its national radio debut to a very positive reception. It was then broadcast internationally and reached as far afield as southern Africa where it was performed on Southern Rhodesian television.

Jerusalem Joy is still as popular today as it was 50 years ago, and the musical is performed all over the UK, as well as other parts of the world.

If you would like to see the performance of Jerusalem Joy, you can book tickets online at www.cmm.org.uk/shop/index.php?id=jjmiad

If you would like to find out more about Roger’s Ministry, you can visit his website: www.cmm.org.uk