Several members of Ilford Choral society had had the opportunity several years ago to attend a concert entitled 'The Magdalene', a rock opera piece written by musician Peter White. In return Peter then witnessed and enjoyed Ilford Choral Society's performance of John Rutter's Wind in the Willows in the Summer of 2005. It was during the performance interval (and after several glasses of sparkling wine, it has to be said) that Peter expressed an interest in a choral collaboration with the society. He stated that The Magdalene had retained its current musical structure for several years and that a further expansion of the work to include choral singing was an appropriate development.

Several 'brain storming' meetings took place between Peter White, Duncan Paterson (Society Conductor) and Jean Wilson (Society Accompanist) during the summer of 2006, where a host of ideas were discussed. It was here that Peter set out his ideas for additional songs and further development of current pieces. Peter's acknowledged that his experience with choral music writing was limited and so his meetings with both Duncan and Jean were essential. In early 2007 Peter had prepared the manuscripts and recorded a special cd of the adapted pieces to give us an idea of how the pieces were developed. Peter in fact used his own voice for all the harmonies (soprano, alto, tenor and base), and is curently paying into the Society's Web Master retirement fund, in return for not having the cd placed online in MP3 format. ( It's very tempting though!)

Rehearsals for The Magdalene Chorale began in earnest in April 2007. Getting 30 sixty-five page manuscripts printed at the local Kall Quick (to the astonishment of its staff) was one of many 'new' experinces that the society would encounter over the coming months. It has to be said at this point that Ilford Choral Society had never accompanied a rock band before and so looking at manuscript with the words '60% swing' was little baffling to say the least. Over the next few weeks the society would laugh like it had never laughed before as we attempted to 'sing along' with the original recording. A few weeks before the concert the band that would accompany the choir during the performace came to Ilford to rehearse with us. (The band's drummer drove all the way from Brighton for goodness sake!) Singing with an orchestra is one thing, a rock band is something else all together. The choir learnt very quickly that a live rock band brings with it all kinds of musical 'issues'. For the first time Ilford Choral Society learnt the value of simply 'going with the flow'. Time signatures and basic timing went out of the window and was replaced with magical 'Musical anticipation' and getting into the swing of things.