In the summer of 2015 I found myself at something of a loose end. Never one to remain idle for long, I felt it was time that I did an album I’d always wanted to do – a kind of ‘best of’ Welliesongs. I was also convinced that in order for it to sound anything better than anything I’d done previously I would need to put my art into the hands of an external producer and maybe some other musicians and singers.

I approached Les Moir to ask him whom he would suggest might be willing and able to help me produce such an album and without question he pointed me towards Neil Costello. I’d bumped into Neil several occasions before and felt I could trust him. So we arranged to meet up at his studio.

Neil’s heart (along with his overwhelming array of top quality kit) filled me with great confidence. The names he suggested to play on it were all top drawer people. The time came for the sessions themselves and there’s a blog about that elsewhere on this site. We had an absolute blast. I recall on more than one occasion being in tears at the sheer beauty and Spiritual impact these tunes were having on me.

We had various very special moments in the studio, moments of pathos, moments of tears, moments of joy and even some dancing. Let me recall two such times. The first was as we were just messing around seeking the right musical feel for ‘Send us the rain, Lord’ and out of nowhere came the groove that you can now hear. Mark Edwards – keyboardist and MD for the sessions looked at Neil and said RECORD – it was a very holy and special moment. It felt like God was in the room. The other was at the end of a long hard vocal day, as we were just chilling, Neil put on ‘Here in this Holy Place’ – my back was turned putting some cables away – when I turned back, the team were dancing joyfully.

Finally, the sessions were complete all the vocals and overdubs finished and the mixes done. We then asked Les to help us book a mastering session at none other than Abbey Road Studios. I’d been there before but never as THE client. All too soon it was done and we were heading home but now in our hands was the finished album Glory & Fire.

That’s the album that you can obtain from the link below. Of course you can also grab it from iTunes or listen via Spotify. It’s even over on YouTube. What is very likely is that if you love to worship Jesus, you will find these songs are uplifting and helpful in your personal devotions and all of them have been tried and tested in churches across the world.