Rock Choir on song for Pennine Acute Trust Staff Awards

Rock Choir members from Tameside, Rochdale, Oldham and Middleton will perform at the Pennine Acute Trust Staff Awards

The Rock Choir will add its own special sparkle to The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust’s annual Staff Awards 2014 ceremony on 18th June at The Sheridan Suite in Manchester.

Rock Choir members from Rochdale, Middleton, Oldham and Tameside will perform to Trust staff and guests, conducted by local Rock Choir leader Phil Reynolds at the event.

They will be joined in harmonies by the Trust’s own NHS Rock Choir, which was formed  11 weeks ago. Around 50 staff from the Trust’s hospitals have been attending weekly rehearsals at The Royal Oldham Hospital to fine tune their voices in a range of songs from Motown, Gospel to contemporary pop songs.

Rock Choir leader, Phil Reynolds said: "Rock Choir is the UK's most popular amateur contemporary choir and has over 16,000 members across the country in 300 locations. There are no auditions and you don't need to read music, yet we make a fantastic sound and get invited to sing at all kinds of exciting events, many of which support charities and local causes. Bringing people together who love to sing and being involved in the local community is at the heart of Rock Choir.

“We're delighted to be performing again at the Trust’s staff awards this year which is such a prestigious and exciting event for the local hospital Trust and its staff. We are particularly excited because this year the Trust’s own staff Rock Choir will be performing its first gig after forming just a few months ago. It will be a great evening.”

Andrew Lynn, Head of Communication at the Trust, added: “We were delighted to have members of the local Rock Choir perform at our staff awards event last year, so we thought why not form our own Trust Rock Choir? We believe that we are one of the first NHS Trust rock choirs to be formed in the country.”

The annual staff awards event acknowledges the achievements of staff working at the Trust's four local hospitals and its community services. The awards consist of 13 categories which recognise the very best of patient care, skill and innovation. The final awards ceremony will be hosted by Olympic rower and endurance adventurer James Cracknell OBE.

The awards are sponsored and paid for by external companies and suppliers who work with the Trust: NG Bailey, Vinci Construction UK, Weightmans, Lloyds Pharmacy G2Speech and Philips, Kainos, G4S Government Services and Mitie.