A Brief History
In The Beginning...
Hello, my name is Mike Flood and I’m the composer and lyricist for
‘The Newhaven Musical: 900 Years – A Journey Through Time’.
If a building has existed in a place for 900 years, what has it seen over that time? What stories could it tell? That’s the seed from which the musical grew. My idea was triggered knowing that my home town’s parish church was celebrating the 900th Anniversary of its construction in 2020. The original Norman part of St. Michael’s was built in 1120, on the side of a hill overlooking the small, coastal settlement of Meechynge (now called Newhaven, in East Sussex).
“Wait a minute… did you say “church”? So, it’s a collection of religious music, is it? Well no, it’s not. It’s a historical project. It focusses on the history of the town. The church building is the central character, telling cherry-picked stories of local events and characters that it has seen, looking down from the hill over its nine centuries.
The first scene, with the song 900 Years, is set in the present day and is an audio tapestry of voices, young and old, woven together to represent ‘the voice’ of the building. Then we are transported back to a percussive onslaught at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. From there, we are taken by the hand and lead through time, listening to plainsong, a madrigal, a baroque quartet, a sea shanty, an orchestral centrepiece of love, loss and the sea, called Brazen Souls, a Victorian parlour song, a 60s pastiche about the RNLI, rock guitars and church bells duetting to their hearts’ content and then, finally, we come full circle and return to the present day, looking forward optimistically to the future with Another 900 Years.
Early in the process, Liza Stevens, a professional illustrator and puppet-maker, joined me and gave the characters a visual identity with her fantastic art work, which you can see throughout this website.
What’s Next?
With the basis of the musical written, the intention was to put it on as a full live stage show during 2020, to coincide with the church’s 900th anniversary. I put on a showcase event in November 2019, which went down very well (if I do say so myself!). There’s a little taster video below, filmed by Matt Miller. However, 2020 was the year of the disastrous COVID 19, and that scuppered our best laid plans.
UPDATE October 2025: Recently, the town of Newhaven became the target for take-over plans by a neighbouring city! Fortunately, those plans have now been dismissed, but the public outcry from the majority of the town’s residents and the immediate surrounding area reminded me how important Newhaven is. It has a character of its own, and it deserves it’s own musical, based on its history. So with new air under its wings, plans are now afoot to bring the show to life, hopefully sometime during 2026. Fund-raising is the immediate challenge, but in the meantime, a new run of CDs has been produced, a deluxe version with a 16-page full colour lyrics booklet and a downloadable pdf of composer’s notes, explaining my thoughts when writing the songs and what inspired them. If you are interested in buying one, please click here. Thank you.