Louise "Lou" Fellingham (née Hunt), (born 5 May 1974), is a Christian worship leader, singer and songwriter from Brighton in East Sussex, England. She has been singing in various contexts, since she was seven years old.
In 1994, Louise Hunt became a founding member of the British band Phatfish, which has played in worship conferences, concert halls, and music festivals, touring throughout Europe and around the world. She has been the lead singer of the band for the last 17 years. They produced their full album in 1999 and would go on to release 11 more albums, including a DVD box set and a training album for church leaders. In 1998, Louise Hunt married fellow band member Nathan Fellingham, and took his name professionally, as Lou Fellingham.
In 2006, Fellingham launched a successful solo career, while continuing to tour and record with Phatfish as their lead singer. When she is not touring, she lends her support to her local church by training and managing their 50-member church choir. She has also served as part of the worship team at the Stoneleigh Bible Weeks; her voice being a major feature on those best selling worship albums. Additionally, she takes part in the Mission:Worship conference in Eastbourne, East Sussex with Phatfish every year.
In 2008, she won a coveted Christian Broadcasting Council (CBC) Award for her album Promised Land, in the category of Best Worship. The award was presented at the CBC Conference in Manchester, England on 21 November 2008.
Fellingham has worked alongside other Christian artists such as Matt Redman, Graham Kendrick, Tim Hughes and Stuart Townend. She regularly leads worship and performs at different venues around the world. A rendition of Fellingham leading the hymn "In Christ Alone" has had more than two million views on YouTube.
Personal background
Louise (Lou) Fellingham (née Hunt) grew up in the
West Sussex village of
Turners Hill in
England, where she attended the Turners Hill Free Church. In her teens, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, she sang in two local Christian groups, The Turners Hill Mob and 4th Dimension. Both gained local acclaim among the churches and youth groups of mid Sussex. In 1998, she married Nathan Fellingham, the drummer and one of the founding members of Phatfish. Together, they have three children.
The family attends the Church of Christ the King (CCK), where they are frequently involved in leading worship and musical projects. In particular, Fellingham serves the church by training and managing their 50-member church choir. Nathan's father, David Fellingham has served as one of the elders since 1979. The church is also home to Terry Virgo, Stuart Townend, Paul Oakley, Martin Smith of Delirious? and other prominent Christian figures. The evangelical church is affiliated with the Newfrontiers neocharismatic church network and is located at the Clarendon Centre near Brighton railway station.
Professional background
Fellingham is an accomplished vocalist with professional experience fronting the British Christian band Phatfish, which has played in worship conferences, concert halls, and music festivals, touring throughout Europe and around the world. She has been the lead singer of the band for the last 17 years. She has also performed as a soloist and worship leader and has toured extensively throughout the UK, Canada and the United States.
She is often featured on live worship albums solely as a background singer, due to her technical skill and ability to harmonise. She is often called upon to participate in worship conferences, lending her talents and skills by facilitating workshops and seminars that focus on vocal technique and worship team development. The various music festivals and worship conferences in which she has participated include the following:
{|
|
Stoneleigh Bible Week
Church of Christ the King
Newfrontiers
Mission:Worship Conference
Greenbelt Festival
Newday Youth Festival
Soul Survivor
Keswick Convention
New Wine Christian Festival
New Word Alive
|
Spring Harvest Christian Conference
Souled Out (Aberdeen)
Bognor Regis Bible Week
Christ for the Nations UK
Worship Together
Youth Conference (Newfoundland)
Hope 08
Hope HIV
Soul by the Sea
Newfrontiers Leadership Conference
Newday Youth Festival
|
Woman to Woman Northern Conference
Together On A Mission Conference
The Cheltenham Bible Festival
Worship at the Abbey
Kingsway Children's Conference
Radiant Conference
The Big Church Day Out
Pentecost Festival
Cheltenham Bible Conference
Women Walking With God
Soul Sista
|}
Phatfish
In 1994, a Brighton-based band was formed under the name Purple Phatfish by David Fellingham, pastoral elder of the Church of Christ the King. A few months later, the band dropped the "Purple", and simply became
Phatfish. David had a vision for a Christian music group that would be excellent musically and be respected by Christians and non-Christians alike. He prayed that it would have an anointing to touch lives with the power and presence of God.
The founding members of the band included two of David Fellingham's sons. Including his sons, the founding members were:
Nathan Fellingham – drums
Luke Fellingham – bass
Mike Blow – lead guitar (left in mid-1998)
Adrian Watts – percussion (left in mid-1998)
Louise (née Hunt) Fellingham – lead vocals
Michael Sandeman – keyboards
Rachel Head – rapper (left in late 1994)
Initially, Phatfish was a
jazz-funk/
rap group at a time when
acid jazz was very popular in England. They had a desire to be
salt and light in the world. While most of their earlier songs shied away from Christian lyrics, the band continued to subtly address contemporary issues from a Christian perspective. They spent much of their first year together, performing their own songs in secular music clubs around Brighton, quickly gaining a considerable following in the local music scene.
In the following years, Phatfish expanded their outreach beyond Brighton, playing regularly in miscellaneous venues, London music clubs, and universities around Great Britain. They were also in demand with churches all over the UK who would book them to play at youth events and various outreaches.
In 1997, the band began developing more songs that overtly focused on worship. That year, they released their first full album, entitled We Know the Story. Many of their worship songs, including "Holy, Holy", "There Is A Day", and "Amazing God" are sung in churches globally and featured on several studio albums and live recordings.
In June 1998, Lou and Nathan were married. During this time, the band began writing new songs that had a rockier edge, catching the attention of Pamplin Records in the Nashville. Phatfish soon thereafter, signed with Pamplin, recording Purple Through the Fishtank in 1999. After the success of Purple Through the Fishtank, Phatfish began regularly touring Canada, the United States, and Europe.
Over the next 12 years, Phatfish continued to grow in vision, direction, and popularity. They would go on to release 11 more albums and a DVD box set. The recordings included a collection of three, live unplugged performances; along with a compilation worship album with various artists. Most of their subsequent albums featured either new interpretations of some of their previously released worship songs or live recordings of large-scale worship conferences.
In 2000, Phatfish appeared at the Greenbelt Festival, which is a music festival held annually in England, attended by approximately 21,000 individuals. Their increasing appeal resulted in additional tours of Singapore, the Netherlands, and countries on both sides of the Atlantic. In the years ahead, attendance at concerts and sales of their recordings steadily increased. Their participation in summer music festivals also grew, along with their fan base.
Phatfish have toured Europe, the United States, and Canada extensively. Their biggest tour was the Truth Tour (supported by Cathy Burton) in 2002 and 2003, which took them all over the United Kingdom. Their largest appearance to date has been Festival:Manchester in 2003, with over 50,000 individuals in attendance over the weekend.
In 2004, Phatfish released an album called Faithful - The Worship Songs, which featured fresh studio arrangements of many of their more congregational worship songs. In July, the band appeared with Stuart Townend, Kate Simmonds and Evan Rogers at the annual Together On A Mission Conference, run by Newfrontiers. The following month, the band worked with Matt Redman at the first Newday youth festival.
In 2006, the band released a resource CD of practical teaching and advice for local church worship musicians, providing an overview of some of the basics of creating an effective and cohesive band sound appropriate in a church setting. Oftentimes, the band will facilitate worship seminars or workshops at various events or churches throughout the world. Generally, the seminars are held during the day, followed by a performance by the band that evening.
In the past ten years, Phatfish has performed in numerous sold out concerts and summer music festivals. The band developed broad appeal, increasing their profile throughout the world. Attendance at concerts necessitated performing in larger venues, utilising a multimedia production style that was much larger than they had used before. The band's growing popularity resulted in regular appearances on the BBC's Songs of Praise television programme. These appearances have been an asset to the band, increasing their audience base throughout the UK, as well as the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Canada, and South Africa.
In addition to organising tours promoting their latest album, Phatfish regularly performs in one-night events in different venues around the world. Notable concerts have been performed at Stoneleigh Bible Week, Newday, and Soul Survivor. Additional events were organised by radio, Cross Rhythms magazine, and other Christian organisations like Greenbelt Festival, Newfrontiers, Keswick Ministries, New Wine Christian Festival, New Word Alive, Spring Harvest, Souled Out, and Bognor Regis Bible Week presented by Christ for the Nations UK. Conferences overseas included Worship Together and Youth Conference (Newfoundland).
Phatfish and Lou Fellingham
Phatfish and Lou Fellingham concert, live in North Wales.]]
In late 2005, Lou Fellingham began recording her debut solo album
Treasure, which was released in January 2006. Fellingham wrote most of the songs on the album, while her husband served as co-writer. The album quickly shot to the number one spot, becoming the best-selling album of 2006 through Cross Rhythms.
In 2006 and early 2007, before work on the next Phatfish studio album started, Fellingham began performing songs from Treasure on a "Stu and Lou" Tour, with Stuart Townend, which took them to various locations around the UK. When Phatfish's Guaranteed was released in July 2007, it received positive reviews and high sales at Christian events. With the success of both Fellingham's Treasure, and Phatfish's Guaranteed, rather than embark on an official Guaranteed tour, Phatfish followed up with a series of one-night shows and a TV appearance on Premier TV, under the banner Phatfish and Lou Fellingham.
In early 2008, the band performed two more Phatfish and Lou Fellingham concerts in connection with Hope 08. The first event was in Brighton, as part of "Soul By The Sea"; the second in Gloucester on March 14. Lou Fellingham led worship at the Kingsway's Children's Ministry conference in January, and the band gigged and led worship at New Word Alive in Wales alongside Stuart Townend. There were five more concerts in 2008; Keswick, Crawley, NEWI, Danbury and Bognor Regis Bible Week.
Since 1994, live appearances by Phatfish had simply been titled Phatfish, but due to the successful release of Lou Fellingham's debut album, along with the appearance of some of her songs in the setlist, her name was incorporated into the title as Phatfish and Lou Fellingham. Fellingham's husband, Nathan described the arrangement during an interview with Adrian Warnock.
:So, we’re out sometimes as Phatfish, sometimes as Lou Fellingham, Lou Fellingham Band, whatever. Sometimes it’s Stuart Townend’s Worship Band—you know. All these different things—it’s all us. It’s all the same heart, just slightly different expressions of different songs.
:—Nathan Fellingham
More recently, concerts have been titled Phatfish and Lou Fellingham, with songs from Lou Fellingham's set of works and Phatfish's works being played, in addition to older songs, as well. Phatfish and Lou Fellingham have also supported Stuart Townend in Cheltenham and Wrexham, with less dynamic lighting and a more acoustic sound.
In addition to other musical projects, Fellingham continues to lead worship and head up the choir at her local church. She is still a faithful member of the band Phatfish and they have just released their latest full studio album, In Jesus. Recent appearances at Newday, Souled Out, The Cheltenham Bible Conference, Brighton, Wrexham, Soul By The Sea and Gloucester have been titled "Phatfish and Lou Fellingham". Phatfish and Lou Fellingham have also led worship at the Mission:Worship conference alongside Stuart Townend and Matt Redman in Eastbourne. Additionally, they participated on the Mission:Worship album released by Kingsway Music/Survivor Records titled A New Day Of Worship.
Fellingham is back on the latest Phatfish album In Jesus, released in June 2009. She has continued to perform on the In Jesus tour over the past year and has done many one-night events including unplugged concerts, a special event at Westminster Abbey, and the Premier Radio Woman to Woman Northern conference in Manchester.
Worship leading
Since their formation, and even before, Phatfish has been called upon as a worship band to lead and assist others at conferences and their local church. Fellingham serves her home church, the Church of Christ the King, as the director of their 50-member worship choir.
Throughout 2008 and 2009, Fellingham has led worship and performed at events such as Keswick Ministries, New Word Alive, Kingsway Children's Conference, Radiant, Newfrontiers, Newday, and other artists such as Tim Hughes at Mission:Worship. She appeared at The Big Church Day Out and Pentecost Festival with Phatfish. There were also appearances and engagements leading worship with Matt Redman, Stuart Townend, Martyn Layzell and others. The Newfrontiers organised conferences, Together On A Mission and Newday, gathered crowds of up to 6,000 people. The largest crowds were at the Stoneleigh Bible Week, where in its final year, there was a record 26,000 persons in attendance.
During these concerts and worship conferences, Lou Fellingham either leads the worship herself or is a backing vocalist to the main worshipper, often harmonising or using her voice as an instrument rather than just singing the melody. The technical skill required in a live setting is why Fellingham and Phatfish are regularly called on to lead worship.
In an interview with Tony Cummings for Cross Rhythms, Fellingham was asked whether she was comfortable with the label "worship leader".
:The way I understand the role of the "worship leader" at this time, it doesn't bother me if that is part of who I am. The best thing about "leading worship" is when the people as a whole worship together. I believe in a worshipping community but when the numbers reach a certain level I don't think it's inappropriate to have someone anointed and gifted to help guide the way.
:—Lou Fellingham
Fellingham and the band offer practical advice about Christian music and leading worship on their 2006 release Working As A Band double-disc CD. They teach this material at worship seminars and one-day events, as well as the annual Mission:Worship conference in Eastbourne.
Fellingham has also led worship at international conferences in England, Scotland and Wales. The band was the runners up at the Christian Web and Blog Awards, attended by the Bishop of London, in the "Most Original Worship Blog/Website" category. They came second to Tim Hughes' and Al Gordon's win for their website worshipcentral.org.
Collaborations
Since forming Phatfish, Fellingham travelled the UK working and collaborating with numerous Christian artists and worship leaders, in addition to performing at various conferences and events. With her breakout solo singing career, she has been involved in several collaborative projects with various Christian events including worship conferences, leadership conferences, women's conferences, music festivals, and stadium concerts, usually alongside the band Phatfish.
In 1999, Newfrontiers started the Stoneleigh Bible Week in Coventry, England. These were conferences gathering UK charismatics/restorationists to hear preaching from various apostolic figures and international speakers. The event gathered up to 26,000 people from around the world for teaching and celebration. During this time, Fellingham was featured on the Stoneleigh recordings published by Kingsway Music.
Stoneleigh was stopped in its tenth year after the leadership of the organisation believed God to be guiding them to concentrate more on planting and growing churches. Now, leaders in Newfrontiers gather annually for Together On A Mission at The Brighton Centre each July. Regional events, titled "Together At..." are held around the country to replace the Bible Week that existed before. In addition, Newday, an event primarily focusing on teens, has a similar blend of worship, teaching and celebration.
Since Stoneleigh, Fellingham has been regularly requested to lead worship at other major Christian events including Newday and Spring Harvest. She has appeared on numerous compilation albums, including the Newfrontiers live albums from Stoneleigh to the more recent, Newday. Fellingham has also been involved in training worship leaders and singers through the Church of Christ the King's worship school.
She worked with Mary Mary singer Erica Campbell and gospel singer Jason Bailley on the track "Angels" featured on the collaborative album One Voice released by Kingsway Music in 2009. The album pulled together over 200 hundred Christian artists and musicians. The list of performers reads like a who's who of Christian music: Darlene Zschech, Martin Smith, Smokie Norful, Tim Hughes, Israel Houghton, Nu Colours, Kierra Kiki Sheard, Brenton Brown, Warryn Campbell, Tommy Sims, Muyiwa, Mal Pope, Matt Redman, Rance Allen, Bishop John Francis, Tre Sheppard and Noel Robinson.
The album is the brain child of London Community Gospel Choir co-founder Lawrence Johnson, inspired after he watched the devastation from the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 with horror. Just a few short weeks later, and with the help of Les Moir (Survivor Records), 150 artists answered the call and turned up at the famed Abbey Road Studios in London to begin a journey that has been four years in the making.
"One Voice, One Heart" is a charity single recorded in February 2005 and released at Easter to raise funds for the survivors of the South East Asia tsunami. , as well as women's conferences up and down the UK - but her most widely viewed appearances are on the BBC's Songs of Praise.
In 2007, Fellingham featured on the Songs of Praise performing songs including "In Christ Alone" (a rebroadcast of 1st Feb 2004), "See What A Morning", "My Heart Is Filled With Thankfulness", "Knowing Your Grace" and "I Will Say". "I Will Say" was also featured on Spring Harvest albums Shine and Liz Babbs' meditative Immerse. Fellingham's version of "In Christ Alone" was used as a backing track to a radio advertising campaign by Jonathan Gledhill, the Bishop of Lichfield on Beacon Radio, Classic Gold, Signal 1 and Signal 2 in September 2007. This version can also be found on YouTube in various different videos popularising the song.
In January 2007, It’s not often that worship and Abbey Road Studios are linked together, but this was a special evening of worship and celebration where the studio hosted worship leaders Stuart Townend, Tim Hughes, Jocelyn Brown, Smokie Norful, Lou Fellingham, Geraldine Latty, Andy Bromley, Mark Beswick and Kelly Minter. On this night, only one King was glorified as Mission & Worship walked hand in hand.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/worship.at.the.abbey/25693.htm
studio hosted worship leaders Stuart Townend, Tim Hughes, Jocelyn Brown, Smokie Norful, Lou Fellingham, Geraldine Latty, Andy Bromley, Mark Beswick and Kelly Minter.
Racial reconciliation leaders and artists/worship leaders from around the world met in the historic Abbey Road Studios one night in January 2007 to experience the unifying power of music. Artists like Tim Hughes, Stuart Townend, Kelly Minter and Grammy award winning Smokie Norful sat with 250 racially diverse people and celebrated what we have in common—our faith in Jesus Christ. This is the CD and DVD from this historic evening—in a historic venue—Abbey Road Studios.
Drummer Nathan Fellingham was the driving force behind the album Trinity, released 2006. It is a compilation of tracks from many artists including Phatfish; the songs focusing on the Trinitarian nature of God.
Newfrontiers Leadership Conference, Festival Manchester, Soul Survivor, Keswick Convention, Cheltenham Bible Festival, Worship Together and the Mission:Worship Conference in Eastbourne,
including Stuart Townend, Kate Simmonds, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Simon Brading, Brian Houston, Aaron Keyes, Evan Rogers, Yfriday, Mark Edwards, Cathy Burton, Andreana Arganda, and Martyn Layzell.
CD-Rom Digital Songbook (Musician Resources)
A new concept in songbooks, "kingswaysongs 001" presents 50 of the latest new songs in 3 .pdf formats - Piano score, Lead sheets (for Guitarists/Vocalists), Chord charts plus words masters (for OHP or software projection). Users print off all they need of the songs they want, in the format they want. (For use in conjunction with the CCL (MRL) photocopy Licence.) Links on the sheet music allow users to hear audio clips of the song they are viewing. 2007||Kingswaysongs 004 Songbook||Kingsway Music||50 new praise & worship songs in CD-ROM digital songbook format - piano score, lead sheets, chord charts and words masters (for OHP or software projection); various artists
They have also appeared at events such as Spring Harvest, Soul Survivor, Keswick Convention, Bognor Regis Bible Week, Radiant, Women Walking With God, Kingsway Children's Ministry, Cheltenham Bible Week, Mission:Worship, Festival Manchester, New Word Alive and Worship Together in the United States and Canada.
Stuart Townend has been present at some of the recordings, although Lou Fellingham performed his "In Christ Alone" in 2005 when it featured on the list of the "10 most popular hymns in Britain".
Individual collaborations
{|
|
Matt Redman
Tim Hughes
Graham Kendrick
Simon Brading
|
Stuart Townend
Brian Houston
Aaron Keyes
Evan Rogers
|
Andreana Argana
Mark Edwards
Cathy Burton
Yfriday
|
Martyn Layzell
Erica Campbell
Jason Bailley
Liz Babbs
|
Kate Simmonds
Gary Sadler
Kingsway Music
Busbee
|}
Album releases
Whether fronting the band Phatfish or performing as a solo artist Fellingham has been described as "one of the most distinctive voices in Christian music." Fellingham has stated that her heart is to communicate the love of God through song. Her desire is to express truth, feed the church and bring revelation of God through her singing and songwriting.
Her first solo release Treasure shot to the number one spot, becoming best-selling album of 2006 through Cross Rhythms. Her second release, Promised Land, received the Gold Award from the Christian Broadcasting Council, which recognised the album as the "Worship Album of 2008".
Treasure
In 2006, Fellingham's first solo album, entitled
Treasure, was released. Fellingham wrote most of the songs on the album, while her husband was co-writer. The project was published by
Kingsway Music and produced by Michael Busbee, an American songwriter known professionally as
Busbee. The album was recorded in
Los Angeles. and received a positive review from Tony Cummings of
Cross Rhythms, referring to Fellingham as one of the best worship leaders in today's church. Fellingham said of the album:
:That song came about when my family, particularly my Mum, was going through an extremely hard time. One that didn't seem to make any sense, one that we had no control over, one that was very painful. I actually wrote the first verse a long time ago, but then when it came time to doing the album we decided to develop the song. There are times when faith seems weak, even non-existent and you can barely open your mouth to speak to God, but that doesn't mean that he's not looking after you and sometimes we just have to fall on God and not say anything. His arms are big enough.
:—Lou Fellingham
Following the success of Treasure, Fellingham teamed up with Stuart Townend for a "Stu and Lou" tour with Phatfish. The tour took them to various places around the UK with Fellingham performing tracks from Treasure, while Stuart performed selected tracks from his album, Monument to Mercy.
Promised Land
Fellingham released her second solo album,
Promised Land in May 2008. Busbee produced the album and helped to write the songs, 13 of which were written over three days in Brighton. While Fellingham's first album,
Treasure, has been described as being a very "pastoral" album, Fellingham considers
Promised Land to be more evangelistic, saying, "It speaks of God's people, the journey we're on, the power of the Gospel and our future, with Jesus, in Heaven."
An exclusive launch night at the Clarendon Centre was planned with only 150 tickets where Fellingham, backed by Phatfish, performed each track from her new album and talked about the inspiration behind them. An article appeared on the Cross Rhythms website with similar content of Fellingham talking about the songs from the album. In 2008, the album received a Gold Award from the Christian Broadcasting Council in the category of "Best Christian Worship Music Album".
Step Into The Light
In early 2010, Fellingham met with Christian songwriter and musician Gary Sadler, who wrote
Ancient of Days to write new material for her third album, entitled,
Step Into The Light. It was released in May 2010 and launched at a special concert held at the
Komedia in Brighton. The concert was sold out.
The album includes a new version of the Fanny Crosby hymn "To God Be the Glory". Published by Kingsway Music and produced by keyboardist Mark Edwards, the album features various individuals that have worked with highly successful musical artists.
Troy Miller (drums) — drummer for Amy Winehouse
Stu G (lead guitar) — lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and songwriter for the rock band Delirious?
Lawrence Johnson (background vocals) — choir arrangement for Leona Lewis' Echo album released in 2009
LaDonna Harley-Peters (background vocals) — background vocals for Corinne Bailey Rae
Songwriting
Discography
References
External links
Lou Fellingham Official site
Phatfish Official site
"In Christ Alone" on YouTube
Phatfish Official YouTube Channel
Kingsway Communications and Conferences
Worship Together, a subsidiary of EMI
Mission Worship Conferences
Mission Worship on YouTube
Christian Broadcasting Council
Church of Christ the King in Brighton
Bognor Regis Bible Week
Hope HIV
Soul by the Sea
Newfrontiers Leadership Conference
Premier Events Woman to Woman Conferences
Cheltenham Bible Festival on YouTube
Fellowship of Independent Churches
Worship at the Abbey
Worship at the Abbey on YouTube (clips)
Radiant Conference
Big Church Day Out
The Pentecost Festival
Women Walking With God Conference
Soul Sista
Category:1974 births
Category:Living people
Category:British performers of Christian music
Category:English female singers
.svg)
