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“Sounds Familiar” celebrated its 20th Anniversary this October.
A group of people from various churches in Cranfield joined
together to perform a musical production called ‘JESUS FOLK’
in 1990. This was a Christian musical written by Gowan and
Laarsons from the Salvation Army, which took you on a tour  
through the Gospels. The performances were at the parish
church and were played to packed audiences. Following on
from this success, it was decided to perform the sequel,
“Spirit” with  the group evolving into “The Jesus Folk”.  
Freda Parsons was the producer and Gordon Ritchie the musical
director. “Glory” was performed in 1992 and proved to be the
biggest success raising  £1,200 for various charities and
playing to a total audience of 1,000 over 4 nights.
This was followed by “Hosea”, “ The Witness” and
“Breakthrough”. After this many of the cast decided to move
on and others were finding it difficult to”tread the boards”.
The decision was taken to disband the group in 1995.
However, “Jesus Folk” were appproached to perform at the
Christmas Eve midnight service at the Parish church and
re-emerged with Jean Lloyd, a member of “Jesus Folk”, as the
musical director. In 2003 it was decided to change the name
to “Sounds Familiar” and the choir has since gone from strength
to strength.

“Sounds Familiar” continued with the aim of the “Jesus Folk” -
to serve the local community by providing an inclusive
environment offering people of all ages, religious faith and
denomination  the opportunity to learn to sing and perform
both sacred and secular music. They have continued to achieve
this through a range of fund-raising concerts and events in and
around Cranfield raising money for various charities. Our most
successful events to date are our “Voices for Hospices”
concerts. These are bi-ennial concerts that are held all over
the world on the same day and at the same local time to raise
awareness and funds for our local hospices. Our concert in 2009
raised over £4,000 and in 2011 we topped £5,500.