The City Academy Voices choir had just finished belting out The Supremes hit, I’m Gonna Make You Love Me, when the lights went out and they were joined by an unexpected guest.
As they were about to perform their last song, a man appeared on stage wearing a blue dressing gown with no shoes. He took the mic, described their singing as a “terrible racket” and told them to get out, leaving the 360-odd people in the room shocked and dumfounded.
“You are in my house, can you leave it now please,” he said. The man, it appears, was Jonathan Baker, the bishop of Fulham. In a video posted on social media, the bishop can be seen telling the choir it’s past 10pm and calls for the night to be “over”.
“It was so bizarre,” said Leigh Stanford Thompson, the choir director, describing the incident that took place on Friday night. “I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
By chance, it was also his final concert directing the choir, and the night was “designed as a celebration”.
“A lot of people thought it was some weird thing that I had organised, like a parting thing, but I knew exactly what was happening,” he said.
This was the initial thinking of a choir member. She said: “At first, I thought it was a comedy act or some actor doing a scene. But when we realised, oh no, this isn’t an act, this is real, it was just a bit surreal.”
The choir was nearing the end of their special summer concert on Friday, which this time took place in St Andrew church in Holborn, London. The choir had booked the venue, which is available to hire, and used it previously with no issue.
Describing the sequence of events, the choir member said: “We were singing away. This was our penultimate song. Then, we were going to do one final number and get everybody out of the aisles and dance.
“Then, all of a sudden, the lights went out. At first I thought there may have been a power cut. But then the instruments were still playing.
“We were picking back up to sing when all of a sudden everything went quiet. I could see this guy in what looked like a dressing gown talking to the audience on the mic.”
After Baker’s on-stage interruption, a church employee took the mic and apologised but told everyone they needed to leave because “this is a residential home”.
“I must ask you to leave quietly, thank you for your attendance,” said the church worker, before addressing the choir. “Would you leave the stage,” she said.
The choir member said: “There were boos and everything, it’s just really disappointing. At the end of these concerts, we always end on a real high and everyone goes home full of joy, but this dampened things.”
Baker’s comments about the “racket” being produced did not sit well. “I think we produce a beautiful sound,” said the choir member.
“If he just waited for five minutes, we would have been done and out, but because of what happened there was lots of booing, shouting. Then people were applauding the choir.”
The final song was going to be a fully staged rendition of Abba’s Dancing Queen. As outrage bubbled up, the choir began performing an a cappella version on stage and finished it on their way out to a loud, rapturous reception. “Everybody was clapping as we were making our way out,” she said.
“All of that took far longer than if he allowed the concert just to end at the right time.”
Thompson said the impromptu ending “was really lovely and quite moving”.
“We all went out to the pub afterwards and took it all in. Everyone was in astonishment really.
“I do find it funny. I’m not particularly upset. We had a really good concert but I think it’s a real shame that we didn’t get a chance to finish. But now looking back, what a way to go out,” he said.
A diocese of London spokesperson said: “Bishop Jonathan reached out to the organisers on Saturday to apologise for his late-night appearance at the concert, which he now understands had overrun due to earlier technical difficulties.”
