Determined not to call them Christendom's Spice Girls, Mike Rimmer met up with Milton Keynes' R&B pop sensations SHINE.

Shine

It's a Monday morning in February, and the girls from Shine are making a slight detour to visit Cross Rhythms radio, on their way to rehearse for their tour with the World Wide Message Tribe. It's an exciting time for the band as their schools ministry takes off in Milton Keynes, they've just completed their debut album and America is excited and tipping them to be the next big thing. Therefore gird your loins, hang on to your toupee as you experience the giggling rollercoaster of Natasha, Loretta, Nicola and Hanne as they teach me dance steps, reflect on their trip to America, and oh yes, reflect on the joy of meeting Dick Van Dyke!

First a brief history. As they tell it, Loretta was in The Tribe and wanted to do something similar but was desperate to work with her twin sister Natasha. Former Tribe member Mark Pennells took them under his wing and then they recruited a couple of girls who went to the same school of creative ministry that they'd attended in London. Norwegian Hanne was convinced she'd failed the audition and Nicola never did finish university. And thus Shine were born! Still with me? Good!

Of course there's more than that! Occasionally skeletons in the Shine closet rattle their bones. Along the way and aside from the dull office jobs, Natasha did some sessions for Top Of the Pops. She confesses, "I did some stuff with Gary Barlow, 911 and Ms Diana Ross." In down to earth fashion, she adds, "That's the Celebrity stories really." At least for the moment! One of the characteristics of the band is the fact that their schools work keeps their feet completely flat on the floor.

Nicola comments, "We started with the way we knew how, which was to pray. We did a lot of praying and Mark Pennells was really instrumental in getting us started." Loretta adds, "I left the WWMT not exactly knowing what I was going to do except that I wanted to reach kids in Milton Keynes. We really couldn't have started without Mark. He really knew the ropes so well, especially in terms of developing the music side of it with him and with Zarc Porter. That's where a lot of the structure came into place once Mark started managing us."

For the last 18 months Shine have been working in local schools teaching lessons, organising school assemblies and performing concerts. They describe last week's work. Nicola explains, "We've had a bit of a funny one this week because of Valentines Day. We thought we'd do something on love and so we did a lesson on love and relationships, which was quite interesting." Loretta laughs at the memory, "The year eights get embarrassed. You mention sex to year eights and they just giggle and say, 'You said the s word'. You get over that after the first 10 minutes and then after that they're alright. They just don't look at you. We let them know it's not taboo. We bring the subject up before they do. They realise that we're not embarrassed and so it makes them feel a bit more comfortable about it."

The concerts must change the kids' perspective of them as people; do they get star-struck with them being a band? Nicola responds, "They do sometimes. We always get asked for autographs. The first time we were asked we were looking at Mark to find out if this was normal. That comes with it, but at the end of a week they know what we're about. We're about having fame for Jesus not for ourselves. We really hope that comes across, at least by the end of the week. The thing with re-visiting the schools is that we recognise the kids and they recognise us, which is nice. We can have a more one-on-one relationship with them then, which is really important. Last week I had some girl say 'it's so nice that we can get to know you, and it's not that your just on stage but we get to know you' and that's great."

Their new album is now released and I suspect that the girls would really like to be R&B divas, so did Mark and Zarc force them into a more poppy direction? Natasha responds, "We definitely would like to be more R&B, but it's probably not so fair to say that they've pushed us into it. The album is very much Pop R&B. We'd probably prefer R&B Pop. At the end of the day we need to make sure that it's relevant to teenagers. A lot of teenagers are getting more and more into R&B, and it's becoming more mainstream, but there's still that strong pop thing there that they just love, really. I think we manage to get that balance quite well in the end."

The album wasn't easy to record. Hanne explains, "We had a lot of sickness, actually. We had to keep putting the dates back because someone would get a sore throat, then someone would get a cold. You know that whole period when everyone was getting the flu and being ill, all of us at different points were not too brilliant so it was hard work with time pressures as well." Natasha adds, "We did quite a lot of vocal arrangements. While one was in there doing one song, the others would just rehearse for the next one and put that one together. It was running so late that we'd started recording half the album and still had the other half to write. We were doing everything all at once. Songs were at all different stages, some were written, some had the tracks down but we needed to do the vocal arrangements, etc."

Shine

Out of that big melting pot of pressure has emerged an album of perfect pop. One of the outstanding songs on the set is a cover version of the old Steve Winwood hit "Higher Love". The song had been a live favourite in schools and when the band signed an American record deal, the company thought it would be a cool idea for Steve Winwood to duet with the band. Natasha explains, "The idea was put to him when he heard one of our versions and he liked it. He was up for it and then when we were recording the album, it just got to one of those situations where it was literally impossible to get hold of him. Our company would ring his Producer and Manager and messages didn't get passed on. I think at the end of the day we just ran out of time. Shame, because it would have been interesting."

The band have been having an interesting time in America though, initially, they confess that the only difference is that there is better food! Hanne laughs, "Our priorities, Jesus, kids, food. The way to the Shine girls' hearts is through their stomachs!"

The buzz that the band created in America meant that, for a while, every major Christian label in Nashville was throwing silly money at the band trying to get them to sign on the dotted line. Natasha responds, "To this day we can't quite get our heads around it. Mark went out there hoping to get one or two people interested in us, not knowing at all what sort of response he might get. Within a couple of days of being there it just all went mad. That really encouraged us because people could obviously see a massive potential in us, and it really was true in the end that we were in a position to be able to choose the record company that we went with, which is virtually unheard of. It really was absolutely mind blowing because we weren't looking for it. We've suddenly got this huge record deal with Reunion records, and it's like God had a bigger picture. Our imagination didn't even stretch to what God planned for Shine all along." Loretta adds, "I think it's probably a good job because we'd be terrified. We went over there last September and Reunion are just so focused on God. They're absolutely gob-smacked at the schools work. It's obvious that they know that's what we're committed to." Nicola adds, "We had a really good laugh and they bought us dogs!" She adds half sadly, "Not real ones!"

Aha! The Shine dog! Shine have had a dog for a while, again not a real one, and it's a bone of contention within the band as they would like a real one! Nicola says, "We have a campaign to get a real one. If we had a real one, we would take it everywhere and feed it dog biscuits all the time." Loretta adds, "I presented a plan to Mark our Manager and he's still not having it. I thought we could have a dog that is so well-trained that it can actually come on tour with us. Mark is terrified of dogs. He thinks they're disgusting and they stink, and we're mad on dogs, so there is some managerial friction." The band are committed to spending three months of the year in the USA, so maybe Mark has the right idea after all. It looks more than likely that Shine will be huge pop stars in the American scene. Natasha explains, "In a way we're really scared of that, because the success of Shine to us is about being true to our vision and the original plan, which is to reach out to schools. Now we've got this deal, I think we've got such a big responsibility to stay true to the vision and that was so laid down before we even signed the deal. That's why we went with Reunion, because they are very ministry-hearted and they understand that, but I think even so, we've got to be realistic that there is gonna be all this hype, this whole pop stardom over there and we've got to really remember where we are. But then, there's nothing like a school to put your feet back on the ground."

And where does Dick Van Dyke pop up in our story? One of Nicola's skeletons waves from the closet. After the band signed with Reunion, they got to meet all the bigwigs at their new company, including the overall chief executive. "His name is Peter Van somebody" Nicola struggles to remember, and this is clearly embarrassing. When we came back to the UK after signing, a couple of people from the company came back with us. We were chatting over dinner and one asked me what I thought of America. I said it had been good to meet Dick Van Dyke. I knew by their faces that I had said something wrong but I hadn't realised I'd said the wrong name!" oh dear!

Time is ticking away and the band are due to appear live on Hughie Lawrence's morning show on Cross Rhythms. Inside the studio Hughie banters with the girls about football, Nicola's hometown of Barnsley and Hanne's Norwegian accent. Then the journey to Manchester to rehearse for the tour. Nicola explains, "We've got so many new songs that we need new routines. It's always good to put everything up a gear anyway."

I envision soundstages, lighting crews working through their routines whilst the girls sort out their moves, but the reality of rehearsing is something different. "A secret location somewhere," they tease and then come clean, "Mark's lounge or somewhere." They dissolve into laughter at the thought of moving the settee back and doing their stuff. Do they struggle to rehearse and keep a straight face?

"Yeah!" agrees Hanne, "We struggle with anything to keep a straight face. We're always getting told off by Mark. We are juvenile." Outside the studio, while the girls are waiting to appear on Hughie's show, they demonstrate some of the dance moves that Mark Pennells has banned. They all have names like "Dobbin" and "Inverted Dobbin" and there's also one called "Horse" which seems to involve, erm-well, pretending to ride a horse! Hmmm-

As Shine leave the UCB studio complex in Stoke-On-Trent to ride off into the sunset, or at least to start rehearsing in Manchester, a number of facts are clear. The humour and down-to-earth nature of the band, combined with an uncompromising desire to reach school kids, means that whatever the commercial success of their excellent debut 'Do It Right', they remain a band that God is going to use powerfully in the coming years.