Scunthorpe steelworker Albert 'Lal' White is the inspiration behind Cycle Song. Lal worked in the backbreaking steelworks by day and trained by night to become one of the most celebrated cyclists of his day. He won countless trophies for cycling, including a silver medal at the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games.

Carrying the Hopes will be sung by our 1,200 strong chorus and comes at the point in Lal's story where he's getting ready to head to Antwerp to compete in the Olympics. Lal wasn't just cycling for himself - he was also carrying the hopes of his home town on to the world stage.

This is a rehearsal recording of the brilliant Scunthorpe Cooperative Junior Choir singing one of the songs from the newly commissioned opera Cycle Song. Composed by Tim Sutton with a libretto by Ian McMillan, Cycle Song premieres in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire on 14th-15h July 2012. For more information please visit www.cyclesong.co.uk

Cycle Song is part of imove, a Cultural Olympiad programme in Yorkshire and Humber (www.imoveand.com) 

imove has been funded by Legacy Trust UK, creating a lasting impact from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by funding ideas and local talent to inspire creativity across the UK.


Carrying the Hopes

Our hero Lal White, fed up of not being able to train outdoors in bad weather, built a static training machine using two mangles and a belt. The pre-cursor to today's modern static training systems, Lal used to take this marvellous machine to galas and shows to give demonstrations.

Mangle Magic is the point in the show where Lal has struck upon his ingenious idea and starts to build the machine... 

This is a rehearsal recording of the brilliant Scunthorpe Cooperative Junior Choir singing one of the songs from the newly commissioned opera Cycle Song. Composed by Tim Sutton with a libretto by Ian McMillan, Cycle Song premieres in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire on 14th-15h July 2012. For more information please visit www.cyclesong.co.uk

Cycle Song is part of imove, a Cultural Olympiad programme in Yorkshire and Humber (www.imoveand.com) 

imove has been funded by Legacy Trust UK, creating a lasting impact from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by funding ideas and local talent to inspire creativity across the UK.


Mangle Magic

Sarah Burton of BBC Radio Humberside visited Wrawby Primary School to hear their super-talented choir rehearsing and to talk to the children about Lal White, the hero of the show.

Listen to Sarah's feature to hear the children singing some of the brilliant songs created by Tim Sutton and Ian McMillan and talking about how Lal is still an inspiration to all of us today, following his dreams and rising above the ordinary to achieve extraordinary things...

Thanks very much to BBC Radio Humberside for giving us permission to share this with you.

Copyright BBC Radio Humberside. Used with permission.

BBC Radio Humberside - CycleSong

Lifelong Scunthorpe resident Martin Foster very kindly agreed to record spoken versions of some of the songs from the show to help our professional cast perfect their Scunthorpe accents.

We all thought that Martin's readings were so fantastic that it would be a shame not to share them with you. Ian McMillan's words really come alive and it's like the voice of Lal White, the hero of our show, coming down to us over the years...

Huge thanks to Martin for making the recordings for us!