A Hole lotta rock 'n' roll

The gentleman farmer and friend to royalty admits to being a frustrated rock drummer. The concert by veteran raunchy rock chick Quatro on Saturday July 14 is the latest of an annual series going back nine years.

Every summer Chris opens up a two-acre walled Georgian garden at his ancestral home Hopton Court to rock fans - and every year the programme seems to get more ambitious.

Last year legendary British band The Hollies - who had a string of top ten hits in the '60s and '70s - headlined the event.

Now there is Quatro, who shot to fame in the 1970s with hits like Devil Gate Drive and Can the Can. She has sold more than 45 millions albums, has appeared on the front cover of Rolling Stone magazine, played at some of the world's biggest rock venues and will embark on a major tour of Australia in the autumn. She also has her own BBC Radio 2 show.

It is a major coup for the Hole in the Wall Concert, as Chris has named his series.

Quatro will round off two days of high-class professional entertainment, with players from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra presenting a programme of Beatles classics and James Bond movie themes on Friday July 13.

"These are superb musicians and I'm greatly looking forward to the two days," adds Chris with an engaging smile.

He will open up a field on his 1,500-acre estate at Hopton Wafers, near Cleobury Mortimer, for fans to camp over the weekend, creating his own mini-version of the Glastonbury Festival.

The weekend will raise money for Cancer Research UK and several businesses have offered pledges of support, with some taking advantage of the VIP Champagne reception at the concert to entertain their clients.

The 2,500 tickets for each night are selling very well. "We've never sold as many tickets for the gig at this stage before," says Chris.

So how did the first concert in 1998 come about? Chris explains: "We had horse trials and were always looking for sponsors to help run them. Then I thought, 'why not a concert to try to raise the money?' It sort of started there and has taken off. We've had 11 concerts in the past nine years."

Over the years the events have featured a mix of local and more obscure support bands with a string of top-quality tribute acts like The Counterfeit Stones and Killer Queen.

"They are a terrific band who seem to have been going for ever. They have real staying power," he says with pride.

Chris admits organising the concert is a 12-month task, particularly given the ever-increasing health-and-safety bureaucracy that accompanies such ventures.

"It's an awful lot of work, actually," he says. In fact as we speak a backlog of tasks are piling up for Chris and wife Sarah, as they have just returned from a fortnight's fishing on the Queen's Balmoral Estate in Scotland.

Aside from the concert, they still have to find time for running the Georgian mansion - designed by John Nash with landscaped gardens by Humphry Repton, which has been in his family for 200 years - and managing a farm and flourishing wine business.

The Woodward ancestry is noted for its service to the military - it boasts five admirals in the family - and the clergy, but Chris could really have bucked the trend as, in his youth, he flirted with the idea of a career in pop music.

"I'm a frustrated rocker, essentially. I'm a drummer and became very passionate about it while at school (The Oratory, Reading). I loved Bill Haley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis. I'm very low brow, really.

"My first band was a skiffle band and we went up to London with that."

However, Chris's career in rock 'n' roll was to prove short-lived. The lead guitarist got his girlfriend pregnant and, tragically, another member died in an accident.

"That was that. I then went off to agricultural college and joined the Shropshire Yeomanry."

He might have followed a different path but the passion for music is undimmed. Lovers of the The Hole in the Wall Concert can be thankful for that.

For information on tickets go to www.holeinthewallconcert.com