Cigarette Vicarage? Rev mini review...

Cartoon from The (very wonderful!) Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus

Well, have to confess I really enjoyed the recent BBC series, Rev, and yet to find anyone other than 'vicarage' types that didn't which, in turn, adds to the amusement value! Of course the ending was really special and each episode had a bit more momentum as the series progressed. bearing in mind that blog discussions earlier in the year seemed to bring the sermon out as the best element of a service this was also reality check time, generally sermons are dire too, so a score of -1 would be high praise indeed!

In the last episode there was a classic representation of the church carrying on with all its frippery whilst effectively shunning the young guns cavorting around the war memorial. What an opportunity to join things up by linking the current conflicts our soldiers endure with some war history thereby making the act of commemoration meaningful for everyone rather than just themselves? That's just one example of where the series was hard hitting and justifiably so.

Anyway, a great series, lots of profound and challenging moments...

P

Jeff Buckley - BBC Soul Music Take 2

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BBC Soul Music - Dido's Lament

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Sadly music mega-corp Sony has removed the YouTube video of Jeff Buckley I had included on my earlier post about the BBC Radio 4 series Soul Music. Checking the visitor stats for this Blog it is clear the post that featured anecdotes about Dido's Lament, including the legendary performance by Jeff Buckley, still has plenty of visits.

However, the really great news is the BBC has increased the duration of the archived pieces from Soul Music and have included this edition along with many others, link above.

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Jeff Buckley - BBC Soul Music

UPDATE: Newer post includes 2nd half of this BBC Radio's Soul Music broadcast with Sarah Connolly, Jeremy Summerly, Alison Moyet and Philip Sheppard on Jeff Buckley's amazing interpretation here

BBC Radio 4's recent edition of 'Soul Music' which featured Dido's Lament turned out to be really special! It always gives me enormous encouragement (and pleasant surprise!) to hear top notch classical maestros admitting truths that most of their colleagues would consider heresy.

The program moved from a fairly conventional start covering thoughts from the mezzo soprano Sarah Connolly and the view of the conductor of the band at the Cenotaph for Remembrance Day.

Jeremy Summerly, the big boss of the Royal Academy of Music and a renowned conductor, issued the first challenges to conventional thinking about the approach to singing the piece. He asked how would anyone know how 17th Century singers would sound and then introduced Alison Moyet's version, praising her approach, the clarity of her timbre and the fact that every word is intelligible. For someone of Jeremy's stature in the classical world to say this is really something, especially as he stated that Purcell's masterpiece is 'the great tune of the 17th Century'.

The closing section of the programme introduced Philip Sheppard, cellist and now composer. He spoke about how he was invited along to be part of the supporting orchestra for Elvis Costello's Meltdown Festival in 1995. One of the pieces was to be Dido's Lament which would be sung by charismatic rock singer Jeff Buckley. Although Philip had never heard of Jeff Buckley before once he heard him singing it had a most profound effect on him:

He seemed to screw every ounce of meaning out of the words and physically he looked like he was wracked with pain and anguish as he was singing it. But what was coming out was beyond ethereal his voice had this quality where it meant so much more than when I had ever heard it before.

But then when he sang it it seemed to be a Lament so much more and it really went beyond what I would consider to be classical music...and to date it's actually probably the greatest musical
experience of my life, in as much as it turned my world inside out.

As a result Philip had to admit:

I know NOTHING about music - at all!

Up to that point I was a musican who played through study rather than a musician who played through feel and now I have to say I seek out people to work with who do not necessarily read music who have their first sense is one of 'ear' rather than of 'technique'...

Philip then goes on to say how this became a pivotal moment in his career which helped him to become a composer, enabling him to move away from being 'a player who just repeated other people's music'.

Jeff Buckley died in a tragic accident just two years later in 1997, sunsequently his version of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' reached number one in the US Billboard charts and is considered by many to be the definitive version.

Now Philip thinks of Jeff nearly every day and is ever grateful for the effect of the encounter, even though he only met him for around half an hour...

Listening to this has changed me forever, too, thank you so much...

P

All the small things... really matter

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction... however, the wonderful 2009 BBC drama series 'All The Small Things' represents fiction which so closely matches Mersea truth it's uncanny.

This song is a choral version of American popular teen combo Blink 182, one of many excellent musical pieces on the DVD which should be watched by every church choir, pastor and congregation. The plot covers an comprehensive array of social, religious and family issues that touch the spirit deeply... it is a tragedy that plans for a new series have been dropped... buy this gem on DVD.

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From Candleford with Love...

From the ASBOJesus Blog, inspired by the very wonderful latest BBC series of Lark Rise to Candleford. Last night's edition was quite emotionally draining yet remaining uplifting. The demonstration of the folk from socially and economically upmarket Candleford showing compassion to their neighbours and family in the adjacent hamlet of Lark Rise is a challenging example of what the church should be doing for the relative poor. It means getting our hands dirty and moving outside our comfort zones... even outside our churches, perhaps?

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Knowledge of good and evil?

A fascinating Podcast from Monday 20/07/09 on BBC Radio 4:

Religion and the Web

ATF on the Beeb

Last Thursday 2nd July I went up to record an interview with Steve Foster of BBC Radio Suffolk in Ipswich. As always Steve and I had a great conversation and covered ground about the band's history and the current plans. This Saturday 11th we are looking forward to playing the Music on The Green festival on Martelsham Heath for the first time, on stage around 6pm.

In addition to playing some After The Fire songs of the recently released Radio Sessions CD he had asked me to bring with me three of my fave songs Desert Island Disks style. They all had to be mainstream artists that would be reasonably well known, last twixt 3 and 4 minutes and suitable for the radio station. Although I had a week or so to think of them what a task it proved to be!

I will reveal all when it is broadcast this Wednesday just after 6pm and on the blog here, meanwhile any other bloggers' suggestions of your three song selection would be most interesting?!