Singing through the decades: 4. 1980s

 INTRODUCTION

The 1980's correspond to my twenties. Quite a busy and varied decade for me ... at the start I still had two further years of being a student, by the middle I was married, and by the end I had just had my first child.

1. Hildenborough Hall

The happiest summer of my life was spent working on the domestic staff of Hildenborough Hall Christian Conference Centre in 1980, for £15 per week! It was a lovely place in a beautiful setting, but what made it so special was the team of (mainly young) people working there, who were (mostly) like a big happy family. On a Sunday afternoon, between shifts, most of us were able to gather for staff fellowship, and this is where I learnt this song....except I never did properly learn to sing it, as the person who taught us had some difficulty in holding a tune ... but his enthusiasm to share it was completely contagious! So this is what I think it should have been like (can't find it online, and I forgot one line)

2. UBM

That stands for United Beach Missions - at the end of my student years in the summer holiday I spent a couple of weeks volunteering on a Beach Team at Broadstairs. The ethos of UBM, which had its roots in the  'National Young Life Campaign', was a more conservative, almost old fashioned, evangelical group than those I had been associated with at the time (so I felt quite embarrassed by my rainbow themed Good News Bible that I was using at the time), and the songs we used at evening 'open Air' evangelistic meetings, were different to ones I knew from church etc. But they were tuneful, and had guitar accompaniment, and I liked them. My favourite was called 'I do not know the depth of Jesus' Love' to which I found some lyrics here  but the words I recall are slightly different.

So here is my hybrid sound recording, using as a base a poor quality voice and guitar recording from the 1980's. overlaid with better quality voice from today ...so I'm singing along with a younger version of myself!

Singing through the decades: 3. 1975-1979

 

 INTRODUCTION

So here is the second part of my teenage years from age 15-19. I became a Christian myself, through a typical evangelical 'conversion' at age 15, so the faith that I had been singing about all my life now became something that had meaning for me personally.

1. Sizewell Hall

I have many happy memories of staying at Sizewell Hall, a Christian Conference Centre by the sea. This place has amazing vibes for me, and I could really 'feel' God's presence. I went initially 3 times for a 'Young People's Houseparty' week at Easter during this era. Later on, as a student I also went as a helper on the Old Peoples weeks, and on church weekends. But my main amazing memories were from Easters 1978,78 and 80. This was where I learnt this song - in my mind's ear I hear lovely young tenor voices (we sang it split into ladies' and men's parts) swelling the air in the conference room overlooking the sea.

 

2. Leeds Poly CU

So having gone as a student to Leeds at 18, I attended the Christian Union at Poly during my first year only. I was living in a Hall of Residence away from the main campuses so I went to the group that met at City Site at 5.30pm on a Thursday, where most members were older students who were living out in rented accommodation. (Most of the first year students were living in halls grouped together at Beckett Park, that had its own CU group). I never felt like I fitted in, finding it rather 'charismatic' compared to the type of worship I was more accustomed to back then. Here I learnt many of the classic 'modern' choruses, but it is this one in particular that always reminds me of Leeds Poly Christian Union.

3. Hope Hall - Gospel Service

My main Christian fellowship during my student years in Leeds was at the Brethren assembly Hope Hall, which I attended for 3 out of my 4 years. The morning meeting was somewhat similar to my own assembly at home, (although we used a different hymn books whose name I cannot remember) but the evening 'Gospel Meetings' seemed a little less dull than at home. Pretty sure we used 'Golden Bells' hymn book and this hymn was a new one for me, that I have never sang anywhere else .... I particularly like the tune!

 

4. Hope Hall - Christmas

At Christmas there was a singing group, who sang carols in 4 part harmony in the Carol Service. This was something new and exciting for me, to be in a church setting where I could read music and learn a formal choir part! Rehearsals took place during the 'Aftermeetings' (get togethers for all ages in people's homes following the evening service each week) in December. The actual Carol service was usually after the end of term, so I should have gone home by then, but so enthralled was I by the idea of singing harmony in church that I had to stay on! This particular Carol I now regularly hear at least once every Christmas, but it was new to me then. I learnt it well, so I can still reproduce the soprano, alto and tenor part without any music. And I was allowed to play a tambourine - I loved it! Whenever I hear it, I have happy memories of Hope Hall.

5. Youth Weekend

Every year I was at Hope Hall they tried a different approach to attempt to attract and retain students in the church. The most cringeworthy was the '415 Club' in my second year, a group that met at church at 4.15 on a Sunday afternoon (hence the name) for discussion etc, followed by tea before the evening service - it was a bit too juvenile in concept. But one good thing from that era was a church Young People's weekend away (rather like Sizewell) in Derbyshire. Here I learnt this song, sung as a round, and I have rarely heard it since.

 

 

Singing through the decades: 2. 1970-1974

 INTRODUCTION

Yes I know I said I would do a page for each decade, but the 1970s were my teenage years, where like most teenagers, I changed and developed quite a lot, so the world inhabited by ten year old me still at primary school in 1970 was a rather different one to that inhabited by a 19 year old undergraduate. So I've split the 70s down the middle for the purposes of this blog.

1.Bible Class

At about age 11 I graduated from Sunday School to a group for teenagers called Bible Class. This was on Sunday afternoon (just like Sunday School). I didn't particularly enjoy it as the leaders had a rather dull approach, but I learnt some new songs, from the very trendy books we used at the time called 'Youth Praise' (Book 1 was green and Book 2 was orange)

Here is a song from one of them that I have never encountered since ... cant find it anywhere online! There are a few lines I cant remember hence the 'la la las'

2. School Choir

So now I am at Grammar school, and at some point I joined the Junior Choir. (For reasons that I can't begin to understand now, I never joined the Senior choir - even though I was taking O level Music at the time .... I can't understand NOT being in a choir now, when one was freely available to me!!) This was the first time I sang alto, something I have been doing ever since.  A memorable performance we did, along with other girls taking part as actors and dancers was the cantata 'Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo. I can still remember most of the words ... saw it performed by a local choir in 2019 which brought back such vivid memories of school...

3. Family

We were a musical family and we sang a lot. (For instance we made up songs about my sister's toy dog!) The song I bring to you here is not made up by us, but it is probably one of my first attempts at musical arrangement/performance ... certainly the first recording of such a thing. My two sisters and I used to sing it on long car journeys with my middle sister singing the tune, youngest sister singing a floaty descant, and myself adding an alto part. This is a genuine ancient audio recording of us singing, retrieved from a cassette tape from the 1970's (so quality is not brilliant) 

4. Youth Fellowship

This was a group for teenagers/young twenties after the Gospel service on Sunday evenings. It involved chatting under dim coloured lights with Johnny Cash playing in the background, and munching on KP Skips ... then a time of singing and finally an epilogue. The songs were all written in capital letters by hand, on thick sheets of coloured card that fitted into a home-made easel. Looking back, the leaders put in an awful lot of effort! This was my favourite song, and I believe it was written by a friend of one of our leaders ... Google certainly doesn't seem to know it anyway!!

5. School Music lessons

Although I eventually went on to take O level music, involving actual study of the subject, learning about composers and Music theory etc, lower down the school whenever 'Music' was on the timetable it seemed to consist entirely of the class gathering around the grand piano and singing folk songs. (No other subject involved such a massive change in focus from the lower school to O level). 'Red River Valley' is one song we sang in those sessions, that I have not encountered since. It turns out that there are endless versions of this song, and I couldn't find a recording using the words I knew. But I did find some sheet music. You can see the first page here, and the second page as a masked preview ... the missing words on page two should be '...hasten to bid us adieu, But remember...'

6. Way to Life Crusade

Dick Saunders was an evangelist who toured the country running evangelistic 'crusades'. Three times in my formative years I recall him in our area, in a tent in the Christchurch Park in the 60s, in a dome shaped tent on waste ground at Bramford Rd in the early 70s and in Burlington Baptist church when I was in sixth form (this time I was in the choir!) The theme song for his crusades, certainly the early ones, was 'Life is Wonderful. Sadly, once more I have been unable to find a recording. So here is the music.

(and yes, I have just realised I got this from Youth Praise, see first item on page ... I do have both Youth Praise books so I could have looked up the words to 'Little candle' ... but preferred to do it from memory!! even if it meant some words were missing!)

7. Dad's Quartet

I already mentioned my father's male voice quartet in my Desert Island Discs post (as they used to practice weekly in our house, thus preventing me from watching Top of the Pops!!) This was group of friends who sang old fashioned gospel songs in churches and Old People's homes. Many of these old songs I first heard in the context of this quartet (and because of this I sometimes had difficulty picking out the tune, as their counter tenor had a very piercing voice, and he rarely if ever carried the melody!!) This is one song I will always associate with them. Their arrangement changed the rhythm on the final verse from 4/4  to 6/8.

8. School Assembly

Before we move on to the next 'era' I wanted to revisit the school assembly. Now at Grammar School this was a much more formal event than at Primary school, with echoes of civic religion. There was not very much overlap between the hymns at school and those 'Brethreny' hymns and Gospel Songs that I knew from my own background,  We used an Anglican hymnbook called 'Songs of Praise'. Many of the hymns we sung are standard mainstream Anglican hymns that I still sing today in the URC, but a few are indelibly associated in my mind with this particular setting - I don't think I have ever sung this hymn since school. 

Singing through the decades: 1. 1960s

INTRODUCTION - Singing through the decades

I decided to split my life mostly into decades for the purpose of this blog, (it's quite handy having been born in a year ending in zero, for the decades correspond to decades of my life!) to give a flavour of what was going on for me musically in each time period. For this section of the blog I will concentrate on songs I have learnt to sing, in whatever context .... since recorded music that I listened to has its own place in other posts (such as my recent 'Desert Island Discs' post) In every decade of my life I have learnt new songs, in various contexts, that are forever defined in my memory by the setting in which I first learnt them. These are songs that can transport me instantly to a particular time and place.

For each decade I have tried to come up with a selection of songs representing different aspects of my life in those times .... so one example only from each source.

1960s

1. Sunday School

I started Sunday School at age 3. So this represents my first exposure to songs outside the home environment that were aimed specifically at my age group. This is one of the earliest I recall learning.

  

I am H-A-P-P-Y

I am H-A-P-P-Y

I know I am, I'm sure I am

I'm H-A-P-P-Y

2. 'Morning Meeting'. 

From an early age I was taken along with my parents every Sunday morning to the Brethren 'Gospel Hall' where they worshipped. The Open Brethren did not have any planned Order of Service, and no musical instruments to accompany the singing in the Morning Meeting. We used 'The Believers Hymn Book' and my father was the 'precentor' who chose the tune, pitched it, and started everybody singing. People sang in harmony in spite of having words-only copies of the hymn book (and there were no set tunes for most hymns anyway, these could vary depending on how many other hymns with the same meter had been sung already that day) I guess this was where my love of singing in harmony, and the ease with which I can do it without music, may have originated!

This is a hymn I learnt in that context that I have rarely encountered since then, and when I do, it takes me straight back to those Sunday mornings, sitting in silence on a hard wooden chair, waiting for somebody to speak or pray or announce a hymn

3. Family parties

Every Christmas the extended family (on my father's side) got together on successive days for what we called a 'party' ... these were actually quite sober affairs but always with games. And one of the games involved a song... and a curtain ring on a big loop of string that was passed around secretly with one person in the centre trying to locate it. It was called 'Paddy to London' Google knows nothing of this song/game, although it clearly has a similar origin to this one with slightly different words and a completely different tune. So here is my recreation of the Bailey family version

4. Grandma

Thinking of family parties, brings me on to my paternal grandmother, who sang around the house as she worked. This is the song I associate with her, that I have never encountered elsewhere since. I do recall the words she sang being slightly different though; where this version has 'turn turn your back from doubting' I seem to recall that Grandma used to sing something like 'Leave all your cares behind you' ....can any other family members confirm this?

5. School Assembly

The hymns we sang in Assembly at Primary School were an almost entirely different set to one those I knew from 'The Hall' (which was how we normally referred to our place of worship). And many were ones that I haven't encountered since, such as 'Daisies are our silver', 'When a knight won his spurs' and 'Come let us remember the joys of the town'. I think they came from the BBC Hymn book for schools ... but I cannot find one online that looks familiar. The one I have chose to represent school assembly has a lively tune and retells a Bible story from The Old Testament

6. School Playground

Here is perhaps the first item on this page that is more widely known among the general population. Singing games in the playground were popular and this one came with a complicated set of actions, linking hands and twisting the chain thus formed. I wonder if the origins of this song refer to a ship that first sailed (or sank) on that particular date? The song came back to me in 1978 when parts of it featured in the hit song by Brian and Michael about the painter Lowry (Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs)

The Big Ship Sails on the Alley alley O

7. School Choir

I have been singing in choirs for most of my life. The first was at Primary school where we were taught by our very musical Welsh Headmaster. We sang folk songs from  around the world (including some in other languages), also songs from contemporary films like 'The Sound of Music' and 'Mary Poppins'. One of the foreign songs that stuck in my mind, that I haven't heard much of since, was an Israeli folk song called Hava Nagila

8. Children's Corner 

On Wednesday evenings at 6.30pm we were back at 'The Hall' again (along with the neighbours' children) for a children's meeting with songs, quizzes, Bible stories and a 'Pilgrim's Progress' filmstrip serial (state of the art technology for those days!) introduced by dramatic music from 2001 Space Odyssey (Strauss). The songs we sang here were different ones to Sunday School, and some, such as this one, were unintelligible to me as a young girl because of the language, but has nevertheless stuck in my mind even though I haven't heard or sung it since. I still don't really understand the use of the word 'portion' in this song! Google doesn't seem to know about this song, so I will have to sing it for you!

9. Gospel Meeting

6.30 on Sunday Evening was the Gospel meeting, very different in character from the morning meeting - for example everyone sat facing the front in rows, there was a pulpit in use, an order of service planned in advance, an electronic organ (played by my uncle) and a different Hymn Book. In my later memories of the Gospel Hall the book was 'Hymns of Faith' (Scripture Union) but in the 1960s it was possibly 'Sankeys' (Sacred Songs and Solos). This is a hymn that I will always associate with that meeting (even though it is not uncommon for me to sing it in more recent times) because my uncle always played it 'wrong' in the rhythm of the first bar.

Desert Island Discs

Probably  everyone is familiar with the format of Desert Island Discs even if they have never listened to it. The subject gets to choose 8 recordings and uses them  to talk about their life.

So I thought it would be an interesting idea for this blog, touching as it does on music I enjoy, and what it means to me, and trying to get a sense of my own biography in there somewhere. Sounds rather ambitious, but lets see how it goes!

1. My first record is 'The Gas man Cometh' by Flanders and Swann

Back in the 1960s when I was a child the options for listening to music at home were the radio or record player. We didn't listen to much music on the radio, so it was mainly just records really! My parents' record collection was not large or particularly diverse, mostly gospel songs and classical music, but they had a few records by this wonderful duo. This song is funny, tells a story, and is something that reminds me of cosy childhood days huddled around the record player.

2. To represent my teenage years, while still at school its got to be Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks.

Everyone seems to love or hate this song - yes its rather sentimental, but I loved it at 14, and yes I still love it, because it reminds me of what it was like to be 14! It was the first single I ever bought, and I bought it after only hearing it two or three times! It just happened to be No 1 at the time when I first started watching 'Top of the Pops' so for that reason alone it seemed special to me. Before then (in the days long before video recorders), I was never able to watch TOTP unless I was at a friends house, as my father had his quartet practise in our lounge each week (and there was only one TV in the house) on the night it was on ... can't quite remember if it was Dad's schedule or TOTP schedule that changed! Yes I was naïve, sentimental, idealistic back then (- even now as a 60 year old I still have more than a usual dose of all those qualities!) and this song just got to me. Its only now, writing about it after all these years, and watching that YouTube video, that the thought first occurred to me that there might possibly have been a suicide theme in there - that would have been scandalous for me to consider that at the time!

3. So I went off to Leeds to be a student and get some independence. Gradually I began to find my own path in life rather than blithely following my family's ways. During my third year in Leeds I found myself with a sort of social life for the first time (apart from that through church activities). Which even included the odd party! At one of these parties I first became aware of this song (Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road) ... I was going to say first 'heard' it, but I must surely have heard it before as this was about 1980 and the song had been around since 1973! But it was possibly the first time I had heard it played on a decent stereo. Which made a massive difference. Anyway, from that moment to the present day I have been a big fan of Elton John. Even saw him live a couple years ago. There are not many (if any) other popular artists for whom I would be sufficiently interested in hearing them, that I would be prepared to pay the crazy prices! 

4. I got my degree, came back to Suffolk, got married, basically became an adult! In those pre children days we used to go to the cinema from time to time. And one one of those occasions we went to see 'The Mission'. To say I was blown away was an understatement ... and not by the story or the acting, good as it was (especially Jeremy Irons!) But that music!! The score, by Ennio Morricone seemed to resonate with me deep within - I think it was the first time in my life that I became conscious of how deeply and completely music could affect me. The track called 'River' is amazing, so exuberant, Gabriel's Oboe is so haunting, the main theme ('On earth as it is in heaven') is so beautiful, (and combines the two tunes already mentioned) and the other tracks are awesome too....but my all time favourite was one actually performed as a sung item by the cast members in the film - in the context of worship - this is Ava Maria Guarani: 

I find it naively beautiful, gutsy and raw, and very very impressive musically

5. From here onwards its harder to treat the songs chronologically as far as my life is concerned, as they are not so closely associated with one particular time in my life, or if they are, I cannot exactly remember which came first!! The next one I honestly cannot recall when I started to like it or identify with it, but I know that throughout my adult life, if I ever find myself somewhere where dancing is appropriate or expected, this is one of the few songs guaranteed to get me up on the dance floor. I enjoy a lot of Phil Collins's songs, but for sheer danceability this one is up there at the top for me!

6. I have always enjoyed musicals. In the early 90s we (as a family) started to listen to a lot of soundtracks from musicals (and subsequently started to go and see them on stage also), particularly the musicals of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg. There are only three (that I am aware of) ... of these I have seen one production of Martin Guerre, two of Miss Saigon, and too many to count of Les Miserables. That last one became rather iconic for me, a bit of an obsession to be totally honest. Anything Les Mis related I wanted to get my hands on. When I was interviewed for my job with Suffolk Libraries, back in 2004, there was a group exercise where candidates had to speak about something they were passionate about - so I spoke about Les Mis...., and got the job!! Choosing one song for this page was hard, but I have gone for one of the less well known ones - something really sad (why do I like sad songs so much?)

7. Continuing with the musicals theme, this is a song from a musical that I encountered from a completely different angle (although I did eventually, many years later, get to see a local production of the show it comes from: 'Sweet Charity') This is another one that appeals to me mainly because of all the harmonies and countermelodies going on within it. Can't recall exactly when and where I first heard it, but it would have been the bowdlerised version performed by an amateur choir somewhere. I have been involved in choirs for most of my life ... initially at school, from time to time in various churches, then from 1990s onwards in various community choral groups. I was in a ladies choir called the Coop Singers and we were taking part in the Suffolk Music Festival one year in the nineties, when another group (a mixed choir of young people) performed this song. One of our ladies said to our conductor 'Can we sing this one?' and the reply was that she was unaware of a SSA version for ladies voices. Well I took this as a challenge ... I had already started to dabble with music software on my new computer (in fact that was the main reason I had bought my first computer, in 1996, to do musical projects!) so I decided to try to arrange the song for our choir. Didn't have the internet at home in those days to source the music (as I would do nowadays), so I bought a compilation book of songs from musicals with this in it (melody and piano only) and wrote my first full blown choral arrangement .... which we actually performed subsequently at the Suffolk Music Festival ourselves thus bringing it back full circle to where the idea originated! Two points of interest about my arrangement - I was totally relying on my memory for how the harmonies and counterpoint usually worked, not having access to a recording when I wrote it, so I managed to miss some of the obvious harmonies, which caused me to kick myself later when I saw/heard other versions. And the lyrics - as I mentioned earlier, there is a bowdlerised version of the words which is usually sung by choirs (it's often performed by children) .... but not having access to other versions when I wrote mine, I was unaware of this, and used the original musical words (including 'Rhythm in your bedroom'!) So although I know this song mainly as a choral piece, I can't find a choral video of it with the words I am most familiar with, so here's the version from the original 'Sweet Charity'

8. The final one I have saved to the end not because it is particularly recent (although it became more meaningful for me last year through my involvement with this parody version .... look out for my name in the credits!!) but because it kind of sums up this little exercise. I have always like Abba ever since they won Eurovision in the 70s, and my present partner is a huge fan, so we listen to lots of Abba nowadays. 'Thank you for the music' is a very heartfelt sentiment for me ... I honestly cannot imagine what my life would be like, or indeed what I would be like, without music! So I leave you with Abba to play us out...

Easter

Today, the day I start this blog, is Easter Sunday. Not just any Easter Sunday as it happens, but Easter Sunday 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of the world is in lockdown. For the first time in my entire life, I have not been meeting with other Christians to celebrate the resurrection today.

Instead there has been various attempts to do church through technology - radio, TV and of course via the internet in all its manifestations.

On BBC Radio 4 this morning in the Sunday Worship broadcast, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, isolating at home with his family, there were contributions from various other people and groups, all recorded in their own homes (including a very professional sounding full harmony version of 'This Joyful Eastertide' performed by members of one family in their own home) and the last hymn was one that probably for my entire life has symbolised Easter Day more than any other. This is of course:

'Thine be the glory'. 

This particular rendering was rather unusual - it was mixed together from recordings sent in from 150 singers in their own homes, singing along to the organ accompaniment playing through headphones. I know how it was done because as far as I know my voice was one of the singers.... unless of course they rejected my contribution because I had trouble getting the alto part correct on the 3rd line!

So if that one was the constant backdrop to Easter for me, what has been some of the other music from that season that has accompanied my life?

Childhood

I grew up amongst the Open Brethren who weren't really very big on Easter, (or any part of the liturgical calendar really). Well they were certainly big on what happened in Good Friday, with that being the main focus of worship each Sunday morning with many hymns about the cross and Jesus's death. We only got to sing Easter hymns at Sunday school in the afternoons, and probably at the evening 'gospel' meeting. There were 3 hymns and choruses that the Sunday School Superintendent dusted off each year for us children to sing at Easter, and two of those I don't think I have sung since.

In fact the first two are so obscure that Google doesn't even seem to know about them!

The words of the first were something like this:

       He rose victoriously in might and majesty
      The Saviour rose no more to die
      So let us now proclaim the glories of His name
       And tell to all that Jesus lives 

And this was the tune:

The second one began something like this:

 The stone was rolled away 
From where the Saviour lay
Oh great and glorious day  
When Jesus rose again 

there were 4 more lines I think, but they have been lost in the mists of time. I won't bother to notate the tune because I cant remember the second half so it will sound odd. (I can remember the first part that goes with those words anyway.)

Addendum ... my sister has recalled the remaining 4 lines! 

A living Saviour is he

From sin to set us free

One day he’s coming back

What glory that will be!

and she helped me recall the tune too...

The third one we sang each year, as far as I can recall, was much more well known:

  'Low in the grave he lay'  (YouTube link)

Teens/Young adult

During my teenage years I spent three successive Easters at a young people's house party at Sizewell Hall On at least one of these occasions were were joined by a singer called Lou Hales (once again Google has failed me in locating any information about her) - she played piano and sang her own songs, and the one she sang on Easter morning was very memorable ... except that I have forgotten most of it apart from the tune of the refrain:

Lou Hales in April 1980 with her partner Steve

I spent my student years in Leeds where I was introduced to the Christian musician Adrian Snell, a Leeds man himself. I wasn't particularly impressed by his early albums (although I liked the cover of 'Listen to the Peace' see above) until he made... 

The Passion (YouTube link). 

This was a whole Easter Cantata I suppose, with songs about the series of events leading up to Christs death and resurrection, starting with the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and finishing with the Great Commission after the resurrection. Musically varied in style using both orchestra and rock band, the music is good. Pretty sure I went to a performance of this piece of music in Leeds Town Hall when it first came out.

 I often listen to it on Easter Sunday, which I did this year (after several years break) and was struck by the fact that although the music has stood the test of time, the words are rather corny and forced. Its not exactly great poetry. And I still prefer Lou Hales's version of 'He's alive!' to the equivalent 'Jesus is alive' in this collection.

There seemed to be a bit of a glut of these contemporary resurrection songs in the late 70s / early 80s. Another example I want to include here is by an American singer called Don Francisco. I can't remember how I was first introduced to his music, but he was definitely one of my favourite Christian musicians at the time - pretty sure I once heard him in concert at Bentwaters US base.

His own version of 'He's Alive' is most surely the best of the bunch, written from the point of view of Peter, in a minor key for the most part representing the sorrowful build up for Peter, but with clever glimpses of the major towards the end when Peter realises that Christ has risen.

  'He's Alive' on YouTube

     'He's alive and I'm forgiven

      Heaven's gates are open wide!'

 More recently

There hasn't been an abundance of fresh memorable Easter music in my life since those days. 

In my 30's I joined a ladies choir called the Coop Singers, and we performed a piece called 'O Rejoice that the Lord has Arisen' - yet another piece of music that rhymes 'arisen' with 'prison'. To my shame, it is only now that I look it up to include here, that I learn it is actually part of  'Cavalleria rusticana'.

Here is a fairly recent choral version (You Tube)

Another memorable Easter piece that was new to me was a hymn called 

Now the Green blade riseth

which I never knew until I joined my present church. It is simple and beautiful. The link originally played a lovely version I found on You Tube from Kings College Choir, but it got taken down, so this version is from Ely cathedral..... actually I kept listening after this piece and Kings College did another great Easter hymn that I have learnt quite recently in the choir at church:

This Joyful Eastertide

I am going to complete this page with another classic Easter hymn of all time, that I have probably been singing all my life:

Christ the Lord is Risen Today

(this particular version is from the Mormon tabernacle choir - I wouldn't recommend the Mormon Church for their theology, but they sure know how to make good music - I was privileged once to actually hear them one Sunday morning in Salt Lake City)

  

Introduction

An introduction to a piece of music sets the pace, and introduces the style and flavour of what is to follow.

So let me do the same for this blog!

Music of one form or another has formed much of the backbone to my life. Because of my own particular background and heritage, much of this, but of course not all, has been some sort of Christian music.

This blog is my musical memoir, music that I may have listened to, sung, played, studied, written, arranged, danced to... or anything else that can be done with music!

To be honest it is unlikely to be of interest to anyone else. I can guarantee that nobody else on earth would be familiar with all of this music, apart from myself! But if you have stumbled upon this, you are very welcome to share in my memories - there will most probably be something here that you will know. If you were born in the 1960's from an evangelical Christian background, there might even be quite a lot that you will recognise. Enjoy!