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Church, Music

The MacGregors

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The MacGregors

So after all the organising and planning it’s all done – the MacGregors played a concert for us in the Parish Centre tonight, and tomorrow they head off for their last date in the UK where they will be playing as part of the next Vertigo event.

Age wise we had pretty well the usual St James’ eight-to-eighty – well actually six to beyond eighty as Becky’s youngest daughter came along too. We even had two new people who had seen the poster walking past the Church at the weekend and decided to come along. Food wise we had a great bring-and-share supper with plenty of food for everybody – as usual a slightly eclectic selection but I think everybody was well fed.

Since both the MacGregor girls had managed to pick up one of the current colds that are doing the rounds they played two sets, one after main course, and the other once we had got on to coffee taking a break in between. Experience wise the concert was a bit different from what you would have heard if you’d listened to their album as this was very much an acoustic set with only the two of them, and without the backing of the full band – however at the core all of the arrangements on the CD are still based around the harmonies of the two girls voices which of course you still got in the live performance.

What we also got to hear were a load of new songs that have been written since the album was released, plus something you don’t hear on the album – a flashback to what they first played together Toss the Feathers a traditional Irish folk tune and one of my favourites of the Corrs recordings. What was interesting was that when I said that I’d first heard it on the first Corrs album the girls said that they had heard it on the same album and had transcribed the song by ear from the recording to do their own version. Check out the Corrs version here if you want to compare – I thought it was pretty impressive.

All in all it was a great evening, and everybody seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. Hopefully if they’re ever passing this way again we’ll be able to get them along to play for a bigger audience as I know there are quite a few people who wanted to come but were unable to due to clashing commitments. Having said that, those that missed out still get a chance as they donated five copies of their CD to the Church so we can sell those on or maybe raffle them at our next musical event.

I took a few pictures during the concert which as always are in our photo gallery. I also used the video recording on the camera (and remembered the tripod too) so below is all the sequences edited together – Toss the Feathers is on the end.

Incidentally on a technical note, the above is my first attempt at using the rather controversial new version of iMovie – after some teething troubles (I had to reinstall the application from the DVD before it would start properly) it was relatively straightforward. The interface is totally redesigned but was pretty good once I’d got used to it – the clip skimming being particularly cool. The other cool thing is the pretty straightforward YouTube export – the above clip was sent straight from the application in much the same way as I can now send pictures from iPhoto to Flickr.

Doctor Who, Movies & TV, Music

80’s Flashback

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It’s odd what stuff you can find on You Tube when you’re not really looking for it!

Tonight after hearing the news of the death of Ronnie Hazlehurst, the former BBC musical director who was responsible for composing a number of well known TV themes, I was browsing around You Tube to see what clips they had of him and his music at the BBC.

One of my searches turned up this fascinating clip with another BBC composer, Peter Howell explaining how he put together the version of the Doctor Who theme used in the early eighties – for those people used to sequencers and the like, it shows how much things have changed – this version was painstakingly assembled over five and a half weeks with a multi-track tape recorder. By way of comparison this is another composer Keff McCulloch doing a similar children’s TV spot explaining how he put together another version of the theme seven years later.

Now although there are complaints about the music that Murray Gold provides for the new series of Doctor Who it’s not a patch on the low esteem in which the music of Keff McCulloch is held in fan circles – although I tend to think that it’s always worth remembering that Murray Gold has the benefit of an orchestra for his music, with the eighties budget for the series it was one man and his drum machine. As if to prove the point, linked off the Keff clip I came across this set of videos, which pair a number of scenes from the new series with the eighties music, allowing you to compare the difference. Check out this, the opening of the Unquiet Dead, but with genuine eighties Doctor Who incidental music replacing the Murray Gold score…

Church, Music

Maybe I Should Just Keep My Mouth Shut…

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I think perhaps I should just learn to keep my mouth shut at times!

One of the oldest and longest serving members of our choir has a bit of a bugbear about the text of Ave Verum, a short Eucharistic hymn from the 14th century that has been arranged by numerous composers, the most well known versions being those by Mozart and Elgar.

Her argument is with the final word, which in every version we have is “examineâ€? – but which she maintains should be “exanimeâ€?. Every time we sing a version of Ave Verum we go through a protracted argument where she tries to persuade our Director of Music that from her university studies of Latin every version of the hymn is wrong, and we should sing it the right way. She has on several occasions maintained that the difference is to enable the words to rhyme. What usually happens is we go through this discussion, and usually end up singing it the way it is written.

Last time it came up, it bugged me enough that I took the time to look it up, in particular looking to see if there is any sort of controversy over the last word. Interestingly, I did find something, but this was discussing whether the text should be “mortis in examine� or “in mortis examine�, but no query over the word “examine�. I also found the entry on ChoralWiki which presents the original Latin with translations into a selection of other languages, but still no discussion of any issue with the final word. I even tried searching for the final line with the suggested final word, but nothing came up.

Then I turned up this blog posting which discusses differences in versions, and spends a lot of time on the final line, and especially highlights the difficulties in translating the final line. It also states that “examine� is the ablative form of the noun “examen�.

Anyway, tonight we started learning a new version of Ave Verum, this time by Saint-Saëns, and we got to “examineâ€? and the same discussion started. Our Director of Music started to give in and say that maybe we should sing “exanimeâ€?, at which point I said that I’d looked it up and as far as I was concerned “examineâ€? was correct according to the original text.

At that point our long standing choir member nearly exploded, and I got all of the usual arguments directed at me, but I held my line that I’d looked it up and that the use of “examineâ€? was correct according to all the musical and liturgical sources I could find. This seemed to bolster our Director of Music who said that we would do it as written – this produced a most amazing scene from the other choir member who quite literally threw her copy down and refused to sing unless we sang it the “right wayâ€?. Our Director of Music pretty well ignored her for the next few minutes, and then perhaps unwisely suggested that it probably wasn’t that important anyway… That not surprisingly produced another outburst. By this point I was trying to hide away as much as I could in the back row.

Having said that, on a positive note, my saying what I did, did seem to curtail any further discussion on the topic, and certainly avoided the grumbles we get from elsewhere in the choir if it is decided that we sing “exanimeâ€? instead – although quite what the fallout will be from our long standing member I don’t know. I wasn’t exactly expecting quite the explosion I actually got – if I had thought I was going to get that I wouldn’t have opened my mouth…

Church, Music

The MacGregors come to Finchampstead

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Back in May, Ian MacDonald posted about a Canadian Band called the MacGregors who were coming to the UK looking for opportunities to play at Churches and Youth Events. They already had bookings around the London area, and were going to be finishing off around Oxford, so trying to arrange something for them in the Wokingham area seemed like a good idea. We thought about maybe doing something at St James at that point, but with a big Youth Group event a couple of weeks before, and multiple conservation fund raising events, not forgetting the Harvest Supper, all falling around the same time, there didn’t really seem to be a slot. I tried to help by putting them in contact with people around the Wokingham area, and again nothing seemed to work.

Since having visitors from Canada seems to be something we do quite regularly (can’t quite think why that is 😀 ), I’d also been offering suggestions about the best touristy things they could do whilst they were in the area, it was a bit disappointing when neither the Wokingham gig, nor something at Finchampstead seemed to come together. However it also posed a problem for the band as they still had a gap in their schedule, so in a nice offer they said that if we in Finchampstead could provide them with some accommodation, giving them a chance to go do the touristy stuff like Windsor and Stonehenge, and by way of a thank you they’d play us a concert for whoever wanted to come along and listen. We’re currently trying to find them all beds for the week that aren’t too scattered around the village (any other offers of beds most welcome too).

So, as a result, we have the MacGregors playing a concert in the Parish Centre at St James on the evening of Friday 12th October, at 7:30pm. We’re totally unsure what support we’ll get from the congregation, as the Harvest Supper is the weekend before, and there is another big conservation event the week after! Tickets will be £7, plus a contribution of pudding or main course for a bring-and-share supper, and any profit that we make will go into the conservation fund (less than £100,000 to go!). So if you’re not doing anything on the night of 12th October it would be great to see you at the Parish Centre, although they have been really nice about the prospect of not having many people, it would be great if we could get a good number along to support them. Also if anyone knows of someone with a a six input powered amp with speakers and two mics with boom stands I need to get hold of those for the night too.

Finally, if you want to hear what they sound like before you decide, you can find their album on iTunes. The following also sums up what they have been up to in Canada:

From playing at huge shows, like the Bell Centre (13,000 people), to playing at coffee houses, The MacGregors are drawing listeners from across Canada and the world. Combining ear-catching harmonies with their mature and creative songwriting and acoustic and electric instrumentation, they create a sensation when they play. Mixed in with their live performances has been radio airplay on local and national stations. Although they are young and entering full swing into the music industry, they already have had tremendous success. They completed their first EP “Rain” when they were 12 and 13. Two songs off of that EP received recognition in the well-respected International Songwriting Competition 2003. Rachel won first place in the teen category and Alisha received an honorable mention. Rachel attended Berklee College of music on a full scholarship to their summer program. They won favorite New Artist in the Okanagan Musician Awards 2004. Alisha 15, and Rachel 17, recently finished their first full length CD, Dark Beauty. Again this year, both Alisha and Rachel are winners in the 2005 International Songwriting Competition. This time Alisha took first place and Rachel took 3rd. Alisha will be travelling to Boston to Berklee’s summer program on a full scholarship. They competed against teens from around the world and the competition had 15,000 entrants in total (www.songwritingcompetition). Rachel’s song Dark Beauty is also a finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition (www.jlsc.com) competing against songwriters of all ages. Most recently, The MacGregors won an all expense paid tour through Music BC called “Get Outta town Tour”.

Update: Okay we’ve got places for them to stay – indeed enough that they could change host part way through the week if they wanted. We’ve also got someone who has volunteered an amp too. Ticket sales are going okay – as expected lower thanks to the Harvest Supper but a real mix of the congregation – quite literally eight to eighty! Still room if anybody else wants to come along though.

Doctor Who, Movies & TV, Music

Can You Hear the Drums?

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When Doctor Who returned two years ago, outside the basics, the team behind the programme seemed to quite deliberately avoid too many references to the old series. Wind forward to the present series and the situation is almost the reverse. Following on from the sight of images of all the previous faces of the Doctor in Human Nature, to the voices heard by Professor Yana in Utopia last week, we get a positive overdose of fan pleasing moments in the first part of the finale, The Sound of Drums.

Taking the plot first of all, it is all a relatively straightforward affair. The Doctor repairs Captain Jack’s vortex manipulator allowing them to escape. Whilst the Doctor had been unable to stop the Master escaping at the end of Utopia, he had managed to jam the TARDIS controls causing it to return to the same place it left – twenty-first century Earth. However they quickly realise that the Master has returned somewhat earlier, and that the mysterious Mr Saxon is in fact the Master – the mysterious Mr Saxon who has just been elected Prime Minister.

The Master is working with a race of aliens that he calls the Toclafane – although the Doctor believes this to be a made up name. The Master has also prepared traps for the Doctor, and has arrested Martha’s family. He has managed to win the election through the mobile phone network – the same technique that he has used to hide from the Doctor over the preceding months.

The Doctor and his companions manage to sneak onto the secret UNIT airship where the Master is to reveal the Toclafane to the world. However they fail to stop the Master’s plan, indeed the Master uses technology created by Professor Lazarus to age the Doctor, and incapacitates Jack, with only Martha managing to escape. The Master uses the TARDIS – which he has significantly modified and cannibalised, to open a rift and let in the Toclafane – ordering them to immediately destroy one tenth of the population of the world.

Alongside the main plot, there were a lot of back story and references, some very definitely for the fans. Chief among them is an explanation of how the Master comes to be alive and able to regenerate in the first place. Back in the TV Movie the Master manages to escape extermination by the Daleks but has to take over a human ambulance driver to do so. With his new human body decaying, he tries to take over the Doctor, but in the final climactic battle is sucked into the Eye of Harmony at the heart of the TARDIS. During the course of tonight’s episode we find out that during the Time War the Time Lords resurrected him in order to fight, giving him a new life-cycle much as was promised to him for helping the Time Lords in the Five Doctors. However, having been present during a key battle he fled and hid, using the Chameleon Arch to hide his identity. This explanation throws up interesting questions about what involvement the Doctor had in the Time War as he was unaware of the Master being resurrected, perhaps implying that the Doctor only becomes involved later on, after the Master has fled.

There are also several moments that hark back to well remembered Master scenes – for example at one point the Master is seen watching the Teletubbies, harking back to a scene in the Sea Devils when the Master is seen watching The Clangers.

Perhaps the biggest moment from a fan point of view is the first appearance of Gallifrey and of the Time Lord’s themselves as the Doctor describes the origin of the Master. Thanks to modern CGI, we see a panning shot from snowy mountains towards the gleaming Time Lord citadel covered by it’s protective dome. We also see a young Master surrounded by Time Lords, staring into the abyss of the time vortex. There is a definite effort to ramp up the Time Lord mythology, with the sequence reminding me very much of the epic style of movies such as the Lord of the Rings. From comments made by Russell T in the subsequent Doctor Who Confidential the return of the Master was on his list to do, and he implies that there are other things still to do – a return for Gallifrey and the Time Lord’s? Next weeks episode is called The Last of the Time Lords – whether this is because the Doctor has to destroy the Master, or is ironic due to the Doctor rediscovering his people remains to be seen.

It wasn’t only Time Lord references. After the Master has announced to the world that he is going to make first contact, the President of the United States arrives to take over control with UNIT citing that thanks to an agreement in 1968 – a reference to the episode The Web of Fear. Amusingly, considering that the real United Nations has asked that it’s name not be used in reference to UNIT, there were a number of points in the episode where the two organisations were referred to closely together, without ever explicitly stating what the acronym stood for! Having said that, the big budget has also extended to UNIT, with their base of operations this time being The Valiant, a vast airborne aircraft carrier, designed in part by the Master.

However, I’m suspecting that maybe not all the changes will be so welcome. Probably chief amongst the complaints will be the character of the Master, who is even more insane than he has been on previous appearances. Whilst at times there are elements of the dark and brooding character of before, at others he is cracking jokes, and being almost comic, showing many of the traits of David Tennant’s interpretation of the Doctor that so infuriate elements of fandom. John Simm mentions in his Doctor Who Confidential interview that he played the part exactly as written, perhaps passing the buck somewhat in advance of criticisms from the long term fans. Having said that, whose to say that being resurrected and then being long term disguised as a human didn’t unhinge him significantly?

So what is coming up next week? The trailer implies that there is a resistance movement to the Toclafane – but really I’m expecting that that is only going to be a small part of what is going to happen. Return of the Time Lords? We’ll have to wait and see…