“No-one would have believed…………”
There are a few things in life that inspire me. Music. People. Places. Objects.
When I have those moments, those times, I know they are special. I will hold on to those, forever.
In music, there are very special tunes, songs, arrangements, that have captured my imagination, and after one hearing, they have stayed with me.
My college days at the Stafford College of Commerce in Wednesbury, when we, Philip Green, Paula Dawes et al, went into a coffee bar in Walsall, spending 6d (six old pence, read story, click here), to play The Animal’s House of the Rising Sun. It lasted the longest time, that was value for money.
When I first started work, say 1968, with the National Coal Board Computer Power in Cannock in the Midlands of the UK, the shift system we worked allowed me and my colleagues to have breaks of four days. One of these breaks I went camping with Pete to Barmouth in Wales, and sitting on a wall outside a pub, the sound of Mike Oldfield’s, Tubular Bells rang out. The haunting melody is in my mind now.
Simon and Garfunkel’s, Bridge Over Troubled Water was played in a house Pete and myself rented in Pelsall at the time, and I would entertain girlfriends in the front room. It was not my LP record, I never had a record player or LP’s, but the songs created a great atmosphere for romance. Well it worked for me.
Neil Diamond’s Beautiful Noise, was a song I heard driving my VW Beetle up the A52 from Bottesford to Grantham in the East Midlands one morning, and it made my hair stand up on my arms. It still does today, as I listen with such joy at the arrangement.
James Last, and his unique big band sound. Sitting in the front room of the first house I purchased at 13 Cox Drive, Bottesford, having created a stereo sound system from bits and pieces of equipment before the days of commercially available equipment, and trying to sit in the precise position between the giant homemade speakers so I could hear the dueling between the various instruments of his orchestra. I was later able to hear James Last live at Leicester’s De Montford Hall. Wow.
Around 1979, my life was influenced by another collection of words, songs and music.
Based on the story of H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, Jeff Wayne created a musical master piece.
I can loose myself in the story as narrated by Richard Burton, sung by David Essex, Phil Lynott, Julie Covington, Justin Haywood, as the Martians invaded Earth, not in America as the movies suggest, but in the UK, the area I live, Woking, Horsell Common, et al.
The music creates images in my mind so real, as Peter and the Wolf, (click to read), I see the Martian’s machines as they rape the earth and humanity on their way to London, the sinking of the ship HMS Thunderchild, the eventual destruction of the Martian’s with the red weed. See the blog NLP now – Our Minds Eye (click to read).
I went into Central London, and as always playing with Phillip’s Sausage, I saw that Jeff Wayne was to appear in Virgin’s Megastore, a massive CD music store in London’s Piccadilly Circus, signing copies of his latest release of War of the Worlds.
Phillip with Jeff Wayne, London 2007
It was in Istanbul, walking up Taxim Hill after having a meal with my translator Asuman Yildirim that as I passed a previously unseen store, (D&R), my attention was drawn to the corner of the window, and there was the Collectors Edition of the War of the Worlds, something I never knew existed. I had to buy it.
It was at the beginning of the year when I purchased a newspaper I never really buy, that I opened the pages and there was an advertisement for Jeff Wayne’s live performance in London’s O2 Arena in December 2007 (click to visit). I had to book a seat. To book, visit www.thewaroftheworlds.com.
“No-one would have believed…………” that such things can happen, that we are presented with opportunities, chances, possibilities, but we are.
Synchronicity. The release of human possibilities. Breaking free of limits. It will happen if it should happen.
C.G. Jung describes synchronicity as “a meaningful coincidence of two or more events, where something other than the possibility of chance is involved.”
2 CD selection Highlights Collectors Edition