ST ALBANS - 9 October 2007 - 340 words
Boyce and Stanley on Radio 2
Mike Walsh
On the morning of Sunday 7 October, Jo
Boyce and Mike Stanley were guests on BBC Radio 2's Good Morning
Sunday programme with Aled Jones.
Aled was delighted to welcome them to the show and talked about
positive recent listener reactions to their new version of Be
Thou My Vision which he played on a recent show.
Aled asked Mike and Jo about their recently released new album
- Age to Age - and the current Age to Age tour. Jo explained it
was more of a pilgrimage than a tour, and added that the previous
evening, they had been in St Albans, where the Catholic Church
of Ss Alban and Stephen famously backs on to the noisy London-Bedford
railway line! They explained that they were taking the tour to
nine Catholic Churches around the country, that night moving on
to St Teresa in Ashford, Kent. Mike added that there were still
four venues left on this tour, tickets were still available, and
people were welcome to come along.
Jo talked about the reasons for re-recording so many of the old
traditional Catholic hymns in a modern style, one reason being
to make traditional music more accessible. To this end they also
explained that they had recorded a copy of their new album onto
an iPod (it being one of the portable and simple methods of listening
to music today) and sent it to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI.
Mike said that this had created a lot of great publicity, although
with some healthy debate about the place of modern music in worship.
Mike said that there were people with different views right across
the spectrum, and Jo added that the most important factor about
music in the liturgy, irrespective of its age, was that it be
of good quality. Aled was in favour of this, and said that one
listener had texted to say that the music we now consider to be
traditional, was itself, once new, and how important it is for
us now that those people had been receptive to it.
Jo and Mike then played, live, their version of The King of Love
My Shepherd is, which Aled said was inspiring.
Mike said that in choosing material for the album, their criteria
had been that if they had gone to any regular Catholic parish
and sang the first line, and the congregation had been able to
sing the rest of the first verse without the words being written
down, then it was a good candidate for the album. It contains
tracks such as Be Thou My Vision, O Bread of Heaven, Soul of My
Saviour, Sweet Heart of Jesus, and, the nation's favourite hymn,
from a Songs of Praise poll, How Great Thou Art.
Aled asked them about their favourite everyday saints. Mike nominated
his mum and dad, particularly his dad, who at the age of 73 is
currently on tour with them, looking after their CD and Book Sales.
At the end of the interview, Aled played Salve Regina from the
Age to Age album, following which Mike gave a short reflection,
which hopefully we will later publish here or on Boyce and Stanley's
website www.cjmmusic.com
* A transcript of the Boyce and Stanley reflection on the Aled Jones show follows.
I was in a Roman Catholic Primary School recently and I asked the children "What is the Good News, What is it we believe in?. As usual twenty five hands shot up in the air and I chose one of the smaller children, wondering what answer I might get . This five year old answered "Christ has dies, Christ has risen, Christ will come again."
Wow!
Some of us will recall those words immediately because they proclaim the Mystery of our Faith and it made me think that our job as songwriters is to engage with the truth and communicate it in a way that is attractive, rich with meaning, and memorable
The great hymnwriters of the past recognised this and spent time distilling ideas into words that are now so familiar to many of us: "When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation, and take me home what joy shall fill my heart.
Someone once said if you want to know
what people believe then look at the songs they sing, for they
define who we are and they deserve to be handed down from Age
to Age. They should certainly be on our iPods.
© Independent Catholic
News 2007
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