Tim Abbott

Psalm Drummers in Colchester

Last  night was the first gathering of Psalm Drummers here in Colchester. It was organised by Dan and Michelle and attracted 43 drummers from all over the area.

Terl Bryant, the man behind Psalm Drummers, led the evening, getting everyone there involved in an improv piece of massed percussion. With over 30 djembi's and Dan on his floor tom the sound was awesome and Terl directed things through a series of different rhythms and dynamics to create what can only be described as worship. The evening included an overview of the role of drums in worship and the vision for Psalm Drummers and went into a time of percussion as intercession. Finally, Terl and his team prayed for Dan and Michelle as they carry this group forward and develop this remarkable ministry in the Colchester area.

As well as being a great evening, it was a bit of a "proud dad" moment for me seeing Dan in such a clear leadership role, following the calling that's on his life and inspiring so many others.

Sharing the good stuff - links for today

I'm not sure my mind is in the best shape for blogging deep thoughts at the moment (see below), but I have been stirred and challenged by a few other bloggers recently, so here's the good stuff.

I'm not "so in love" with you
A few days ago I appreciated this from Matt Stone, citing a post by John Stackhouse picking up on the ongoing debate about expressions of love in worship songs. John's contribution is helpful for it's linguistic, cultural and theological perspectives.

Christian by nature?
Alan Hirsch has a fascinating exploration of the idea that people are, by nature, Christian, drawing on the thoughts of Leo Tolstoy and CS Lewis. I think I'd have some reservations about this being entirely valid because of the inherently Christian cultures and worldviews that Tolstoy and Lewis grew up in. But I confess to wondering similar thoughts when chatting to young people about life issues and God and finding within them a resonance with the Christian world view and often a warmness towards the idea of Christianity.

(Not) getting things done
I've been struggling lately with too many things to do and too little clarity about how to get them done. A kind of motivational paralysis which seeks to rob me of any real progress on pretty much everything (including blogging). Like some kind of outside observer of my own condition I've been aware that as a result I feel tired, when I have done little that's tiring, and that the solution lies in working out the next small step for each project or activity and getting it done.
I've been aware of David Allen's Getting Things Done method but never quite got around to looking into it - the past has left me with a dim view of most personal organisation methods.
So I was surprised to read Fernando's post about how it has helped him to change his approach to, well, getting things done. He writes, "I’m finally starting to remember what “completion” feels like and that’s something I haven’t felt in a long time," which is all the encouragement I need to give this a serious look.

One eskimO

Last night Dan, Jason, Kat and I went to a One eskimO gig at The Bedford in Balham.

Firstly, the venue... Walking into The Bedford is like walking into a village, or some very agreeable community. A spacious and relaxed bar area includes a mini stage for acoustic bands with a bar serving drinks, burgers (at one end) and outstanding food. Upstairs in a large meeting room about three dozen people were learning swing dance. But at the back of the building is an 11 sided mini globe theatre thing with band stage on which the three bands of the night were performing. The atmosphere was relaxed and welcoming with some of the most friendly bar staff I've met for a while.

Lead singer Kris Leontiou has played at The Bedford before, but that was seven years ago and long before his vision for One eskimO. It's been a bit of a journey since then but now, several chapters of musical history later and after much hard and patient work, the band find themselves suporting Faithless (where we first saw them) and preparing to release their first album, All Balloons, on March 31st. I have a feeling that this will be a big year for One eskimO, but I hope they still get to do intimate gigs like this one at The Bedford. I have a feeling that it may be where their heart is.

After The Fire

We went to see the re-formed After The Fire on Friday at the MICA Centre, Mersea.

If you're not familiar with them, ATF were a band from the 70's and early 80's who, starting from a loyal Christian fan base, made a reasonably successful crossover into the mainstream. They were signed to CBS, released three albums and achieved respectable chart success in the US, Germany, Denmark, Japan, and the UK. They also supported ELO, Queen and Van Halen. I last saw them as a student in November 1980 right down the front at The Berkley Club in Bristol - a gig remembered not just for the amazing performance, but also for the energetic moshing which caused the floor to rise and fall alarmingly. ATF were musically ahead of their time, something that became clear when their greatest chart success happened just after they called it a day in 1983.

The re-formed ATF consists of original members Pete Banks and John Russell and new boys Ian Niblo on bass and Matt Russell (John's son) on drums. Support was from the excellent Rob Halligan, though it might be more accurate to say that Rob came on first, supported by bits of ATF and then ATF came on, supported occasionally by Rob. Both combinations worked very well and I suspect there's a longer term future in this musical relationship.

Anyway, the gig was great. I wasn't sure quite what to expect, what with the band being half original, but, as Pete said, they're somehow both a tribute band and the original at the same time. They performed many of the songs from the CBS era as well as 'Pilgrim' from 'Signs of Change' with energy and passion. Highlights for me were Laser Love, One Rule for You and Pilgrim. Did they ever think they'd be singing Who's Gonna Love You (When You're Old and Fat and Ugly) 27 years on?!

The revived ATF have been back together for three years following a 'one-off' reunion gig for friends. But if The Spice Girls, Take That, and 70s  rockers The Eagles and Led Zepplin can get going again, there's no reason why ATF shouldn't be able to do likewise.

If you're an ATF fan, you'll be pleased to know that their back catalogue is now available on CD - info on their web site.

In rainbows - a tiping point?

Everybody's talking about it, Radiohead's new album In Rainbows being released on the internet on a 'pay what you think it's worth' basis.

Over the last five years or so it's become more and more obvious that the traditional distribution model for getting music from the artist to the fans is under strain. CD sales have fallen, downloading and file swapping (most of it illegal) has risen exponentially. Somewhere in the middle old style fixed price distribution has formed an uneasy marriage with new style music downloads in the form of DRM restricted online music stores, though in reality this has become just another market segment rather than the new dominant model. The obvious and uber-simple concept of just letting your fans download your tunes has been at odds with the question, where does the money come from to pay for music production in the first place?

Enter Radiohead who, whilst not the first to offer their music this way, appear, thanks to their huge popularity and devoted fan base, to have marked a tipping point in a new model of distribution that embraces the new of downloading with the old of fan loyalty. This is no longer the market economy, but the gift economy. The band 'gifts' their work to the world and the world 'gifts' their money in return.

Of course, the gift economy only works so far - Radiohead can afford to do this because they are already well established and have a fan base loyal enough to cough up a bit of money. The average seems to be about £4 according to research into 3000 downloaders by music industry newsletter Record of the Day, though about a third didn't pay anything at all. Already other big names, including David Bowie, Jamiroquai and The Charlatans are considering distributing their music in a similar way with others looking on in  interest. These bands make money from gigs, so there's always the possibility that getting their tunes into more people's lives could mean more people at gigs. And no matter how generous you feel, musicians, producers and studios still need to be paid somehow, so there's little sign that gigs will soon be on a gift basis too.

In an interesting parallel, Gerd Leonhard, author of The Future of Music has recently started publishing his next book for free on this blog, one chapter at a time. His blog-book, End of Control  explores "how technology is shifting control over media to the people formerly known as consumers".  Chapters one and two are already out.

Faithless at Shepherd's Bush

Last night Dan, Jason, DJ and I went to the Faithless gig at Shepherd's Bush. Without any great feat of planning we got there at 6 and were first in the queue. The hour spent waiting for the doors to open passed swiftly thanks to the beautiful weather and the entertainment we derived from making fun of the ticket touts.

Support came from the amazing One eskimO. I won't offer any comparisons - these guys really are unique; just check out one of their tracks on their MySpace page. One eskimO produced an effortless half hour of engaging tunes that connected with the audience from the word go. When they finished and left the stage the applause and response from the crowd lingered long after they had departed. One eskimO are obviously good friends of Faithless and feature on the track "Hope and Glory" on the 2006 album "To All New Arrivals".

Faithless produced a storming set of songs that lasted for nearly two hours with hardly any breaks. There were a good few tunes from "To All New Arrivals" which were well received, but there's no doubt it's the old Faithless classics that really rocked the house and set the downstairs crowd moshing: Insomnia, God is a DJ, We Come 1, and the more recent I Want More and Mass Destruction. The sound and mix wasn't too bad, but to me felt a bit toppy - maybe a sound engineer who has been in the business a bit long and tends to overcompensate for upper frequency hearing loss. But then again, it might just have been that we were up on the highest tier of seats. The standard of energy and musicianship was everything you'd expect from Faithless, every member bouncing and dancing to the very end all set against a simple led lighting effects set-up from which the lighting guys appear to have rinsed every possible programme combination most effectively.

Faithless have a very faithful, wide ranging and well behaved following and in their newer material show they are no hostage to any expectations based on their past. Few bands have made the transition from studio to stage so effectively and like their audience, they are growing up and changing. The people of the 90's who went clubbing all night to 'insomnia' and 'god is a dj' are still turning out to see Faithless in concert while a new generation, still at school in the nineties are turning out to join them.

Collective weekend

This weekend I'm off to Frimley with Collective for a promotional weekend at the church of one of the team.
I'll be there to do the sound for them as I'm the only one available. It means I get to hang out with a 20-something girl band all weekend. It's a tough job but someone's got to do it.
I may try and sneak in some much needed reading time for the Missional Leadership course. Back on Monday.

Subverted Humps

Think Christian has a great post looking at the subversion of pop songs.

The main example they cite is "Humps" by The Black Eyed Peas, a song somewhat renowned for its sexually suggestive lyrics and video.
[YouTube "Humps" by The Black Eyed Peas]

At the beginning of April Alanis Morissette released a parody of the song sung to a down tempo solo piano and with a knocking copy of the original "Humps" video.
[YouTube "Humps parody" by Alanis Morissette]

The Think Christian post Subvert this song! considers the value and usefulness of this kind of countercultural statement.

Does it work? What do you think?

Bedingfields in The Sunday Times

A slightly contextless link, but there were two articles in The Sunday Times (25 March) featuring The Bedingfield siblings, Daniel & Natasha.
Daniel gets a mention in an article about the slave trade, The New Wilberforces, which highlights the work of campaigns the truth isn't sexy and stopthetraffik.
Natasha gets an article to herself, I’m the rising star with my feet planted on solid ground which seeks to find out what's really going on behind that pop persona and the role her faith plays in it all; "I don’t understand what’s so bad about being good."
Being a Christian in the pop world involves walking a very fine line. These guys seem to be setting a good example of getting that balance right.

[pic: The Times]

Music in worship

For a while I've been pondering the role of music in worship, and particularly the whole band led style, though this post has taken a few days to sort out because it kept turning into an essay. I declare a direct interest in that I play in a worship band that I happen to think are very good (even when I'm not playing with them!) so I guess I'm part of the system. I also really appreciate and am helped by good band led times of worship and the occasional Delirious gig. But, as musician and as a congregation member, I'm sometimes both blessed and frustrated by the way we do music in worship. So here are a few thoughts to offer.

Music has always had a prominent place in Christian worship - it has the capacity to be uplifting, to proclaim the truths of scripture, to teach and to give people forms of words that they can take with them into their day. However, I think we need a little more wisdom and theological literacy in some of our current songwriting (see my post Jesus is my boyfriend about semi-erotic lyrics).

Music can sometimes overwhelm our worship - It's too easy to sing lots of songs when you can't think of anything else to do. The hymn prayer sandwich has morphed into the worship song, talk, worship song burger. After a while you begin to wonder if there's something missing from the menu. Too many worship songs in one go can often dilute the value of sung worship and I've been to too many gatherings where it's clear the congregation have logged off long before the worship band have finished their 'set'. (Hint: you can tell because people start sitting down or texting their mates). My appeal is for worship that includes the vital role of worship music but integrates it more creatively into other forms of artistic expression and congregational involvement.

But I also think music should have a higher place in worship - people today may not sing much (apart from in church, at football matches or at gigs), but they listen to more music than at any time in history, whether intentionally (e.g. iPods etc) or incidentally (background music). The act of singing a worship song can sometimes have the effect of insulating us from its meaning. So why does all music in church have to come with the expectation that everyone will join in and sing? (Some people hate singing anyway!) As long as there's a reasonable degree of proficiency, what's wrong with a worship band sometimes performing a song to a congregation as an aid to reflection or response? Or how about playing a song from a CD? I know many people, including young people, who have been touched more by the act of listening and reflecting on a song, and not always a Christian song, than belting out a rousing chorus.

Music is a gift from God, which means we should be able to harness it creatively in the service of worship to the gift giver. I just think there's more to music in worship than singing lots of songs. Now that 'worship leader' is synonymous with 'band leader' I wonder whether we're in danger of creating an unspoken assumption about what worship is. Thirty or so years ago people were struggling to break out of the stronghold that the organist & choir had in many churches. I hope we're not creating an equivalent for the next generation.

Maggi Dawn has written a bit about this too, and also references a thoughtful post by Chris Erdman.

UPDATE 14 Feb: I've just found Paul Walker's post, why has worship come to mean singing which comes with a great picture too!