Chuck, Willie and Harry. OFF WITH THEIR HEADS but not until tomorrow.
I plan to rant about the Windsor-Mountbatten nonsense tomorrow. But for now....
I attended Bristol's Fairfield Grammar School (High School in American terms) between 1955 and 1960. They were miserable years.
One of the few bright spots was my membership in the School Choir under the great W.J. "Dickie" Richards.
We were good - so very good that the BBC radio chose us to record a Sunday evening programme called "Sunday Half-Hour", a programme of Hymn singing. Back when the U.K. was still semi-Christian it was a friendly staple in many homes.
There was nothing adventurous about it - it was a comfortable encounter with well known hymns, usually recorded in a Church or Chapel with local Choirs and congregational singing.
So it was an unusual honour for the FGS choir to be the featured choir, with our family members and friends as the congregation.
It was recorded in the Chapel of Clifton College, an exclusive (in American terminology) Prep School.
I think that we sang our School Hymn "When all Thy mercies O my God" by the Deist Joseph Addison.
Fairfieldians of my era find it to be one of their ear worms, especially because of the gorgeous tune "Contemplation" - a feast for altos!
The hymn and tune have scarcely made it across the Atlantic.
But here is a version sung by the Choir of Boston's Park St. Church. A Deist hymn sung in an Evangelical Church!
Here is another version from Ghana.
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What sticks most in my mind is that we sang the parody of ""God Save the King" by the Corn Law Poet Ebenezer Elliott.
"When wilt Thou save the people"
God save Chuck, Willie and Harry?
No dammit GOD SAVE THE PEOPLE!
I will rant tomorrow!
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