I suppose I have sport, or the lack of sport, to thank for a rather busy week. It wasn’t that long ago I got a message from BBC Radio Wales producer Jonathan Thomas. Last year Jonathan and I worked on a Christmas special from All Saints in Mumbles. It seemed to go down pretty well. Anyway, with the way the sporting calendar had worked out Radio Wales had a gap in the schedules for Easter Saturday. Did I have any ideas…?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002tm2p
An hour programme is a tricky format. Do you simply chat and play music, do you have one or two featured interviews, or do you try and fill it with lots of short Easter treats? Jonathan and I had a bit of a chat and I went through various guests I’d like to approach to interview for the show. All of them had strong ties to Easter either as writers or performers or maybe both.
With a short lead in time it’s often difficult to get the people you would like. They might already be booked or maybe they might be off on an Easter holiday break. I thought it best to email everyone and see who might be available.
In the meantime Jonathan suggested I had a chat with Swansea based Singer songwriter Kate Westall. Together with her brother Rob Westall, Kate was leading a special Easter Meditation on BBC Radio Wales for Easter Sunday. She had recorded a number of songs for the programme and Jonathan said I was welcome to choose one for my show.
I’ve known Kate for 20 years. She came to Mumbles as a youth worker where the team also made up a house band performing in schools and clubs. Since then, as well as writing and recording her own music, she has carved out a career as a backing vocalist. Over the years she has sung with the likes of legendary producer Trevor Horn, and Alison Moyet. One of her long term associations is with Ellie Goulding even singing with Ellie at the private 2011 Royal Wedding Party at Buckingham Palace.
I messaged Kate but didn’t get an immediate response. When we did chat she apologised. It was school holidays and with kids and sunny weather she had been out and about. When we finally hooked up for our online interview we were occasionally interrupted by kids wanting drinks or snacks.
For my show I had chosen Kate’s song ‘Birdsong’. Kate had written it after spending time alone in the Judean wilderness where she had witnessed a bird flying and singing at the same time. That ‘wow’ moment from nature had brought her closer to the ‘Almighty’ and led to the song. I had one interview in the bag.
While I waited for responses to the emails I had sent I decided to actually go to meet the next person on my guest ‘wish list’ in person. I arranged to meet Steve Balsamo at the Swansea College of Art. He’s currently studying there for a degree in Fine Art. That’s on top of being part of the Grand Ambition collective based at the Grand Theatre and working on his and other people’s projects.
Before we sat down to chat Steve showed me his latest piece of work for the Spring Exhibition. Steve has written an incredibly poignant reflection on his father, which he filmed and then somehow managed to project on a plaster cast taken of his face. It is uncanny and brilliant, and you should go to see it before the exhibition ends.
It’s just over 30 years since I would occasionally bump into Steve just outside the BBC in Alexandra Road. He was always on his way to catch a train to London for more auditions or recording sessions. There were rumours about working with Andrew Lloyd Webber but an unknown auditioning for the role of Jesus in a Revival of ‘Superstar’, really?
I remember going to see Steve in the lead role of ‘Superstar’ at the Lyceum in 1996. I had already seen his face on buses and posters across the capital. He was phenomenal and he topped off my afternoon by giving me a thumbs up as he took his bow. When I went backstage to meet him he was wiping off the blood with some baby wipes. He told me he had been looking for me all through the show, ‘I got up on the cross and there you were’.
In our interview Steve talked about how he got the role and how it changed his life. He also told a few funny stories about how life and art met. He once walked between 2 guys squaring up for a street fight only for them to recognise ‘Jesus’ and the fight stopped!
Now I had 2 interviews. With a couple of records that would make a nice hour’s show…then I got the email replies I’d been waiting on and everyone said yes!
Graham Kendrick is considered to be the most successful living hymn writer. Many years ago I had been a member of his touring band and last October he was one of my special guests at the Swansea Building Society Arena where he performed his Assembly Banger ‘Shine Jesus Shine’. I wanted to talk about his Easter Hymn ‘The Servant King’; which came first the words or the music?
Graham Kendrick at The Swansea Arena
It turned out it was a letter. Graham had been approached by a festival called ‘Spring Harvest’ with details of that year’s theme. When he read the words ‘The Servant King’ he knew he had the title for his next hymn right there.
It was a year last Easter I was invited to play the role of Peter in Adrian Snell’s Rock Opera ‘The Passion’. Adrian wrote the work in the late 1970’s and I well remember hearing the whole album being broadcast on BBC Radio at Easter 1980. Adrian had just returned from yet another tour of ‘The Passion’ in Europe. I asked him why he thought the show was still so popular and relevant. Adrian shared that he had tried to write the songs from a very human point of view and that hopefully that simplicity still rang true.
All week I had one song on my mind. Years ago I had toured with an American writer and preacher named Tony Campolo. He was an amazing story teller. When it came to Easter he always used to say, ‘Good Friday is just about as bad as it can get, and all seems lost’. Then he would start shouting, emulating the great African American preachers he loved so much…’It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Coming’.
I searched on line for similar sounding songs without success. Then it struck me, and the answer was much closer to home. Martyn Joseph has been touring for most of his life and he too had known Tony Campolo. He had been in Australia when a blind gospel singer played him the song. Martyn took it and made it his own. I rang Martyn and explained what I was looking for and if he had a recording I could share. Martyn said if I could hang on a day he would record a special acoustic version that evening.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl8y
So there we have it, the story behind ‘Easter with Mal Pope’ BBC Radio Wales 4pm Saturday 4th April and I can’t believe it all fits in one hour.