Joanne and Simon recently returned from three months in Kenya. Part of the time was spent volunteering at the Salvation Army church in Kibera, which is a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi. They were particular struck by the way that the people in the slums had very little, yet always approached life with gratitude and many with a strong faith. They were also struck with Nairobi being large and very noisy, with some stark contrasts between shiny new executive apartment buildings and the hovels that are living areas in the slums, which residents have to rent.  The charity had originally been set up following a small group of families from the Chelmsford Salvation Army travelling to see an officer who had previously been in Chelmsford. Since then they have been involved in a number of projects. That latest is to assist in marketing wire and bead animals made by a group of mothers, Very kindly they gave Jonty an elephant and I had an ostrich. They are looking for events where they could set up a stall and sell these to raise money to be sent back. Simon commented on how amazed the mothers had been to set up a bank account.

Musically tonight we had a special feature on Bob Dylan. Continuing an exploration of the music of the Beach Boys, we played a 1996 collaboration with Status Quo that is not mentioned in any of the memoirs written by members of the band. We can see why! We had our own Harry & Megan, Harry Chapin and Megan O’Neill.  Continuing the question of whether a new version of a song should be a copy or add something very different, we played Sunshine of your love. The jury was out on the jazz version! I loved it. Jonty felt it took away the essential character, the riff, of the original.

Tonight’s playlist

Toto – Africa

Lion King – Circle of life – chosen by Joanne & Simon

Chelmsford Songsters – Christ calls

Lion King 2 – He lives in you

America – A horse with no name – requested by Patrick

Pat Boone – Love letters in the sand – requested by Phyl

Leon Bridges – Bad bad news

Soweto String Quartet – Victory

Harry Chapin – Cats in the cradle

Megan O’Neill – Ghost of you – Megan is singing in Billericay next month

Years & Years – Desire – requested by Adrain for Deuwe and Kris who were supposedly working hard revising – actually they were listening to us and playing games.

Michael Schulte – You let me walk alone – Germany’s entry in last Saturday’s Eurovision Song contest and amazing the favourite song of mine and Jonty.

Lisa Harman – Don’t want to rock & roll

Bod Dylan – Blowing in the wind

Byrds – Mr Tambourine man – brought back memories of primary school to John.

Status Quo & Beach Boys – Fun, fun, fun – amazingly the only version of this classic Beach Boys song to chart in the UK, which was in 1996.

Cream – Sunshine of your love

Jenny Evans – Sunshine of your love

Mango Groove – Special star

We will not be with you next week. Join us on Friday 1st of June.

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