Following a day when I had trawled miserably through a series of current-affairs videos on You Tube, I was desperate to find something to lighten the mood! There is only so long that one may welter in a morass of despondent reports of situations that have caused to the Country, (so beloved by myself and my peers) to degenerate into the pit of unsettled disturbance that exists today.
Almost as though the “system” had realised my growing despair, I came upon a video of the original Riverdance sequence that took the Eurovision Song Contest by storm back in 1995. An entrancing nine minutes of pure, magical delight, triggered me to search to see whether there was any more of this wonderful show available. Riverdance has long been a favourite of mine and I had once, actually purchased the VHS version of the original show and watched it many times.
Of course, VHS has now gone the way of the Dodo. I have occasionally searched to see whether a DVD version has been issued. I can find later editions with a different cast. but I wanted the original that had captivated me all those years ago. I say “all those years” but in reality it isn’t really so very long since Britain still felt like Britain. At that time, the show was playing to sell-out audiences.
After a quick search of You Tube, I struck gold! The original show was there in its entirety. One and a half hours of pure magic. From traditional Irish dancing and the plaintive and haunting music from the pipes, telling the story of the Irish travails and their desperate migrations across the sea to the New World. Then on to Spanish Flamenco and from thence through Harlem Hoofers and a glorious Gospel choir! The DVD of the original show is still not available. But I am content, knowing that (for now at least) You Tube still has it there for me to revisit at any time I choose!
Next day, as though by the magic, (or maybe it is the AI algorithms) I found other magical snippets, presented to me (quite by the way and without me having to search). Reminders that once I lived in a free and free-thinking country. A country, where citizens went about their daily lives untrammelled by the “woke” and “thought censorship” that has wound its wicked, restricting tentacles about us today!
I also found wonderful, uplifting organ music played to a packed cathedral audience (admittedly not in Britain for the piece I found initially!). I shall explore further, to find other gems of inspirational music to furnish an alternative diet to refresh my spirit and deliver me, albeit briefly,from the grim realities of this present daily monotony of adversity!
There are “Last Night of the Proms” offerings from ten to fifteen years ago! Such a short period of time but a whole world away from the maelstrom of decay and dissonance that we see around us today! Rule Britannia from 2012! An ever-popular inclusion of the “Last Night” where audiences never failed to laud enthusiastically, the statement that “Britons would never, never, never, be slaves”!
Jerusalem, that splendid hymn of thankfulness for England’s Green and Pleasant Land. Jerusalem was often sung at my school assemblies. Then, as now, my soul rejoiced as it was sung, even as my scalp tingled at those words of praise to the Lord, in gratefulness for the land that we were lucky enough to inhabit!
Land of Hope and Glory from 2009 and 2010! In the 2009 version, the guest conductor joked with the audience that he wished they had come to rehearsals because he couldn’t hear them enunciating their words clearly enough! The audience roared their approval and sang even louder and waved their flags even more fiercely for the encore! The cheers following this inspiring display of patriotic nationhood both within the Albert Hall and from Hyde Park, were enough to bring a lump to my throat. Pride in my Country and sorrow for its present dysfunctional situation vied for precedence!
It was the performances of Land of Hope and Glory that had me on the edge of my seat. My spine stiffened as I heard those stirring renditions of the Elgar Pomp and Circumstance triumphal march, set to words by Benson in 1902! I watched the enthusiasm and gusto of the audiences both inside the Royal Albert Hall and outside in Hyde Park as they sang those proud, patriotic words and waved Union Jacks and St. George’s flags along with the occasional Scottish Saltire, Welsh Dragon and a single Manx flag. A sheer and utterly wonderful display of joyous outpouring of national pride and exuberance!
When I was a child, if I was ever ill and confined to bed, my favourite pastime was being allowed to rummage a box of old 78 records and play them on an old box gramophone. Thus, came my first introduction to Land of Hope and Glory! That old “scratchy” sounding record, of pride in country and heritage, made a deep and lasting impression upon my young life. I believe that, at one time, people were asked whether they wanted it as the National Anthem. Apparently, it was refused in favour of Jerusalem. However, the Royal National Anthem is still in use today.
It is worthy of note that there was not a single blue “star spangled sphincter” (as it has often been dubbed by others!) to be seen in any of those “Last Night” videos. What a pleasure not to have to view those “interloper” flags that had no place in our past and should never have attained such prominence in our “present”. Neither was there any hint of the “rainbow” that would later acquire such prominence. I consider the appropriation of the simple but significant rainbow as a form of “cultural appropriation”! The rainbow, beloved of children and a source of myths and legends
over many years. From Leprechauns, to pots of gold at the rainbow’s end, the rainbow has always had an innocent mysticism. Often seen after the end of a rainstorm, it was taken as a simple sign that the weather was probably clearing.
So many of our old customs have been misappropriated, re-badged and recently, actively discouraged, (in my estimation, to our extreme detriment!). When I was at school (late fifties early sixties) we routinely celebrated St George’s Day, Empire Day, Lady Day etc., with suitable observances.
Now, “The Empire” is actively denigrated. Pride in our “Nationhood” is decried as “shameful”! Our actual “whiteness” is scorned. It is as though we have been deemed to have been solely responsible for all the past (and present) ills of the World and must be eradicated along with our deeds!
Our history is being routinely expunged from the school curriculum as though we had never been. One would be forgiven for believing that the “British” had been the only nation ever to have acquired an “Empire”. The Spanish, The Portuguese, The French, all had empires in their turn. As for the Romans, one would think that they had never been the “masters” of half the known World!
The current activity of inserting characters of “ethnic” origin into films and programmes for present day viewing (as though they had always been there in the past times that are being portrayed) is further “skewing” the historical record in favour of the present “dissonant” narrative.
I believe that we must all take every opportunity to talk to our grandchildren about history as it was, not as the “Establishment” wishes it to be portrayed. My constant childhood companion was a book. The History of the British People in Pictures. The story of this land from Stone Age to present time (early 20th century), was (and still is) a fascination. Mostly pictures, (many from famous depictions) but with sufficient text to hold my childish attention span. I still have that book on my bookshelves to this day. I plan to share it with my young granddaughter.
Present times are “difficult”. The future looks “uncertain”. We must all pay attention, not lose heart and continue to “resist” the onslaught wherever possible. However, when times are hard, a sentimental journey into the “more benignant” past via culture and brotherhood can ease the load and soothe the soul. I recommend it!
Frederica