Steve (our Church Secretary) and I went to see Dave Bainbridge and Sally Minnear play at St John The Baptist Church, Barham on 1st July – a gig organised by Folk in the Barn (which aims to bring the best Folk and related music to beautiful and interesting venues in the Canterbury and East Kent region). Dave, who is as accomplished on the piano and keyboards as he is on guitar and other stringed instruments, is a founding member of the Celtic Progressive Rock band Iona which incorporates elements of Irish and Scottish folk music (and instrumentation), rock, jazz, pop, classical music and ‘ambient’ sounds, with many of their lyrics touching on Christian themes (all of the current member of Iona are Christians). Sally has sung and performed for ‘The Lord of the Dance’ shows and has also sung on Dave’s latest solo album, ‘Celestial Fire’ and is now the lead vocalist for the Celestial Fire band that Dave has formed to be able to perform tracks from this album, his first solo album and some Iona tracks. Incidentally, Sally is also the daughter of Kerry Minnear who was keyboard player and multi-instrumentalist for Gentle Giant, a fiercely inventive Progressive Rock band from the 1970s.

Iona had performed twice before in Canterbury at the invitation of Folk in the Barn, who were really taken with the band and therefore keen to have them back again. Although Iona are currently on ‘hiatus’, Dave and Sally have been touring as a duo to perform Iona tracks and material from Dave’s solo albums, so Folk in the Barn were very pleased to invite them to play in the Canterbury area again.

Despite the fact that there were only two of them, Dave and Sally produced a huge sound, with Dave playing electric and acoustic guitars and Irish bouzouki (stringed instrument), plus piano and keyboards and Sally singing, playing various instruments including acoustic guitar, keyboard and percussion. Both musicians made good use of modern ‘looping’ technology to help with this big sound – for example, Sally used vocal loops to create an ethereal ‘choir’ with her own voice and Dave used a similar technique which allowed him to play the accompaniment and the solo together on one instrument.

St John The Baptist Church at Barham proved to be the perfect setting for the duo’s soaring and spiritual music. The Church is located in beautiful Kent countryside, overlooking the glorious Elham Valley and with Dave and Sally playing inside the church in front of stained glass window, the music seemed to be a fitting ‘sound-track’ to what I could see through the window: birds swooping, clouds scudding across the sky and then bats flitting as the evening became night time!

All the music was beautiful, but a track that made a particular impact on me was ‘Until the tide turns’ (a track from Dave’s first solo album, ‘Veil of Gossamer’), with lyrics taken from a poem/prayer by David Adam:

Lord,
I wait for the tide to turn
Until the distant becomes close,
Until the far off becomes near,
Until the outside is within,
Until the ebb flows.

Lord,
I wait for the tide to turn
Until weakness is made strong,
Until blindness turns to sight,
Until the fractured is made whole,
Until the ebb flows.

Lord,
I wait until the tide turns,
Until the ordinary becomes strange,
Until the empty is Presence full,
Until the two become one.
Until the ebb flows

So all in all, a wonderful evening of music and hopefully it won’t be long before Dave and Sally, Iona or Celestial Fire come back to our area again – I can thoroughly recommend them in all their permutations.