The Livery Liaison Group’s very first – last Friday of the month “Lunch Time Taster Session” took place on 26th February 2021 at 12.30pm. For an hour we were transported with the castaways who filled our desert island with an eclectic mix of favourite music. By the Sleepy Lagoon played as we assembled on zoom.

Metallica “Nothing Else Matters”, long hair and amazing guitar riffs, chosen by Court Assistant Les Smith, a Crystal Palace fan, who assured us that back in the day his hair was just as long. This heavy metal ballad led onto a Tudor ballad “Greensleaves”, it reminded our WCCSA Companion Carole Jacob of her youth in Eltham. Carole’s luxury item was her bed with beautiful linen sheets.

Angela Squire took us back to the moon landing and David Bowie’s Space Oddity, beautifully played on the piano by Rick Wakeman (whose hair was always long). We are looking forward to the Master and Court Assistant Angela playing this for us on their Ukuleles at the earliest opportunity.

Michael Pearson introduced us to the amazing voice of Dame Janet Baker singing “Softly and Gently Dearly Ransomed Soul” from Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. The Dream is based on the poem by John Henry Newman, the prayer of a dying man with angelic and demonic responses. Dame Janet’s voice was definitely angelic. Companion Maggie Atterbury wrote that listening to it moved her to tears.

Our Executive Assistant Karen, wife of Liveryman Paul Sylva, chose Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World, I do hope that the muted attendees were singing along to this uplifting and brilliant jazz song. Karen and Angela both chose perfume as their luxury item. Good to know that the Desert Island castaways would all be smelling lovely.

Senior Warden Julie Fox offered us the stirring Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, we watched it conducted by the charismatic Andre Rieu. We know that Julie can sing extremely well as we had the pleasure of listening to the on-line WCCSA Christmas carol concert last year. Her chosen book of “Church Anthems” will come in handy for future desert island concerts.

Keith Walmsley a Liveryman since 1986 and writer/editor of many of the books, we as Governance Professionals, will recognise took us back to his student days and Crosby Stills Nash and Young’s album Déjà vu. We watched Woodstock a song written by Joni Mitchell. Keith wanted us to know that he was not a long haired hippy so his next choice couldn’t have been move different: the Deis Irae from Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem written for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1962. The Deis Irae is “the day of wrath” included as a sequence in the requiem mass, considered by many scholars to be the original work of Thomas of Celano, an 11th century Franciscan, which neatly led us to the last disc, chosen by Court Assistant Gabrielle Williams Hamer: Panis Angelicus, composed by Cesar Franck and sung by the modern day Franciscan Friar Alessandro Brustenghi, the voice of Assisi.

The next last Friday of the month – Lunch time taster session will be an on-line exercise class ‘Move it or Lose it’ with Kim Carter on Friday 26th March 2021 at 12.30 pm. We warmly  invite WCCSA Members to join us for some stretching and well-being advice along with more fun on line.

Gabrielle Williams Hamer
Chairman of the LLG