Oran’s World is an album by Glyn Bailey with his band featuring Philip Maxwell Senior, John Edward Keys, Elizabeth Archer and Tony Hession. There are guest appearances by James Coupe and Nick Burrows.
It is a concept album that features an extract from The Unholy Fool by Howard Male that refers to The Quite Good Book. The combination of subtle vocals and a lush orchestral backing remind me of Mike Batt, one of my favourite artists. It’s certainly a good starting point and I really think that the fans of Mike Batt’s work would immediately like this work as I did.
The opening song is the title track which makes a strong opener. Oran’s World is clearly a Utopia, which makes a change from the dystopian approach so many people take nowadays. As one of those dystopian people, I found it a breath of fresh air. It reminded me that in many ways the difference between Utopia and Dystopia is simply your viewpoint. I loved the keyboards of John Edward Keys on this and Glyn Bailey’s vocals instantly drew me in with their quiet certainty and their melodic quality. The second track on Side 1 is Birdsong which is an uplifting and beautifully constructed piece of music. This is where Glyn Bailey reminds me most of Mike Batt. No note is superfluous or wasted in any way and every key change complements the lyrics and increases their impact. Once again, it is an overwhelmingly positive song, the type of song we all need in the times we are living through. As the opening lines have it, ‘Live for today, plan for tomorrow’.
Track 3, The Guru is a hymn of praise to the way that the universe is a place of wonder and joy if only you open your mind and your heart and acknowledge it. Next is Autograph, a song of wonder about the small things in life. As someone with a very large autograph collection, but not one including Neil Armstrong, I know how much joy these simple things can bring. When I put my collection together I realised that every single one had a story and every single one was a source of good feelings. He also reflects on finding the perfect partner, something I can definitely relate to. The final track on Side 1, Honeypot, is a big band style number that could have appeared in Guys and Dolls and fitted right in. Bailey has a great voice for this type of jazz and the backing vocals by Philip Maxwell Senior and Elizabeth Archer are fantastic in helping to build up the picture of a Sinatra style 1940s radio studio with Bailey in front of one huge microphone and his backing singers sharing the other. It’s a marvellous finish to the first half of the album, and my favourite track of the first five.
The first track on Side 2 is This Man. It has a 60s style psychedelic backing that I really enjoyed. Unlike the first five tracks this track is a hard nosed look at what it takes to succeed. The main character has a real understanding of his strengths and weaknesses and will use them to get where he wants to. The Last Laugh continues the more cynical feeling of Side 2 with a clear takedown of cancel culture. The comedian who says something that is beyond the pale, the writer who puts an idea on paper that is considered unacceptable and the lengths that modern society goes to silence those voices. It is meant to be an uncomfortable listen and it’s perhaps even more uncomfortable now than it would have been six months or a year ago. It does not take sides, it tells all would be censors that they are wrong. It’s really powerful writing.
Song of the Sea immediately takes you out to the ocean with its brilliant orchestration and the alternately ethereal and stormy voice that Bailey employs. It is a story of the dangers of the sea, but in his more yearning voice you get the sense that Bailey considers these dangers an integral part of the appeal of the ocean, that deep, unknowable but alluring place. Dinner with Bowie is the penultimate track. It imagines David Bowie sitting down to his last meal and reflecting on his life. It’s a beautifully elegiac song that is sung in a voice similar to Bowie’s and accompanied by a piano that is very reminiscent of Blackstar. It is a beautifully constructed tribute. I absolutely adored this track, which is the absolute standout on the album. The final track is The Presence of Love, which continues the theme of Autograph from Side 1, reflecting the thoughts of someone who has remarkably found his perfect partner and can’t believe his luck. It is a love song that really deserves a wide audience because it speaks to a truth about relationships, which is that they are often the most unexpected things in life, but when you find the one, your life is unimprovable.
The last two tracks would be a perfect finish to any album, but especially to this one. Glyn Bailey has drawn me into Oran’s World from the first note and kept me there until the last. It is simply a unique album that you simply must listen to.
What’s your #1 priority tomorrow?
Tomorrow, my wife and I are going to a play at the Old Vic Theatre in London and I will be focused on getting ready for that. The play is Mary Page Marlow and I am really looking forward to seeing it.
A number of years ago we decided to start going to the theatre together because the children were older and we could choose what plays we wanted to see. The issue was, how to choose? Did we go for a certain type of play, did we read the synopses of each option or did we stick a pin in the West End?!
The answer came quite unexpectedly from our first two plays. In 2014,Angela Lansbury returned to the stage as Madam Arcati in Blithe Spirit. If she hadn’t been in the play we would not have gone, but the chance to see such a legend was too good to miss. She was outstanding and when she was on stage it was as if no one else existed in the scene. To this day it is one of the most electrifying pieces of acting I have seen on stage. A few months later we went to see Bill Nighy in Skylight with Carey Mulligan. He was quite simply the best male lead I have seen on stage and, along with Mulligan, made it one of the best two hours I’ve spent in a theatre. The decision was made, we would be drawn to the actors rather than the plays themselves.
Since then, we have seen so many amazing performances from so many amazing casts that we would never have been drawn to otherwise. Standouts have included Nicole Kidman in Photograph 51, Eileen Atkins and Jonathan Pryce in The Height of the Storm, Anthropology with Dakota Blue Richards, Unicorn with Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan and Erin Doherty and, most recently, Anne Reid and Caroline Quentin in By Royal Appointment.
Tonight, was a play I got tickets for as soon as they went on general sale, because Susan Sarandon was the big name star. Along with her, there are Andrea Risborough, Eleanor Worthington Cox and Alisha Weir in an exceptionally high powered cast. Neither my wife nor I have a clue what to expect, but that has never yet left us feeling as though we had wasted our time and money. It was a close run thing on one occasion, but even that was an interesting baseline measure.
Who are our next star turns? Before the end of the year, Anna Popplewell in The Wanderers and Nicola Walker, for the third time, this time in The Unbelievers. To be fair I would go to see Nicola Walker reading a telephone directory! Why not try it for yourself? It has expanded our horizons and the range of plays we have seen so much and long may it continue to do so.
In what ways does hard work make you feel fulfilled?
I genuinely think that it’s this type of ‘protestant work ethic’ (other phrases are available for other countries) that has caused so many problems with stress of both body and mind. Societies around the world only seem to value hard work and exhausting oneself. We are not seen as having tried hard enough if we don’t go to bed exhausted every night.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I know the value of working hard and doing a good job, but over 30 years of teaching English to non native speakers often left me with nothing to give in other areas of life. I was often too exhausted to have a really enjoyable holiday as the cumulative stresses only started to diminish by the time I was going back to work!
A job is just one part of my life, but for decades I was forced to make it the central part, despite being desperate to make my family that central part. I only really started to rebel against that in my final couple of years by point blank refusing to work at weekends and only working into the evening where I had no other choice. The really hard work should have gone into my family life, but that was only possible for the two or three years where I was a house husband. They were the most rewarding times of my life in so many ways and they will be the template for the rest of my life I hope.
So, hard work for someone else doesn’t make me fulfilled, because they don’t appreciate it when they are raking in the profits. The higher ups just assume it’s their own brilliance rather than the efforts of their workers. The only hard work that makes me fulfilled is the hard work I will now put into my relationships with those around me, and I would advise you to set those boundaries and try to do the same before you get to my age!
What’s the trait you value most about yourself?
I have always tried to admit my mistakes. It’s so important to me to accept responsibility for things I have got wrong. If I admit my error I have more opportunities to make it right. If I don’t, then, in my experience, things get worse and worse.
This is why I detest politicians and managers who see it as a weakness to admit errors that they have made. How can you fix things if you persist in insisting that you, and everything you do, is perfect? Of course, as a child, teenager and young adult I tried to cover up my mistakes but I always found that when I did things got worse and worse. The difference was that unlike 99% of politicians and managers, I grew up and took responsibility.
So, there you have it, always admit when you have got things wrong and then fix them.
List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.
I am now in the situation where I am looking for jobs that take less out of me than full time teaching all year. Any money I make will be nice but not the main focus. It’s about looking at options I have not had the time or energy to pursue before. So what are my areas of interest?
- Helping to set up and run charity events. I am registered with a company called Action Challenge who I have done most of my charity challenges with. They always need staff to work on these challenges and I hope to have a chance to experience the charity events from the other side of the equation.
- I want to work with English Heritage or the National Trust as either a guide or a knowledgeable member of staff in one of the rooms. I would be perfect for that as my daughter reckons I could be paid for talking all day which she sees as my key skill! My ideal venue would be something to do with Art and Design or Christmas. My absolute dream job in this area would be to guide people around London on A Christmas Carol themed walk. I went on one a number of years ago and I remember being convinced that I would be excellent at it!
- My final option crept up on me and only occurred to me on Wednesday this week. I went along to The Den, Millwall’s ground, to be a crowd member for an advert that Prostate Cancer UK are doing to raise awareness. As you may remember from an earlier blog post I wrote, it’s a cause very close to my heart. Anyway, as I was sitting there waiting for our call time I realised that virtually everyone else was a regular paid extra. I didn’t stick out as someone involved in this for the first time, and one of the regular extras suggested that I sign up with an agency as I enjoyed the process. I have taken his advice so watch this space and the background of films and TV shows very carefully!! 🤣🤣
So there you have it. Three possibilities for me now I am no longer a full timer. All three are very feasible and all three would definitely fit in with my skill set.
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 