Author: John Chivers via YouTube
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A musical memory from 1992. This was the first band I became involved with in Coventry when I moved to the city as a student in 1992. Meeting through the Band Soc, we gathered together as a six-piece initially, but this whittled down to 3 of us when it became clear that we were the only ones committed enough to turn up to rehearsals. Neil Crump had initially played lead guitar, but promptly moved to bass guitar to ensure the band could exist as a core three-piece.
The song was written by lead singer/guitarist, Dan Hall, as was most of our material, with the band arranging. It was recorded at the now sadly demolished Depot Studios.
Yes, it’s not the tightest performance or playing, but we were just young things enjoying.
The band dissolved when I went to do my third year of study abroad in Germany, then France, in the 1992/1993 academic year, but I reunited with Dan (Neil had graduated and moved home during my third year) when I returned to do my fourth and final year, and we continued to play together in a succession of bands, culminating in what became my longest original musical endeavour, BAiT.
The song is clearly inspired by the ruins of the Coventry Cathedral, which was bombed in Operation Moonlight Sonata in December 1994, when the Luftwaffe threw all its might at wiping Coventry off the face of the Earth and coined a new verb in the process – Coventrieren =to coventrate, or destroy utterly through bombing.
I had the good fortune of living directly across the street from the cathedral during my first year at Coventry, on the 8th floor of the now demolished Priory Hall tower block, with a direct view from my room window of Basil Spence’s Coventry Cathedral 2.0 (or actually 3.0) and the 14th century bombed remains of St Michael’s cathedral’s ruins alongside it.
Dan was always a passionate lyricist and the student idealism is alive and kicking here – worthy sentiments indeed!
"The bombed-out church reminds us of the foolish things we do."