Molten Meditation

Greenbelt number 4 - we're getting a bit old school these days :)

The weather had no idea what it was doing but managed to stay mostly dry with some occasional bluster, so camping was good. Grey and cloudy was the theme.

The main development this year was bringing Hannah along to play and sing with me in the Molten Meditation sessions. Hannah has been working with me on the third album and her contribution has been wonderful. Her voice is beautiful and perfect for the role and her ability to write and play has brought a whole new dimension to the project. Here she is in her pyjama's at breakfast with the rest of our fabulous crew.

From left to right we have Maria (my wife), Naomi (or Kenobi according to Alfie), Hannah and Katie. They'll all thank me for using that photo I'm sure :)

Thanks for all your help in carrying stuff, sorting stuff out and general smiling.

Here's some better photos courtesy of Hannah :)

This year we had two slots that were much better placed over the weekend, New Forms at 11am on the Saturday and 8pm Sunday evening in the Soul Space.

New Forms.

This is the venue where groups from all over are able to put on their own forms of worship. It's a dark atmospheric place with multiple projector screens, moody lighting and this year a little platform right in the middle so you're completely surrounded by your punters. It's the place where the cool people get to do their cool churchy stuff. As we were fussing and trying to get set-up I noticed that the only people in the room (which can take about 300) were an older couple sitting in the corner. As our start time approached I was thinking "oh well, maybe a few more will turn up, the numbers don't matter". Then the doors opened and this surge of people piled in and just kept coming. Apparently they were queued round the block.               

The place filled up with people splurged out all over the floor. One factor may have been that our session clashed with Rob Bell's big talk in a venue next door and a lot of people had been turned away, so perhaps we scooped up a lot of disappointed people in need of some soothing - that's what we do best!

The set-up this year was similar to last in that we had a laptop running Ableton Live with our three meditations broken down into an arrangement of loops. I then had a guitar running through so I could play some parts live and Hannah had a keyboard plugged in to play some piano and rhodes parts. Hannah then sang in the appropriate places and I read the verses. Meanwhile we were projecting some new and hopefully not too distracting video onto the numerous screens around the venue. We also did our string tying escapade where we tie string around a neighbours wrist and bless them. We used up more string that we have in all the other years combined which gives an indication of how many people came. The string tying also fitted in wonderfully with the Swine flu guidelines about not sharing the peace or touching one another.

It all went really well and numerous people came up afterwards to say how much they had enjoyed our time of meditation and relaxation - marvellous.

Soul Space.

The session up in the Soul Space contemplative venue was a bit more low key.

A smaller space, much quieter - we almost couldn't hear ourselves. You're also much more aware of the people around you and every yawn or sigh or shuffle seems really obvious. But again we had well over a hundred people and as far as we can tell everyone enjoyed it.

I did also install a Molten Meditation Station in the Soul Space as a sort of prayer station. Unfortunately it broke down on the Saturday morning - hard drive died I think - so I had to pack it away. Serves us right for having such successful sessions - balance restored.

The new videos we used this year, Hannah's eyes and the pouring of treacle (or Golden Syrup if you're posh) will be available individually through Proost as there's not really enough to warrant a new DVD as yet. www.proost.co.uk
   

CD Sales.

One thing that's hard to avoid and almost always disappointing is checking how many CD's you have left in the G-Music tent. First year I remember stopping by to count them a dozen times a day and as we sold like 10 over the whole weekend it was torture. I'm a bit cooler these days and left it until Saturday afternoon before having a look and being slightly disappointed at the handful that had gone. The people who run the music tent suggest that they rarely sell any more than 30 CD's for independent artists - last year we did 36. This year we had about 55 in total, covering the three CD's and the DVD and I hadn't had any time to create any more, but it seemed plenty. On Sunday night as I was tucking Alfie into his sleeping bag way past his bed time I got a call from an excitable Hannah saying that the first album and the DVD had sold out and there was only a handful left of the others. By Monday afternoon they were all gone and the music tent was phoning me up to ask for more. That's flipping marvellous. We hope each year to cover the costs of performing at Greenbelt and this time we did it with bells on. Thanks to everyone who picked up one of our CD's or DVD's I sincerely hope you get something out of it and come back for more.

Other Highlights.

With the spread-out performances, trying to fix the Molten Meditation Station and looking after Alfie and Maria I didn't get to see as much as I would have liked. I did however order a load of talks on mp3 so hopefully I'll be able to catch up on a few.

But here's a few thoughts....

IKON - Crazy bunch from Belfast who did a piece called "Pyrotheology" which was amazing. It was slow and purposeful, dramatic and challenging talking about metaphorically turning up to church with a box of matches ready to burn the whole thing down. That once we're comfortable, once we think we've got it right, once we stop trying to grasp the ungraspable is when we need to set it ablaze and start again.

Peter Rollins - One of the people behind IKON and a personal hero - don't ever meet your heroes! So, I met Peter Rollins - I really wanted to hear him speak as he always causes my head to expand and my soul to wonder at the immensity of what we don't know. Anyway, there was a mistake in the program and he was in two places at once and so as he happened to be passing I grabbed him to ask when he was on where and after confirming what he was doing I said "ok cool" and then gave him a double fonzie thumbs up - where you put both thumbs up together in a "hey great" kind of way. This was so unbelievably ironic and geeky that Peter, caught up in the moment, had no choice but to reciprocate in a "see you there" double fonzie thumbs up response. Maria hasn't stopped laughing about it since. I seemed to then run into him every five minutes after that. Sadly I didn't get to any of his talks - almost got to one but I got the time wrong and was queuing outside while he was talking inside - doh!

Rob Bell - the big star of this years festival but he's left me rather cynical and with the impression that he's a bit smarmy. I love what he does, what he writes, but his over produced packaging, over inflated price tags and high opinion of himself is starting to grate a little bit. All talks at Greenbelt are recorded - always have been. And they have always been available to buy - not Rob Bells. Rob did a talk called "Drops like Stars" (there's also a coffee table book to accompany it) but it was not allowed to be sold by Greenbelt. The reason is that it's the title of his next lecture tour which will also include a DVD of the lecture that they will sell to you for like twenty quid. So selling the talk now for £3.50 via Greenbelt would cut into their sales - that sucks and Mr Bell should be ashamed of himself. I didn't get to any of this talks as they clashed with stuff I was doing. Although me and Alfie walked past him and his entourage all looking cool in charcoal like some hip-hop video.

Gene Robinson - Famous for being the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, so no prizes for guessing what he's be talking about. I didn't get to see him but I have ordered the mp3's so if anyone would like to hear them please let me know. What I can tell you is that some friends of mine who thought they were fine with their biblical interpretation of homosexuality came back from one of his sessions completely transformed - that's the best thing about Greenbelt is that you have the opportunity to hear something explained from the bible that can challenge your beliefs or turn them on their head. I look forward to hearing them.

Nadia Bolz-Weber - A Lutheran Pastor who runs an Emerging church called the House for All Sinners & Saints in Denver Colorado. I've followed her blog for a number of years and find her fascinating. She has a very unique perspective on running a very different kind of church but within a traditional denomination and it's such a relief to hear from someone completely at peace with the "Emerging" label. www.sarcasticlutheran.typepad.com/

Pádraig Ó Tuama - Poet guy who does stuff with IKON but who did simply the most sublime sermon on John's Gospel I have ever heard. It was about "story" and was this gentle telling of ideas and journeys that was just wonderful. Alfie came with me and fell asleep in my arms like the beautiful child he is. I'm going to find out more about this bloke - maybe even how to pronounce his name.

Scroobius Pip - As Alfie took me around the site on Saturday night, from getting himself inside the "pod", to sitting eating chocolate in a tepee and watching people skateboard we ended up at main stage and heard Scroobius Pip bang out his "Letter from God to Man" which is a fabulous piece of work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4467CI4y0M

Sunday Communion

I love this, always have. Often people I go with are a bit nonplussed by the gathering of 15,000 people to share in communion but I always find it very moving. This year it was all about the struggles in the Holy Land and it allowed voices of peace from all sides to be heard, Palestinian, Israeli, Muslim, Jew, Christian. We didn't actually have communion because of swine flu silliness but instead we anointed one another with olive oil - which was cool. The worship was almost excellent but instead fell a bit flat in that they had this rootsy little band playing old familiar hymn tunes with cool new words - but they kept messing with the timing so we'd all end up out of sync - all got a bit laughable which is a shame. In a smaller space, where you could hear properly I'm sure it would have worked a treat. Also, no sermon - fantastic!

We might take a break next year. Certainly the amount of time an energy put in to create album number three and to get ready for Greenbelt has been enormous and that has a direct affect on our lives. I do love it though. I love being part of it, I love creating the music, finding the verses, doing something positive about spending time with God. But next year we hope to have another little baby running around so maybe my time needs to be focused elsewhere.