Album Review: BIC RUNGA - Birds

SONY/BMG 82876811792

Review copy supplied by Abels Music, Canberra

Reviewed by Tony Magee

New Zealand singer songwriter Bic Runga has released her third album – Birds. Most interesting stuff.

Little hints of The Whitlams and even Al Stewart are evident in terms of vocal line style and melodic progressions. Even so, this is definitely a new sound and Bic presents here a mostly ethereal and reflective collection, all written by her. The structure of the songs is simple but there is an elegance of shape and form and nothing cluttered or over arranged. Mostly what one would call rock or pop ballads with one piece of old style blues thrown in, where you are suddenly sitting on someone’s front porch in 1930’s Mississippi. That track is called No Crying No More.

The album opens with a fairly bouncy number called Winning Arrow. Medium tempo pop. From then on it’s slow but thoughtful. One of the most appealing pieces for me is the title track, Birds. It is in a minor key and has a chord structure mostly centring around tonic and dominant. There is a distinct Middle Eastern feel to it in places. The middle section is beautifully orchestrated by Neil Finn and Tom Rainey giving a lush sweeping sound over which Bic soars with haunting vocals swoops and curves, rather like an eagle. I suppose that’s partly the point of it.

Neil Finn also appears on other tracks playing keyboards and backup vocals. It’s great to see and hear a modern album using real instruments, particularly when it would be oh-so-easy to just bring in a synth string sound – but no – all those lush violins and other strings are real instruments and all the players are credited. There is also harp and French horn as well as the usual rock and pop lineup. The arrangements throughout the album are all superb and really make it something quite special.

The recording quality is very good too, particularly the backup vocals, which are crisp and full, and superbly pitched by the singers. Bic herself has a voice which wafts sweetly and surely.

The booklet contains some superb photographic reproductions of birds by Fiona Pardington from her series “Future Beings” and also a reproduction of Kasimir Malevich’s 1913 oil on canvas, “Black Square”, for anyone interested in modern art.

This album represents excellent value for money, because you also get a second CD with five tracks recorded live at a Bic concert at the Civic Theatre, Auckland in Nov 2005 (although the album actually states Nov 2006 – but that’s yet to happen!!). This album grows on you. I think you will like it.

First published in Eat Drink Magazine, May 2006 and Our Hotel Magazine, May 2006

John Laurie : Shakespearean actor and Private Fraser in the BBC's Dads Army

John Laurie. Photo courtesy Media Storehouse

John Laurie was born 25 March 1897 in Dumfries and was destined to be an architect before the Great War intervened. He admitted that he never expected to survive the conflict; in fact, he was invalided out of the service and became a sergeant-of-arms at the Tower of London.

John Laurie was a Shakespearean actor between the wars.

In 1919 John Laurie’s passion for Shakespeare inspired him to become an actor and he established himself as a noted performer, playing all the great Shakespearean roles at the Old Vic before being enticed into the film world.

A young Laurie can be seen in The Thirty Nine Steps (1935) directed by Alfred Hitchcock, which starred Robert Donat; many other films followed. 

Laurie served in the Home Guard during the Second World War and enlisted in the ranks of Dad’s Army in 1968, just when he was considering retirement. In his portrayal of Private Fraser, Laurie cornered the market in the role of the cantankerous elderly Scot.

Throughout the series, Laurie remained hale, hearty and apparently ageless. He remained sceptical about the worth of the series, reminding people of his dramatic Shakespearean roots. His famous phrase ‘We’re all doomed’ was almost created by him, after the writers of the show, David Perry and Jimmy Croft, heard him complaining once more about some facet of the show being doomed to failure!

John Laurie, yet one more of those courageous servicemen from the First World War who became actors, contracted emphysema which complicated a lung ailment and he died on 23 June 1980 at Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire.

[This short profile of the actor John Laurie first appeared in a piece by Mark Bristow titled 'Seven British Actors Who Served during the Great War'. It appeared in Firestep Vol.7. No.1 - The Western Front Association London Branch magazine, all volumes of which are available for access by members using their member login].

Published at The Western Front Association, Firestep Vol. 7, No. 1, May 2006.

Arnold Ridley aka Private Godfrey of Dad's Army

Arnold Ridley joined the Army in 1915 and went on to experience the horrors of trench warfare
Photo courtesy BBC News

By Mark Bristow

Arnold Ridley, born 7 January 1896 in Bath, Somerset, initially aspired to become a school teacher but briefly joined a theatre company in 1914. As with so many others, Arnold Ridley’s plans were turned on their head by the advent of War; Arnold was involved in at least one pretty grim front line struggle and sustained a severe head injury from the butt of a German rifle. This caused him to suffer blackout and he was invalided out of the army in 1917. After employment in his father’s boot-shop, unsure he could ever act again, wrote his first play, which was rejected despite an approach to a London theatrical producer. 

In 1925, whilst enduring a four-hour delay on a train journey from the Midlands, Ridley found himself stranded on the deserted station at Mangotsfield; it was here that he first conceived of the idea for The Ghost Train. He completed the play in the next seven days and it became a huge success when it was staged at the St Martin’s Lane Theatre in London, spellbinding its audiences. It told the story of a group of passengers stranded at night in an isolated station at Fal Vale in Cornwall, where they were terrorised by a phantom train. It was in the time a technically daring play to produce for the stage, the sounds of the train had to be improvised from drums, thunder-sheets, a cylinder of compressed air, and even a garden-roller. It ran for 600 performances, and so began Arnold Ridley’s writing career. The play was filmed several times, and in different countries. Other successful plays followed throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

With the outbreak of the Second World War Arnold selflessly re-enlisted in the Army. He was subsequently sent to France, only to suffer from shell-shock during the evacuation of the BEF, to the possible exacerbation of his old wounds. 

Invalided out of the army once again, Arnold utilised his talents by joining ENSA. After the war he had the opportunity of directing one of his plays which prompted him to take up acting again.

During the 1960s and 70s Arnold played often as the archetypal kind and gentle old man. He also featured in the popular radio series The Archers and appeared regularly in both Coronation Street and Crossroads, before in 1968 landing the role for which he is so fondly remembered today. He served, with much distinction as Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army until the show’s final episode in 1977. Arnold Ridley was awarded the OBE for services to the theatre in the 1982 New Year’s Honours list. By then suffering from very bad health, he died 12th March 1984 age 88.

Arnold Ridley as Private Godfrey in Dad's Army

[This short profile of the actor and playwright Arnold Ridley first appeared in a piece by Mark Bristow titled 'Seven British Actors Who Served during the Great War'. It appeared in Firestep Vol.7. No.1 The Western Front Association London Branch magazine, all volumes of which are available for access by members using their member login].

Published at The Western Front Association, Firestep Vol. 7, No. 1, May 2006.

Link to Firestep Magazine here.