Setlist - 11 Dec 2016
Evening Carol Service at Kings

Tags: carols

The first of our 2016 Carol Services. Titled 'Travelling Light', I was trying to juxtapose our own Christmas journeys, the journeys in the Gospel birth narratives, and the journeys of refugees in the contemporary world situation. Perhaps an ambitious goal, but I think it came together pretty well.

We started the evening at Oswald's Institute, singing 'O Come, O Come Emmanuel' with just acoustic guitar and ten-piece brass band. It was an amazing atmosphere. And then we crossed over the road to St Oswald's Church carrying electric t-lights for the main service.

Most of our carol arrangements are pretty well established now, but each year I take a carol or two to meditate on. This year I came up with a really nice pedalling acoustic arrangement of 'O Little Town'. Here's a video to help my memory if nothing else...

John C performed an amazing spoken word piece tonight. I was moved to tears.

(This is the same piece from the morning of the 18th.)

I love leading our Carol Services. It always feels like a lot of work to put them together, but the mixture of elements is always so rich, and there's nothing like playing with a brass band.

Many of the same elements coming again next week in the morning...