Gill writes:

It feels to me that The Specials and Fun Boy Three have provided a backing track for my life over the last three or four years. ‘The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum’, ‘You’re Wondering Now’, ‘Ghost Town’ and ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’ mostly, but it’s ‘Do Nothing’ that I have honed in on recently.

The song features in Sam Mendes’ latest film ‘Empire of Light’ – a story set in a British seaside town in the early 1980’s. Both the film and the song take you right back to the early 80’s when the Thatcher Government was starting to find their feet. The Winter of Discontent was fresh in people’s minds and the country had backed Margaret Thatcher’s bid for leadership in the hope that her administration would prevent unions from wielding such power again, that the individual would become key, and that privatisation was the route to a successful modern economy.

Yet here we are in 2023 and in some ways it feels like we’re back to 1980 once again. The approach that Margaret Thatcher’s government took appears to have eventually brought us back to square one, rather than change things.

Nothing ever change, oh no
Nothing ever change

But is that really the case? Has nothing ever changed since 1980? I think, maybe, the answer is quite a complicated one and I’m not sure I can reach a conclusive answer.

Have I changed, for example? Have you? Well, physically I have but I think there is still a lot of the teenage me still there. When I was leaving a job at the age of 24, my boss said to me ‘Try not to change too much. Just be yourself in life.’

People say to me just be yourself

Yet I have lived and learned more about me over the years, so maybe I am not only myself but even more myself? Perhaps I am a stronger, less diluted version of the 24yr old who was encouraged not to change too much.

Has society changed? Well, yes and no. We are more progressive, more aware and more inclusive in some ways. Yet in other ways, it feels like we have regressed to the post-war (or even inter-war) years. The song talks of police brutality, and only this week we have been reminded of crimes committed by police officers. 43 years on and it seems that nothing has changed. Perhaps we humans don’t change as much as we like to think we do.

Has the church changed? Well – yes and no. Again, like society, we are more inclusive and progressive but then I ask myself ‘how would the church respond to the members of The Specials if they turned up today’ and I can’t help thinking that many (though not all) churches wouldn’t know how to welcome and include a bunch of young men in their late teens/early 20’s. Especially young men who felt that their life had no meaning. Would we really want to hear about them feeling like they have no value or meaning? Would we really want to do something about it?

I’m just living in a life without meaning
I walk and walk, do nothing
I’m just living in a life without feeling
I talk and talk, say nothing

It’s a good job then, that even though the lyrics could be viewed as depressing and full of despondency, and that offer a succinct summing up of life for young people in the 1980’s, I can feel God giving me a nudge. A poke of my social and spiritual conscience. A call to action.

It’s when we are at our lowest ebb that sparks of love, joy and hope can break through. Instead of doing nothing, it provokes me to do something. How about you?

You may know that Terry Hall, the lead singer of this song, died on 18th December 2022. For some, there was a prophetic nature about his ability to give voice about racism, poverty and politics. What a legacy then, that the songs he made with The Specials, Fun Boy Three and The Colourfield, will continue to challenge and change perception. Thank you Terry and may you rest in peace.

The Specials still have a website – https://www.thespecials.com/

Jane writes:

I am the kind of person drawn to lyrics in songs, and if you were to examine my regular playlists of choices you might find a lot of honesty and deep pain in the words of songwriters I prefer. I do do happy tracks too but find songwriting to be at its best when it’s plumbing the depths of the human soul and settling there.

I was travelling with a friend recently and they said I’d do well to listen to less of that and more of stuff that carries positivity within it. It’s obviously settled with me. Whilst I can’t change the habit of a lifetime and my love for all things soul-searching, I did think that maybe this year I might start to collect songs of support, encouragement and affirmation.

This is one such song

It’s a song from my childhood. A track on a fabulous album that I was allowed to listen to with my older cousins at their house. It’s epic especially if played loud and very hard to sing along to in my experience because of the vocal capability of Art Garfunkel.  It has a brilliant ebb and flow to it – as well as saying all the things you might want to someone struggling or in a bit of a spot .

When you’re weary
Feeling small
When tears are in your eyes
I’ll dry them all
I’m on your side
Oh, when times get rough
And friends just can’t be found

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

In the old days, people created cassette tapes for those they cared for and sent messages of love and support. These days I guess you’d share a Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon playlist.  Even one track might hit the spot.

So today dig out your favourite track of love and encouragement, send it to whoever needs it and in that moment be that bridge for another. Traverse the troubled waters with them. Be that neighbour that God calls you to be. Tell someone you’ve got their back.  Be the one that cares – you never know how much the other might need it.

Oh, and collect a playlist of similar songs if you feel like it.   Ain’t music great!

Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel are still making music but not together. You can find out more here  https://www.paulsimon.com/  & here https://www.artgarfunkel.com/

Tom writes:

I’m stood in a field on a Somerset farm with thousands of other people – a farm in a village I have been privileged to call home. I’m there principally because I had been hoping to see one of the biggest bands in the world play my back yard. They had pulled out because of injury so instead, at the end of three days not seeing U2 play, I’m stood there, waiting to watch the legend that is Stevie Wonder. But this is the Glastonbury Festival, so there are other bands on beforehand, and second-billing on the Pyramid Stage this night are a group whose electronica defies categorisation and fills dancefloors – Faithless (whose lead singer, Maxi Jazz, died in the run-up to this past Christmas).

I’ll admit that dance music is not my top choice of music style, though my need for good quality drums and bass sounds means I do, nonetheless, have time for well-crafted electronica, from the ground-breaking garage beats of Goldie’s “Inner City Life”, though the trip-hop of Massive Attack and Leftfield, to, yes, the dance-floor vibes and intellectual lyrics of Faithless.

My favourite track by Faithless is “Reverence”, but the track that sticks in my mind from that night at Glastonbury 2010 is another of their anthems. I can close my eyes and hear its pounding beats, see the lights and the crowd, Maxi Jazz on the big screen bouncing and conducting as together he and the crowd, including me, and my sister, and her mates next to me, scream the lyrics which are the track’s title: “We Come 1”.

Ostensibly a love-song, “We Come 1” speaks of the way in which love brings a sense of unity with the one, or ones, whom we love and who love us. And I phrase it that way, with an acknowledgement of possibly multiple participants, because my experience of that song, there in that Somerset field, was beyond simply I and one other – the whole crowd became, in some sense, one. We were joined by a shared sense of love and companionship. It seems to me that in some way this is a lived experience, as well as a lyrical description, of what the Church is supposed to be: whether the picture provided in Revelation of the Lamb and his bride (and in marriage two become one), or the unity described by Christ in John’s Gospel as he prays that his disciples might be one as he and the Father are one, or the bodily unity we find in the Pauline letters and in the Communion service where we declare that, “though we are many, we are one Body because we all share in one Bread”.

Of course, we are all unique individuals, and our faith does not seek to claim that unity is the same as uniformity, that unity with God and with one another is to be merged into some homogenous blob – after all, as Christians we have faith in a Triune God, ever-One yet ever-Three. Most of the time, I’ll be honest, I struggle with what we mean by unity, especially when I look at the breadth of the Church of which I am a part. Yet when I need reminding of what that shared experience can be like, I turn to that moment in a field in my home village, and a band called Faithless, and my faith in the unity God calls us to is restored, even if just for a moment.

If you want to know more about the work of Faithless, start here https://www.faithless.co.uk/

Fidge writes:

Happy New Year everyone!

Lucy Spraggan has a new single out! Woo Hoo! It’s called Balance and immediately spoke to me as a piece of music that might speak to us at the start of a new year.

For those of you familiar with the Friday Fix or if you know me, you’ll know I’m a Lucy Spraggan fan. But that wasn’t always the case – when she first appeared on X Factor in 2012, I wasn’t terribly impressed, but over the past decade her music has grown on me, as has her personality. I really like the way she talks openly about her desire to create a better self and her journey of self-improvement is of course reflected in her music and lyrics. There is something incredibly raw, vulnerable and real about her songs which is perhaps why she connects with folk.

In Balance she reflects on her life:

All the stuff, I know right now
It came from messing up most of my 20’s
It’s changed for now, and I hope it lasts
I spent most of my life feeling quite empty

There’s lots of reasons I’m messed up
I grew up around things that weren’t that healthy
I’m working hard and it’s looking up
If I stick to routines, it’s gonna help me

I love the way that in spite of her desire to be a better person, she realises that this is never going to be perfect or polished as she says:

I’m tryin to learn to love myself
And what’s good for my mental health
I read a lot about self-help
I’ll never be polished

I see the cycles happening now
I’m responsible for shutting them down
It took a while to figure that out
But it’s my job to stop it

But what does this song say to us about a new year? Perhaps there is an invitation here to explore what living our lives in balance might mean for us?

It is my belief that most of us live our lives out of balance. We are too busy, life is too noisy, we are too rushed, our lives are fragmented. To find some balance, we may need to slow down, deepen our awareness, connect with the environment, live a more open life, acknowledge our vulnerabilities. Lucy describes being sober as one of the biggest improvements she’s made in her life. The video of her song Sober is a beautiful, tender and almost painful watch. 

At the start of a new year, Balance might provide an invitation to explore what a better self might look like. What is it that you need to do to find some balance? Is there a path you need to take? Something you need to let go off? A something new to take on?

In the lyrics of the song making changes in our lives is not something we do alone – we need people to accompany us, to journey with us, to be a buddy. If you could offer to be a helping hand to someone this year – what would you do? What difference might a helping hand make not just to the other, but to you?

If you could stand back, I used to say that
I thought I needed space to find my balance
But I might need a hand and if you could be that
I might need some help to find my balance, balance

Perhaps as we start this new year, we are being invited into a place of balance.

Find out about Lucy Spraggan here – https://lucyspraggan.com/

It may be the first day of 2023 (Happy New Year everyone!), but it’s also the day that we release the playlist of last year’s Friday Fixes.

The full playlist is on Spotify – here’s the link https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3fB17QY9Hsz6P2LUdPerXA?si=ZMM_p_dhTTyKth7OJacRbA.

There will also be a slimmed-down playlist on SoundCloud later this week. We’ll drop the link when it’s ready.

We’re taking a well-earned break on the Friday Fix this week, so there’s no reflection as such.

You may have seen this video already but if not, here’s comedian Jason Manford with his Assembly Bangers.

You can buy or download the single here – all proceeds go to the Trussell Trust.

https://ingrv.es/assembly-bangers-5pg-1?_ga=2.227965716.841048798.1671716245-772490148.1671716244

Or you can watch the video and pop a donation to the Trussell Trust here https://www.trusselltrust.org/make-a-donation/

See you in 2023!