Just to kick things off, by mentioning how I became interested in all (or most) things traditional and British.
The spires of St. Michael's Cathedral and (to the right) Holy Trinity, Coventry
When I was a boy at junior school, one of the books I was given was about King Arthur. Another was tales of Robin Hood. Even though, along with other boys of that time, I was also interested in cowboys, indians and pirates, it was to these two that I kept returning. The Quest for the Holy Grail especially fascinated me, even then; something I have to say that has never left me.
It continued at my grammar school. We had many, many day trips from school, much to my sister's chagrin. I wouldn't exactly say I was a swot, but when we arrived at the destination which, of course was historical, the other boys lost no time in "losing" their work sheets and sloping off to buy cigarettes and such. I actually preferred to look around what we went there for, and to enjoy the feeling of being in contact with the past. I felt a rush from doing that; it was almost like time travel for me. It still feels like that now.
Music, especially, is one of the ways that I feel in touch with aspects of the past. Let me say now that I'm pretty sure that I don't want to live there! Firstly, I have savage myopia. I'd be stumbling around virtually blind. Coupled with no modern medicine, communications, transport links, etc., I reckon it's better to be nostalgic. However, that doesn't mean that we should not celebrate the good stuff from the past, including that which helps give us our identity today. When I was in my late teens I was trying to be a Christian. I was attending polytechnic in Coventry at the time. I was a member of the Methodist church and normally went there, but on this occasion I fancied something more traditional. Advent was here and, although Methodist Central Hall had its charms, it was as if someone had started building cinemas about fifty years early. It even has fold-up seats. Everyone knows about Coventry Cathedral, irreverently known as the Godbox due to its rectangular architecture. What visitors hardly knew about is that there is a large church, Holy Trinity, adjacent to the cathedral. This was constructed from the same local red stone as most of the older public buildings in Coventry and was built in the 12th century. When it was floodlit, it stood out as orange and grey against the darkening sky, more like a cut-out than a 3D object. Breathtaking. When I went along on my own, the service was a candlelit carol service. The gothic architecture and womb-red stone lit from within by flickering candles, combined with carols, some of which were written hundreds of years ago, seemed yet again like a form of time-travel to me. Surely this was what it must have been like to have worshipped in mediaeval times!
After this, I purchased a copy of the "Oxford Book of Carols". I'm no real musician, and just about played the bass guitar, but I started to look to the past for music and more inspiration, both artisitic and spiritual.
It's just orbited around and around since then.
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