Eye - 03 July 2015

From singing songs to sweet sounds

Sing a song of Basil

A song on a recently-released album has been inspired by Quaker poet Basil Bunting.

Mark Knopfler, who first found fame with Dire Straits, has spoken of his inspiration for the song ‘Basil’, which appears on his new album Tracker.

‘I was about fourteen or so and I was a copy boy [for the Newcastle-based Evening Chronicle]. There was a rather forbidding figure who worked there and he wrote an epic poem called ‘Briggflatts’…

‘[He] was very different from the others. He was grumpy and he was older and differently dressed… It was very clear that he’d rather be writing poetry.’

Mark went on to say: ‘I have thought about him ever since and started to read his stuff as the years went by and I realised that time was working its thing on him… Now I see the world more from Basil’s point of view and really in a sense it is a song about the two of us.’

Basil Bunting was a poet and military intelligence analyst. He was famous for his autobiographical poem ‘Briggflatts’, named after the Quaker Meeting house in Cumbria where he is now buried.

Enquiring minds

Two inquisitive young visitors to Amersham Meeting, William and Holly, pictured peering through a hatch in the Meeting house’s wood panelling.

Wordplay

A chat evolved into some linguistic game play for Anthony Woolhouse, of Bournemouth Coastal Area Meeting, recently.

He writes: ‘I was talking to my sister in law about “Quanglicans” (she is a sort of Anglican) and the difficulties of finding one word to, for example, describe someone who is both a Quaker and a Methodist. She took on the challenge – see below (complete with my correct answers!)’

‘Quadist: Methodist
Quaptist: Baptist
Quasi-entist: Christian Scientist?
Quabyterians: Presbyterians
Quackolics: I dare to guess
Quakorthodoxies: Orthodox’

Sweet sounds

The Cadbury name has had long associations not only with the nation’s sweet-tooth but also with Quaker history. Now word has reached Eye of a melodic twist in the Cadbury tale.

Three sisters, the great great granddaughters of William Cadbury – whose signature graces all Cadbury chocolate bars today, have formed an alternative-pop trio. The band, The Cadbury Sisters, recently released their second EP, called Sarah, and made their debut at the Glastonbury Festival on 27 June.

Jessica, Mary and Lucy describe their sound as having ‘a broad spectrum of sonic influences, ranging from Fleetwood Mac and Kate Bush to Bat For Lashes and First Aid Kit’.

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