Karl Jenkins’ long-awaited memoir of his musical life from the Welsh valleys to the Royal Albert Hall and beyond is now in print (Still with the Music, Elliott & Thompson, 2015). The autobiography written with ClassicFM’s Managing Editor Sam Jackson is a tour de force of the composer’s life and music covering the writing and performances of Adiemus, The Armed Man, The Really Big Chorus’ commissioning and debut performance of Gods of Olympus for the London2012 Olympic Games described as “what a rigmarole!”, his time with experimental rock outfit Soft Machine and much more besides.
Needless to say as a muso, it’s a fascinating read for me, made more enthralling by the various mentions of TRBC occasions with which our choir, The TyrannoChorus, were involved. The first of those being the recording at Abbey Road Studios of the aforementioned Armed Man and secondly the Gods of Olympus performance at The Royal Albert Hall. This was instigated by the late Don Monro, conducted by Brian Kay (ex King’s Singers) and witnessed by Jenkins himself along with a couple of thousand other audience members on the big night.
It’s rather pleasing to see TyrannoChorus mentioned in the acknowledgements (we were there, weren’t we Tim?) as well as my friend Jo Forrest’s choir Leatherhead Choral Society (Jo has done so much to publicise and promote TRBC and events with which Karl has been involved over the years). Sadly, neither I nor Jo, nor even Tim Lihoreau get a personal namecheck, but we don’t feel slighted, I’m sure and Jenkins in his last words in the book puts any omissions down to a “senior moment by an old (-ish) Welsh composer.
One last point-scoring thing, I do have to mention that I’ve met him a couple of times through Tim, first time in the “box” (the mixing room) at Abbey Road and again backstage after the Gods of Olympus at the Albert Hall…on neither occasion did I ask for an autograph…just like a true muso 😉