Let the Flame Burn Brighter [7-inch single]

Description

Let the Flame Burn Brighter – b/w “We Believe” – is a two-sided 7-inch vinyl single by the British singer and songwriter Graham Kendrick, released on Make Way Music in 1989, marketed and manufactured by Power Records via BMG UK Ltd. (catalogue number P 30). The track on the A-side was taken from Kendrick’s forthcoming full-length album Make Way for the Cross released on Make Way Music later the same year, manufactured by Kingsway Music. The single track was recorded and mixed by Mike Jarratt at Abbey Road Studios in London and The Music Factory in St. Albans, England; with Alan Shacklock producing. (The other tracks on the Make Way for the Cross album were recorded in both the US and the UK: at Duckworth Studios in Nashville, Tennessee; and at ICC Studios in Eastbourne, England; with Bret Teegarden and Les Moir producing.) The track on the B-side was taken from Kendrick’s full-length album We Believe released on Star Song Records the same year. Both tracks written by Graham Kendrick.

Away from the spotlight there was another side to Shacklock the musician – as a member of a local church he was well aware of the new wave of worship songs being composed. He was also aware of the upsurge in contemporary Christian bands, and wondered if his production skills could benefit the Church in some way.

“I think it was Lynn Green and Lawrence Singlehurst from YWAM who put us in touch with Graham Kendrick, because we’re friends of theirs – Lawrence said to me that Graham wanted to make a record for the March For Jesus, and I said ‘well, who does he want to produce it’, and he said ‘how about yourself, and I said ‘that would be great’. I was very flattered when Graham called, because being a musician in my church I was playing a medley of his hits every Sunday! Of course I’m a great admirer of the man. I think we should honour him really, an unbelievable songwriter for the Christian, the new Charles Wesley or whatever you want to call him.

“Of course, Abbey Road gave the studio time all free – about £4000 worth of studio time – and supplied all the engineers for us. Everybody did it for free as all the proceeds were going a children’s’ charity. I played all the instruments on it except the overhead cymbals – Graham had his drummer come in and do that. I did most of it at home with my friend Brian Smith the programmer, and we made the actual recording in a day – two days I should say, because the choir came in on the second day when I’d done the backing track.”

The record certainly has a contemporary feel, with a big drum sound and a searing soul-gospel section that added a new dimension to the song.

“Carol was fabulous – she really added an air of cross-over to the record, which was the idea – I felt it would cross a few barriers with black and white. If Graham had sung the whole thing, bless him, fine, but I put a place in the record for this girl as I constructed the song – and then of course it developed into a big party at the end, which was wonderful, because obviously we’re celebrating Jesus and that’s hopefully how the record came across, how I wanted it to. It should have done better in the charts.”

This was the second concerted attempt by the Christian community to assault the charts after Heartbeat’s «Tears From Heaven» in 1987, and again the dreaded word “hype” was being heard with relation to the way certain church leaders and other high-profile Christians were encouraging the faithful to buy the record by the bucket-load.

..

I wanted that record to sound like 1990, hence the drum machine – as opposed to the demo he’d given me which was acoustic, much more of a Fairport Convention effort. I felt it was okay but I really needed to raise it.

[Excerpt from “Alan Shacklock: Roots of a producer extraordinaire “, an article written by James Attlee and published in Cross Rhythms Magazine No. 3, 1990]

7-inch Vinyl Single tracklist:

Side A. “Let the Flame Burn Brighter”
Side B. “We Believe”

Note: Released on both cassette and 7-inch vinyl single. “Any profits from this single will help handicapped children through The Shaftsbury Society (charity reg No 221948) and TEAR Fund (charity reg No 265464).”