Greenbelt 74-83

Description

Greenbelt 74-83 is a multi-artist double album compilation “featuring studio cuts of the major contributors from the first 10 years“, released on Myrrh Records in 1983. It is a retrospective featuring various artists who during the years from 1973 to 1983 graced the stage at Greenbelt, Britain’s pioneer Christian music festival.

In 1998, another retrospective entitled Greenbelt.25 (1973-1998) was released on ICC. A multi-artist soundtrack recording entitled Greenbelt Live! was released in 1979

2LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. The Sheep – “Lonesome Stone” (from the album Lonesome Stone)
A2. Water Into Wine Band – “I Have Seen The Lord” (from the album Hill Climbing for Beginners)
A3. Liberation Suite – “Presence Of The Lord” (from the album Liberation Suite)
A4. The Mighty Flyers – “Blood For Blood” (from the album Low Flying Angels)
A5. Parchment – “Light Of The World” (from the album Shamblejam)
A6. Fish Co. – “Sixties Children” (from the album Can’t Be Bad)

Side Two
B1. Aleksander John – “Hallelujah” (from the album Days Go By)
B2. Nutshell – “Conversation Pieces” (from the album Flyaway)
B3. Garth Hewitt – “Get Up And Dance” (from the album Love Song for the Earth)
B4. Adrian Snell – “Can You Get Me Out Of Here” (from the album Something New Under the Sun)
B5. Bryn Haworth – “It Could Have Been Me” (from the album The Gap)
B6. After The Fire – “One Rule For You” (from the album Laser Love)

Side Three
C1. Kenny Marks – “Lean On Him” (from the album Follow Him)
C2. Barry McGuire – “Communion Song” (from the album Have You Heard)
C3. Randy Stonehill – “Glory And The Flame” (from the album Between the Glory and the Flame)
C4. John Pantry – “Nothing Is Impossible” (from the album Nothing is Impossible)
C5. Paradise – “Worlds Midnight” (from the album Worlds Midnight)
C6. 100% Proof – “Mid Morning Blues” (from the album 100 % Proof)
C7. Jessy Dixon – “Satisfied” (from the album Satisfied: Jessy Dixon Live)

Side Four
D1. Jerusalem – “Man Of the World” (from the album Warrior)
D2. Barratt Band – “I’ve Never Seen Your Face” (from the album Playing in the City)
D3. Mark Williamson Band – “Midnight Diamond” (from the album Get the Drift?)
D4. Sheila Walsh – “Burn On” (from the 7-inch single Here With Me / Burn On)
D5. Resurrection Band – “Elevator Muzik” (from the album Mommy Don’t Love Daddy Anymore)
D6. Cliff Richard – “Where Do We Go From Here” (from the album Now You See Me… Now You Don’t)

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl double LP by Myrrh Records with the vinyl edition housed in a gatefold sleeve.

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Greenbelt: Celebrating 20 years of a pioneering arts festival
by Tony Cummings, Cross Rhythms editor
Cross Rhythms Magazine #16, August 1993

Tony Cummings chronicles the 20 years of the world’s leading Christian arts festival GREENBELT

Has it really been 20 years? The announcement that Britain’s premier Christian arts festival is celebrating 20 years of existence sent us scurrying to our archives to dig out yellowing Greenbelt programmes then scurrying to our telephone to glean reminiscences from yellowing Christian music fans. On gazing at all those line-ups of artists past and present one is left in no doubt as to the enormous contribution Greenbelt has made to Christian music’s development. One record executive said to me recently, “Without Greenbelt, contemporary Christian music would have floundered in Britain years ago.” This truth is not without its irony. In the past Greenbelt seminar speakers and committee members have been withering in their denouncements of the ‘cosy Christian subculture’ suggesting, not without some validity, that a lot of CCM would not exist in the ‘real world’ of money-driven multinationals and street cred-driven indies. But whether they intended it or not, Greenbelt has been a key player in the stuttering growth of Britain’s Christian music counter-culture.

The Greenbelt Music Festival, 1974 programme

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The Greenbelt Music Festival 1974, Mainstage (Prospect Farm, Charsfield, Suffolk, UK). Prepared for 10,000 – 2,000 came! Rumoured to be more contributors than paying customers when the mainstage operated from midday to midnight. Best media coverage of the event yet (as of 1983) – Greenbelt made the TV and was even featured in the ‘Sun’!

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> 1974
Prospect Farm, Charsfield, Suffolk
Artist Lineup: Liberation Suite, After the Fire, The Sheep, Jamie Owens, Out Of Darkness, The Mighty Flyers, Malcolm & Alwyn, John & Brian, Kevin Gould, Narnia, Garth Hewitt, Living Stones, 11.59, Millstone Grit. Highlight: “The Sheep, looking every inch like the Californian hippies they were, performing the ‘Lonesome Stone‘ musical complete with high volume and smoke bombs.” [Adrian Thomas]

> 1975
Avenue Meadows, Odell Castle Estate, Bedfordshire
Artist Lineup: Liberation Suite, Garth Hewitt, Cum Spiritu, Parchment, Fish Co, Cornerstone, Genesis Reconstruction, Free Way, After The Fire, Water Into Wine, All Things New. Highlight: “Liberation Suite doing an appeal from the stage. About 40 responded and the group told me about 10 became Christians.” [Peter Meadows]

> 1976
Avenue Meadows, Odell Castle Estate, Bedfordshire
Artist Lineup: Adrian Snell, Garth Hewitt, Bryn Haworth Band, Graham Kendrick, Meet Jesus Music, Reynard, Nutshell, Ian Smale and Friends, All Star Saints Band, Portico, Snatchback, Aidan. Highlight: “Meet Jesus Music played well over their time limit. We all loved it – the other bands hated it. I’ve met very few other Christian bands who could galvanise an audience like they did. It wasn’t good playing so much as their spiritual dimension.” [Eric Baxter]

> 1977
Avenue Meadows, Odell Castle Estate, Bedfordshire
Artist Lineup: After The Fire, Kenny Marks, John Pantry, Canaan, Bill Mason, John Dorsett & Brian Smith, Ishmael. Highlight: “After The Fire playing, quite literally, an explosive set and showing just why CBS had signed them.” [Campbell Logan]

> 1978
Avenue Meadows, Odell Castle Estate, Bedfordshire
Artist Lineup: Jessy Dixon, Giantkiller, Graham Kendrick, Nutshell, John Pantry, Ever After, Wellies, PTO, Parchment, Adrian Snell, Fish Co. Highlight: “Fish Co – as they were then. Lunatic, crazy, imaginative, completely over the top and six million miles down the road.” [Steve Spicer]

> 1979
Avenue Meadows, Odell Castle Estate, Bedfordshire
Artist Lineup: Cliff Richard, After The Fire, Tom Howard, Randy Stonehill Band, Bryn Haworth, Garth Hewitt, 100% Proof, Giantkiller, The Harmonisers, Rev Counta and The Speedos, Ever After, Parchment, Kainos, Lamb, Aleksander John, Vatten. Highlight: “Christian punk, or as near as we ever got, bawled out by Ishmael and his mates when he was a rad rocker, before he hit the Glorie trail.” [Tina Matthews]

A multi-artist soundtrack recording entitled Greenbelt Live! was released on the British label Marshalls in 1979.

> 1980
Avenue Meadows, Odell Castle Estate, Bedfordshire
Artist Lineup: Larry Norman, Mark Williamson Band, Adrian Snell, Daniel Amos, Jerusalem, John Pantry, 100% Proof, Deliverance, Giantkiller. Highlight: “I liked John Pantry. He was just relaxed and being himself. Technically, everything went wrong for him but he coped. Brilliant.” [Heather Vernon]

> 1981
Avenue Meadows, Odell Castle Estate, Bedfordshire
Artist Lineup: Cliff Richard, U2, Bonnie Bramlett, Joe English Band, Barry McGuire, Randy Stonehill, Sheila Walsh, Barratt Band, Casual Tease, Mark Williamson Band, Garth Hewitt, Graham Kendrick, Network 3, 100% Proof, John Pantry, Iva Twydell, The Predators, Paradise, Crown Agent, The Stares, Virtual Image, Male Voice Choir. Highlight: “Sitting up near the front, close to the stage and getting a really good view of Casual Tease in all their weird get-up.” [Rachel Salter]

> 1982
Avenue Meadows, Odell Castle Estate, Bedfordshire
Artist Lineup: Bryn Haworth, Resurrection Band, Edin-Adahl, Steve Flashman, Andy Pratt, Moral Support, Kenny Marks, Servant, Charlene, Barratt Band. Highlight: “Norman Barratt playing the blues almost as good as B B King.” [Brian Tucker]

> 1983
Knebworth Park, Hampshire
Artist Lineup: Cliff Richard, Mighty Clouds Of Joy, Jessy Dixon, Randy Stonehill, Mark Williamson Band, 77s, Sheila Walsh, Per Erik Hallin, Paradise, Kenny Marks, Conquest, Inner Vision, 100% Proof. Highlight: “The mighty, mighty Mighty Clouds Of Joy as their wonderfully over-the-top MC introduced them before they took us all to CHURCH peoples.” [David Carter]

> 1984
Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire
Artist Lineup: The Clark Sisters, Bruce Cockburn, Petra, Rez, Larry Norman Band, Philip Bailey Band, Maria Muldaur, Martyn Joseph, Vector, Sheila Walsh, LCGC. Highlight: “Bruce Cockburn’s amazing set in the Big Top. Wonderful!” [Ruth Holmes]

> 1985
Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire
Artist Lineup: Deniece Williams, Steve Taylor, Daniel Amos, Fat Band, Bloodline, Philip Bailey, Phil Keaggy, John Michael Talbot, Ben Okafor, Trumpets Of Zion, Technos, George Hamilton IV. Highlight: “I was amazed by Steve Taylor’s humility. He was under no delusions of self-importance. He even stood in the Rolling Magazine with Tony Cummings trying to catch eggs thrown at him!” [Tim Cockram]

> 1986
Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire
Artist Lineup: Deniece Williams, Rez, Charlie Peacock, 77s, T-Bone Burnett, Shirley Novak, Phil & John, Famous Potatoes, Fat And Frantic, Brian McGlynn, Talking Drums, Split Level. Highlight: “Deniece Williams – what a voice! And The 77s, so powerful. I’d never seen anything like them before.” [Jenny Palmer]

> 1987
Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire
Artist Lineup: Daniel Amos, Steve Taylor, Altar Boys, River City People, Cabaret Nicaragua (with Big Sur and Bruce Cockburn), Bloodgood, Sounds Of Steel. Highlight: “Gordon Gano’s band Violent Femmes, who started their set dressed in penguin suits and playing 20s gospel blues! The sudden change into punk gospel left about nine of us delighted and everyone else stunned.” [Andrew Long]

> 1988
Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire
Artist Lineup: Cliff Richard, Runrig, Michael W Smith, Amy Grant, Gary Chapman, Garth Hewitt, Adrian Snell, Martyn Joseph, Proclaimers, Caroline Bonnett. Highlight: “Amy Grant singing as only she can with a band – Jerry McPherson, Michael W Smith, etc – whom most singers would lose a leg for.” [David Carter]

> 1989
Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire – Art and Soul
Artist Lineup: Bruce Cockburn, The Clark Sisters, Big Sur, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Koinonia, Sweet Honey In The Rock, Charlie Peacock, Martyn Joseph, Labi Siffre, Phil & John, Bryn Haworth, Norman Barratt, One Bad Pig. Highlight: “Charlie Peacock doing an acoustic set with Vince Ebo and Jimmy A on mainstage and gripping 25,000 people in the palm of his hand.” [Karl Allison]

> 1990
Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire – Rumours of Glory
Artist Lineup: Larry Norman, Russ Taff, Rez, 77s, Runrig, Iona, Randy Stonehill, Charlie Peacock, Martyn Joseph, Nu Colours, The Inspirational Choir, DC Talk, Lies Damned Lies. Highlight: “I was moved by Rez and Randy Stonehill, but I was blown away by the 77s’ rendition of ‘Mercy Mercy’.” [James Lewis]

> 1991
Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire – Wrestling with Angels
Artist Lineup: Sounds Of Blackness, Detritus, Tribe Of Dan, The Throes, Chagall Guevara, Eden Burning, Caroline Bonnett, Galactic Cowboys, Violet Burning, Jonathan Day, Brian Powell. Highlight: “Jonathan Day captivating people (well, the 50 who were there) in the Fringe tent with his Celtic folk music.” [Tim Walker]

> 1992
Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire – Journeys of the Heart
Artist Lineup: Runrig, Bruce Cockburn, Violet Burning, Iona, Over The Rhine, Phil & John, Adrian Snell, Martyn Joseph, Ben Okafor, Nine O’Clock Service, Mercy Seat, Penelope Cave and Garth Hewitt, Veni Domine, Gethsemane Rose, Geoff Mann. Highlight: “Over The Rhine overcoming the despondency of mud, mud everywhere to play really haunting music.” [Chris Cole]

> 1993
Deene Park, Northamptonshire – Field of Dreams
Artist Lineup: Cliff Richard, Rez, Martyn Joseph, Iona, Eden Burning, Over The Rhine, Peter Case, Julie Miller, Out Of The Grey, Sam Hill. Highlight: “Don’t know yet but my guess would be Out Of The Grey.” [Tony Cummings]

[Some of these entries first appeared in the September 1983 issue of Buzz magazine.]

Link to original article: Cross Rhythms Magazine, August 1, 1993

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The Greenbelt 40: The Journey So Far DVD. A Blue Hippo Media and Greenbelt production in association with Christian Aid. Director: Pip Piper. Producers: Rob Taylor and Sarah Green.

A 70 minute film rich with rare archive and great music from across 4 decades including key interviews with the people who started the Greenbelt festival and those who have guided it across the years. The film honestly reflects the journey so far and takes a peek into the festivals future. If you have been you will know why Greenbelt is so special, if you haven’t this film will show you why.

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Greenbelt – The Story So Far: Forty years of faith, arts and justice (DVD)
Blue Hippo Media, 70 minutes + 6 minute bonus feature

Given that the 2012 Greenbelt festival featured 39.4 days of programming, editing down four decades of the event’s history to 70 minutes requires ruthless removal of shortlisted footage, a keen ear to pick up what has been important over that time, and sympathetic discernment to make the film feel ‘right’ to festival goers.

As someone who has been to Greenbelt (with a short break in the late ’90s – our young kids weren’t too keen at that stage) since the second festival in 1975, I can testify that this is one bang-on editing job.

Greenbelt started out as a Christian arts festival and has since clarified its focus as ‘faith, art and justice’. It is probably the oldest and longest-lasting Christian festival of its type anywhere in the world, pre-dating Holland’s Flevo and outliving America’s Cornerstone. This record is no talking heads piece, as images from its history constantly flow beneath the commentators’ voices.

The early years backing music from Malcolm and Alwyn, Norman Barratt, After the Fire and Larry Norman catches the mood of those times; private setting-out-from-home footage gets inside the festival-goer’s life and a well-chosen selection of commentators reflects the leading lights of the event’s history (with the possible exception of Bishop Graham Cray, a wise speaker and former festival chairman, who makes no appearance here).

The film records Greenbelt’s formation as a Christian arts festival, begun by a strange collaboration of hippies, farmers and a wealthy benefactor, at a time when no one knew what it might become. But that evolution seamlessly progresses here, charting Greenbelt’s bravery in pushing for more, whether in addressing global issues (apartheid, Nicaragua, Palestine) or simply the place of the arts in the Church.

“When you do music or do art, it is attractive to explore the boundaries,” says former chair Dot Reid, “and therefore you encounter the walls”. So inevitably the film covers the PR disaster of ‘Year of the Witch and the Willies,’ when the seminar line-up included an interview with a Wiccan and the arts programme had displays of male nudity. Though only a small part of the event, that perfect storm harmed the festival by frightening off youth groups, losing thousands of pounds and regulars, and on top of the havoc wreaked by the tail-end of Hurricane Charlie a few years earlier, Greenbelt’s very viability was threatened.

But the tone of the story changes once the event finds a new all-weather home at the present Cheltenham racecourse and numbers increase by a couple of thousand each year.

The strong appeal to Greenbelters is obvious, but will it be a satisfying view for others? Quite possibly. This movie has a story arc and those who love Cornerstone, for example, could find the parallels and differences fascinating. Like many well-made documentaries, it gets right inside the life of a community.

“Greenbelt doesn’t go for the ears, it goes for the whole person” says youth worker Pip Wilson, as the film looks at how the festival might develop. It has already begun to sire smaller events in Bethlehem, Scotland and the States, but that is for the future to reveal. Greenbelt at 40 is about the story so far and records it brilliantly. [Derek Walker, The Phantom Tollbooth, August 2013]