Volunteers at the Church of Scientology of Manchester put on a spectacular show of artistic talent on Sunday as Scientologists and their friends & family packed out the Church’s event room to see live performances of song, dance and poetry, and I even had a go at it myself.
It’s not just Scientologists who are artistic, but there are a lot of Scientologists in the North who are, so it makes sense that we hold a regular evening performance here in Manchester. There was everything from a traditional tambourine song (think morris dancing) to a contemporary dance solo.
I opted for the acoustic singing performance, and by all accounts we pulled it off pretty well. Michael and I performed four songs, two of which I sang with his guitar and backing vocals and two of which were sung and played by Michael with my accompaniment on some Turkish hand percussion (interesting mix). I sang an acoustic version of Sorrow by Bad Religion, based on an acoustic performance by Greg Graffin; and Time of Your Life by Green Day, as a sort of reprise of my last days of vocal performance, which were back at college when I recorded that for A-level music. Michael sang Nothing Compares to You by Sinéad O’Connor and Can’t Take My Eyes Off You by Frankie Valli.
In the middle of the evening there was a sale and auction with donated items such as an electric violin, a signed letter from the late L. Ron Hubbard, and various art-related items such as photos, poetry books and so on. All the proceeds went toward the renovations of the new Church of Scientology building in Trafford, Manchester.
All in all it was a good fun night, but I must say that for me the star of the show was Becky Langley, a young singer/songwriter from Prestwich, Manchester, who sang her own recently-written song a cappella. It was a beautiful song and she has a very high quality voice with a very soulful feel, unusual for a young white girl. It reminds me of Lou Lou’s black gospel voice which, if you hadn’t seen her face, you’d think was coming from an African, Afro-Caribbean or Afro-American. I say good luck to Becky, we may well be hearing her on the radio in years to come.
I thought this by L. Ron Hubbard essentially summed things up with regard to art, so I’ll leave you with a quote from the book Science of Survival:
A culture is only as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreamed by artists—L. Ron Hubbard