Articles - from Dec 2023
BFI Visual History - Heritage 2022
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BFI Replay is a new, free-to-access, digital archive from the BFI (British Film Institute), exclusively available in UK public lending libraries.
It is the result of one of the UK’s largest mass digitisation programmes, all of the titles have been drawn from the vaults of the BFI National Archive and partner UK Regions and Nations Film Archives. The content uncovers stories from across the UK, its history and its people. Vividly captured in over 60 years of film, television and video from all corners of the UK — what we, our parents and carers, grandparents and communities watched. The platform provides access to 1000s of precious videotapes through the meticulous replay and digitisation of collections from across the UK, lovingly collected and cared for by archivists for over half a century. British Visual History, part of the BFI new major digitisation project this initiative is called Heritage 2022. The content from the Bright Thought Heritage Collection which the BFI curators have kindly sought our permission to use are:
by Neil Anthony,
02 January 2024 |
Brian Godding (1945-2023)
A guitarist with a long and remarkable career in music, Brian excelled in improvisation. Self-taught, he performed in genres as diverse as rock, jazz, folk, and dance. Last year, Brian described the Bright Thoughts production of Crossing Bridges as being "the first and last time I gave a solo performance of any kind!" Alongside a number of other improv jazz and experimental guitarists, (Fred Frith, Ron Geesin, Hans Reichel and John Russell), Brian gave an extraordinary performance.
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Extending the range of his guitar by linking it to a chain of echo and delay units, the resulting sound seemed to test the furthest limits of what could be achieved using a seemingly conventional instrument.
We have Andy Park (C4 Commissioning Editor for Music) to thank for commissioning the show. I recall his initial briefing. Andy wanted us to take risks and do different things. He was not chasing the ratings nor using that as a measure of success. He was very happy for it not to be viewed by the masses and I know he really liked the end product. This, therefore, gave us a rare and golden opportunity to explore a unique genre of music just to see where it would take us. More recently, when discussing the making of the programme with Brian he said that his tape machine "was one of the first digital machines being used, a monster 24 track. To think, that can now can be achieved on a laptop or an iPhone!" He was fully in favour of making this ground-breaking recording available to a modern audience, and commented that Crossing Bridges was "unique even by today's standards", and that "improvised music has a much broader audience and acceptance than ever." It is a great sadness to me that when he and I discussed the remastering possibilities recently he said "if there is a possibility to re-issue the program it’s, for sure, worthwhile", and he isn't around to see this come to fruition. It was a privilege to work with Brian in 1983, and to have his enthusiastic support forty years later. He was a a musician of great talent, and one who will be much missed. by Neil Anthony,
05 December 2023 |