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| The Kirk, Rode. |
As you know, Van Morrison is my favourite musician. I have
always been quite proud of Van’s association with the area where I live. For
many years, from 1987 with Poetic Champions Compose to 2005 with Magic
Time Van recorded most of his work at the Wool Hall studio which is
in the village of Beckington only five miles from Westbury where I live. It was one
of the most creative periods of his long career.
The album I want to talk about today is Enlightenment which
Van released in 1990. In the sleeve notes to the album it says ‘Recorded mainly
at Wool Hall Studios Beckington, Townhouse London, Real World, Box &
Pavilion Studios London. ‘So Quiet In Here’ recorded at The Kirk, Rode,
Somerset'. (See picture below) I know Real World Studios in the village of Box because
it is owned by Peter Gabriel and is a very famous studio. The place that
intrigued me is The Kirk at Rode. Van did not own the Wool Hall
in 1990, he bought it a couple of years later. I think on the day that Van wanted
to record So Quiet In Here the Wool Hall might have been unavailable, so he had
to look around for another studio in the local area, or maybe he wanted a place
with the acoustics of a church with the right atmosphere for the song. I know
this village very well indeed because we used to go to a brilliant pub in Rode
called The Red Lion which sadly does not exist anymore. It had the best
jukebox I have ever seen. We used to stand around it singing Rag Doll by the
Four Seasons. That pub used to have great pub games as well, such as Shove
Ha’Penny and Bar Skittles.
Anyway, I am getting off the point. Although I knew Rode
pretty well, I had never heard of a place called The Kirk. I guessed
from the name that it was a redundant church or chapel which had been converted
into a studio, but none of the buildings in Rode that I knew fitted the bill. I
asked a muso friend of mine who used to live in the area, and he said it was
owned by a guitarist called Shaun Kirkpatrick. I googled that name and
discovered that Shaun Kirkpatrick was in a rock band called Bronz. Although
it was an English band founded in Bath, they had most success in America. Sadly,
Shaun died in 2013, R.I.P. I found this in a tribute to him written by his wife
for a memorial service. ‘K is also for the Kirk in Wiltshire; one half a
home that he shared with Liz his first wife and the boys and the other half a
studio converted from a disused Baptist chapel. Van Morrison’s song ‘It’s so
quiet in here’ was inspired by his time working there.’
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| Shaun Kirkpatrick. |
I was really pleased to find that information. The parts of
the puzzle were starting to look like they fit. I am guessing that Shaun called
the building ‘The Kirk’ as a play on words of his name Kirkpatrick. However, I
still did not know which building in Rode it was. I joined a Facebook group for
Rode Village yesterday and asked if anybody could give me any info and a lady
from Rode kindly put up a photo of the Kirk. It is in Lower Street, Rode. The
mystery was solved, but there was one final twist. I found an obituary in the
Wiltshire Times for Shaun which said ‘Shaun Kirkpatrick, the guitarist with
Lucy La Stique, the popular rock band formed by musicians who met in Peewee’s
Real Ale Bar in Trowbridge, has died unexpectedly, aged 56. I was amazed at
that news because I used to frequent that pub and I remember seeing Lucy La
Stique playing in there. What a small world it is. I have shared a live video
of Van singing So Quiet In Here on this site if you would like to hear it.
