Marie Lacey

Marie Lacey Think Again 1979 Producer: Pete Yates-Round. Grapevine 133. A superbly produced showcase for this Northern Ireland singer. The album fuses pop, gospel, jazz and a bit of rock and roll to create the kind of high quality pop production that often eluded Grapevine and other Christian labels of the era. From the first notes of the first track, 'Perfect Submission', the album maintains its pace through to the end.

There are five songs of Marie's own composition, including the rocking Think Again.As on several other Grapevine albums these were copyrighted to Parchment Music. There are three songs by Danniebelle Hall - not a name I know.

Highlights include the up-tempo gospel 'I Go to the Rock' and the final track, Hall's reflective 'Like a Child'. Lyrically Marie's message is unsubtle. But she's a talented musician as well as being a singer-songwriter and features on the piano and the Fender Rhodes electric piano.

As well as producing, Pete Yates-Round joined Marie in doing the lively, Parchment-style backing vocals. And there are handclaps from folk-rock legends Reynard, who must have been in the studio producing Green Anthem, the album that preceded this on Grapevine.

Other information was difficult to find - and there is not a great deal on the sleeve. She's not in The Archivist but Crossrhythms has a page devoted to Marie Lacey who, apparently continues to be prominent in the region's worship scene.

40th anniversary

Next year is the 40th anniversary of the release of Light Up the Fire. There should be a celebration or an event some kind (John Pac?)

BBC4 is currently showing weekly editions of Top of the Pops from 1976, that is 35 years ago. It would be great if next year they slipped that back to 40 years and it was possible to pick up Parchment's filmed performance of the song - especially as nobody yet has come forward with any film of any kind of the band performing.

* I have done some research and sadly there seems little chance of episodes from September 1972 emerging. According to this site, just two episodes survive from the whole year.