Seeing (and hearing) is believing?
Published: Tue, 01/29/13
Back in the 1970s and early 80s I used to watch Top of the Pops, as
did most of my generation. For a time there was some discussion as
to whether or not the bands featured played live or were in fact
just miming to a recording. The BBC wasn't saying publicly
that the performances were effectively faked so some people said
there was miming and some of us didn't really want to believe
it. Then, sometime around 1980 I watched an episode of TOTP and a
well known group, I am pretty sure it was Status Quo, were
performing. About a minute into the number the bass guitarist
stumbled over a cable and fell backwards into the drum kit., the
vocalist and lead guitarist almost collapsed laughing and, yes you
guessed it, the music continued completely uninterrupted. This
proved rather conclusively what the cynical minority had been
claiming, that indeed acts on Top of the Pops were mimed to a
backing track. Disappointing on one level but it was also very
funny.
I was reminded of this episode by the claims that Beyonce mimed
singing the Star Spangled Banner at the president's
inauguration last Monday. In this case the Marine Corps Band
confirmed that they were told that the singer was going to use a
pre-recorded vocal track. Apparently this has caused a certain
amount of controversy, imagine that, a political event when not
everything was quite what it seemed! Then later in the week David
Cameron mimed to a speech in which he is supposed to have said that
the British people will get a referendum on staying in or getting
out of the EU if there is a conservative government after the next
election. What, that was real? Well if you say so, and there was
a time when I thought Status Quo played live on Top of the Pops.
A lot of things are not quite what they seem to be. The term
conspiracy theory is very readily used against those who point out
inconsistencies and improbabilities in official narratives.
Sometimes those story lines unravel fairly quickly such as the
claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Sometimes it
takes a generation such as the Hillsborough football tragedy. Some
stories are surprisingly resilient or simply slip below the radar.
But truth is important, so if you have your doubts about a
particular narrative keep your eyes open, one day someone will
stumble into a metaphorical drum kit and the truth will be
confirmed one way or the other.
Ivar always told me that the purpose of Stav was to learn to see
reality clearly. Stav training does have that effect but it
isn't always comfortable seeing those things that some people
would prefer stayed hidden. Don't say you were not warned.
Next USA Stav course is on the 11th to the 13th of May in
Annapolis, MD. http://www.iceandfire.us/events/index.html