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International Star Wars Day!

On International Star Wars Day, Warwick Davis reads our on this day in history, super fan Keith Guppy on his 拢70,000 movie memorabilia and listeners play the film's theme live.

On International Star Wars Day, Warwick Davis reads our on this day in history, which he recorded live on the set of the new movie out in December. Super fan Keith Guppy tells us about his 拢70,000 worth of Star Wars memorabilia, plus young listeners across Great Britain play the film's theme on their chosen instrument down the phone. Today's show is entitled courtesy of Yoda: Do. Or do not. There is no try!

2 hours, 59 minutes

Music Played

  • Depeche Mode

    Just Can't Get Enough

    • Me Without You O.S.T. - Various.
    • Columbia.
  • Lady Gaga

    The Cure

    • (CD Single).
    • Interscope.
  • The Wannadies

    You And Me Song

    • Hollywood Cool (Various Artists).
    • Virgin.
  • David Bowie

    Young Americans

    • David Bowie - Best Of Bowie.
    • EMI.
  • Blossoms

    Blown Rose

    • Blossoms.
    • Virgin EMI.
    • 007.
  • The Beatles

    Lady Madonna

    • The Beatles - 1.
    • Apple.
    • 020.
  • Paramore

    Hard Times

    • After Laughter.
    • Fueled By Ramen.
  • Madonna

    Vogue

    • Finally Enough Love (Deluxe Edition).
    • Rhino.
  • Just Jack

    Starz In Their Eyes

    • (CD Single).
    • Mercury.
  • The Everly Brothers

    All I Have to Do Is Dream

  • Harry Styles

    Sign Of The Times

    • (CD Single).
    • Columbia.
  • Lorde

    Green Light

    • (CD Single).
    • Virgin EMI.
  • Taylor Swift

    Shake It Off

    • (CD Single).
    • Big Machine.
    • 1.
  • Rag鈥檔鈥橞one Man

    Skin

    • (CD Single).
    • Columbia.
  • The Killers

    When You Were Young

    • (CD Single).
    • Mercury.
  • Blackstreet

    No Diggity (feat. Dr. Dre & Queen Pen)

    • (CD Single).
    • Interscope.
  • 搁耻苍鈥怐.惭.颁. vs Jason Nevins

    It's Like That

    • (CD Single).
    • Columbia.
  • Jamiroquai

    Space Cowboy

    • (CD Single).
    • Sony Soho Square.
  • Michael Bolton

    Cupid

    • (CD Single).
    • Frontiers Records.
  • Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders

    Game Of Love

    • The Greatest Hits Of 1965.
    • Premier.
  • Wilson Pickett

    Mustang Sally

    • Atlantic Rhythm & Blues - Vol 6: 1966.
    • Atlantic.
  • Thomas Rhett

    Craving You (feat. Maren Morris)

    • (CD Single).
    • Big Machine Label Group.
  • Jake Bugg

    Lightning Bolt

    • (CD Single).
    • Mercury.
    • 1.
  • Imelda May

    Should've Been You

    • (CD Single).
    • Decca.

Pause For Thought

Pause For Thought

From Nick Baines, the Bishop of Leeds:

It鈥檚 funny what floats up to the surface of the memory when you鈥檙e bored. I was stuck on聽a train the other day and the words I couldn鈥檛 get out of my head were the repeated cry聽of a poet three thousand years ago: 鈥淗ow long, O Lord, how long?鈥 Now, I guess his plight was more existentially challenging than mine; but, they were the words I couldn鈥檛 shake off.聽

A bit like the blues, really.聽

I well remember sitting in my car on holiday listening to Eric Clapton鈥檚 album Pilgrim. I was haunted by one song in particular, which went by the miserable title of River of聽Tears. That perfect combination of weeping guitar and a voice wrenched from the depths聽of the heart tore through my soul. It still does nineteen years later.

What is it about the blues that cuts through the rubbish and distractions of a busy mind and brings tears to the eyes? The other day I was driving through the Yorkshire Dales on a gorgeous sunny day - someone has to do this job - listening to the new Imelda May album, written after her divorce and coloured by the sadness of loss. Where did my tears come from?

I think what鈥檚 going on here is quite simple - and common. Life is a rollercoaster of joy and sadness, hope and despair, creativity and loss. We all know what it鈥檚 like to run through the daily routine only to have it disturbed by unwelcome news or worse. We discover that we are not in control after all and that we are more fragile than we thought we were. It鈥檚 as if the veneer of self-sufficiency is stripped away and the rawness of reality exposed.

And that鈥檚 why the blues get straight through the skin and move the heart. It鈥檚 why the words of the poet, the Psalmist, offer a vocabulary for when words fail us: how long, O Lord, how long? And, I think, we can find amid the pain that we are never alone in this experience - that it isn鈥檛 to be feared - that even God cries out in cross-shaped grief.

Or, in the words of Imelda May: 鈥淚鈥檓 damned if I show it but I can鈥檛 shake this feeling away.鈥

Broadcast

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