Plague of Angels at York Minster: symphonic metal band set to play in sacred grade 1 listed cathedral. Guitarist Mark Mynett explains why there is no need for people to fear his art
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00:00Greetings and salutations, my name is Mark Minot, I am one of the guitarists in
00:05the band Plague of Angels, who have the distinct honour of playing York Minster
00:10on Friday 25th of April, becoming the world's first metal band to have ever
00:16played inside a Grade 1 listed building, which is a huge honour. We are
00:21collaborating with the legendary virtuoso that is David Pipe, who will be
00:26performing on York Minster's magnificent, awe-inspiring pipe organ, and I just want
00:33to take an opportunity to talk about the significance of this gig, not just from
00:38us as musicians, but for the wider community and how it relates to the
00:44preservation of valuable cultural heritage in the UK, which we're
00:51actually sleepwalking towards losing, and along the way I'll address some of
00:54the controversy and criticisms that the event has faced and received, notably
01:02through the Yorkshire Post. But firstly, it's important to say that music is
01:08about pushing boundaries and defying expectations and blending different
01:14influences, and that's especially the case for Plague of Angels. We're
01:18fascinated with the power and the aggression and the heaviness of metal
01:23music, but also the beauty and the emotive dynamics of orchestral music and
01:34classical music, and how those worlds can come together. We really aim to
01:40create a sound that is as heavy and aggressive as it is beautifully emotive,
01:47that those are one of the aims of the band, and that's certainly going to be a
01:53whole new level of doing that with the gig at York Minster and the following
01:57day at Huddersfield Town Hall. The performance really does first and
02:03foremost seek to celebrate the pipe organ and raise awareness of its
02:08significance and encourage the public to rediscover the sheer sonic beauty of the
02:13instrument. It's an incredible and incredibly versatile instrument. I
02:18remember witnessing a pipe organ for the first time when I was eight years old at
02:23Liverpool Cathedral with my dad, and it was absolutely mind-blowing. And we're
02:29sleepwalking towards losing all of the pipe organs in this country. We've got
02:33approximately four a week go to landfill, and a huge number of others are in a
02:39disrepair and just disintegrating. And it's really important that we
02:44retain this cultural heritage. So for us, it's not just a gig. We actually hope
02:50that the gig, the event rather, will be a meaningful statement about cultural
02:55innovation and heritage preservation. And it's also an effort to bridge
03:01generations. The last Plague of Angels gig that we did at St. Paul's Church in
03:06Huddersfield, it was the one that was recorded for The One Show, saw an age
03:11range of 8 to 88. And what was amazing was that there were loads of metalheads
03:16who experienced the pipe organ that I heard down the grapevine had gone to the
03:19next organ recital at Huddersfield Town Hall. And likewise, the fans of the pipe
03:26organ, longtime fans of the pipe organ, were really blown away and became
03:31converts of metal music. And I love that. I like that idea of engagement and, you
03:36know, across the generations. That's something that's really important. More
03:40than that though, regardless of your perspective on faith or otherwise,
03:46churches, it's something that Sir Michael Palin is leading the charge about. And he
03:51says that rather than just being for religious services, they should become
03:58centres of community life, especially for the disadvantaged, and really serve a
04:03purpose for the community. Saying that they should host food banks, become warm
04:08hubs, provide spaces where people can gather and feel connected. And at the
04:16same time, churches can be really important cultural venues, spaces for
04:21artistic expression and symbols of unity. And they should serve communities in
04:27innovative ways. And certainly, that's something that we want to bring to
04:34people's consciousness, is that there's 3,500 churches in this country lost in
04:41the last 12-13 years. There's another 800 on the at-risk register, and that's on
04:46top of all the pipe organs that we're losing in this country. We feel very
04:50strongly, again, that they should be there for serving the community.
04:56Otherwise, they're just going to close down. We're just going to lose all these
04:59really important parts of our cultural heritage in this country. Just as
05:05important, churches, and particularly cathedrals, have long been centres of
05:11cultural expression and innovation. All the way from Bach through to Handel, all
05:18the way through to Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, through all the choral
05:21music. They've always been centres of innovation. And from that perspective, to
05:27suggest that a metal concert, juxtaposed with the majesty of the pipe organ, is
05:32unworthy of a sacred space like York Minster, is totally ignoring the long
05:38history of artistic evolution through cathedrals. And there's another point to
05:46make here, is that there is some criticisms of this gig, where people have
05:53made suggestions that it's not a matter of taste, and I respectfully, completely
05:59disagree. There's a whole range of classical composers whose work has been
06:05quite at odds with the Church. I'll give you one example, Wagner. He was a renowned
06:13anti-Semite who felt that the Church was linked to the downfall of European
06:19civilisation. But the point is, is that most people wouldn't blink an eyelid at
06:24hearing Wagner in Church. Well, don't make the same judgements about Plague of
06:30Angels. You know, there's other, lots of other classical composers. There's
06:35Verdi, there's Berlioz, there's Liszt, Tchaikovsky, all of whom were once
06:39criticised for their music's perceived inappropriateness for a religious
06:46setting. And so, it's important to say that, you know, those value judgments
06:51should be taken out of the equation. At the heart of some of the objections about
06:57the gig, though, seems to be this tenuous connection between two members of Plague
07:02of Angels, and a band that they used to be involved with. A band that 30 years
07:08ago, released a deliberately provocative, offensive t-shirt. This is actually
07:15before our vocalist, Annabelle, was even born. She's, you know, she's just turned 30.
07:21You know, I guess some critics are focused on the distant past rather than the
07:24future. And while I totally understand that some may feel uneasy about this
07:30association, I want to be clear. The music and message of Plague of Angels is about
07:37fostering engagement and unity, and not division. And that's something that's
07:44really important, and it was something that the executive committee at York
07:50Minster very, very carefully vetted the band for. And if certain people making
07:58complaints about the gig, for example, Margaret Belton, I think it is,
08:05rather than speaking to people at the Minster to be reassured about the
08:09appropriateness of the venue, they've gone straight to the likes of the Yorkshire
08:13Post, which is quite a cowardly thing to do. And what I would say is, don't judge
08:20the event on things that you do not know about. You do not understand what the
08:27content of the performance is going to involve, which will be entirely aligned
08:34with the mission of the Cathedral and its purpose of bringing people together.
08:38It's going to be an incredible event. And last thing to say is that, oh yeah, for
08:44those of you who didn't get a ticket for York, we're playing the next night at
08:48Huddersfield Town Hall. I know there was a lot of people contacting us who were
08:51very disappointed the gig sold out within a matter of days. We're playing
08:55Huddersfield Town Hall the next day. Hope to see you there. Thanks for watching.