Dance of Death on the Lagan.
Lagan Legacy’s dutch barge MV Confiance is the setting for a music film by Tubular Bell’s producer Tom Newman.The story was published in the Belfast Newsletter.
Sarabande for Submariners.
Article published in Belfast Newsletter. 1.02.2007
When the ninety five thousand ton Deutsche Shell super tanker Myrina was launched on the Lagan in 1967 she was too big for fitting out in Belfast. So the vast vessel journeyed to Hamburg for her finishing touches. A former U Boat commander skippered the voyage on behalf of her German owners and a team of Harland and Wolff shipyard workers were on board. En route to Germany the ex submarine commander proudly pointed out the places where his U boat had torpedoed allied ships. The Harland and Wolff men weren't at all amused at his blatant arrogance and superlative lack of diplomacy.
On the Lagan on Sunday, a short distance from the Myrina's slipway, half a dozen submarine commanders danced a death waltz in the dark hold of a barge; a disconcerting vision that would have severely interrupted the commander's heartbeat had he been in the vicinity.
A dead mariner
The intensely sombre depiction was beautiful, harrowing, disturbing. It was the conclusion of a decade of creative thought and composition by record producer and part time mariner Tom Newman. Tom put together Mike Oldfield's hugely successful Tubular Bells album and has worked with a galaxy of pop stars; he now divides his time between various recording studios and a charity called Pirates for Peace based on a Minesweeper in Carlingford Lough. He's currently finishing off Tubular Bells Three, performed by hundreds of young people from Northern Ireland.
On Sunday he was filming his latest composition "Sarabande for Submariners" on Lagan Legacy's Dutch barge Confiance. A sarabande I have since discovered is a slow dance in triple metre with a distinctive rhythm of crotchet and minim in alternation. You learn something Newman every day! Tom visited a former U Boat base on the eastern sea board of France ten years ago and began thinking about submarines. "They're mankind's most sneaky invention," he believes "They completely lack any kind of chivalry whatsoever and they're something history shouldn't be proud of." I asked Tom if he was a pacifist. "Yeh, yeh, I'm a pacifist. And I'm not taking sides. Warfare by whoever is wrong." He continued to philosophise about submarines. "They're warfare by remote control. Since war became technical you didn't have to face your enemy. In a submarine you don't have to see your enemy's eyes before you kill them." An enigmatic variation on his theme evolves from his love of ships; Tom considers today's vast submarines with hundreds of crew to be technically mind bending and he'd love to experience their underwater manoeuvres. He translated his thoughts into music, and "Sarabande for Submariners" evolved.
Sunday's filmed performance was acted out by members of a Belfast drama group called Knights of the Round Table. Their normal venue is the Pavilion Bar on the Ormeau Road but they transformed the Confiance's hold into a scene described by Newman as "a kind of a purgatory where submarine captains have to dance with their victims for a few thousand years." His intention was to show the extremes that man can go to; making beautiful music, yet capable of sneaking up on a ship full of innocent people and blowing them all to their deaths. "It's no fun drowning in burning diesel!" he added, which was obvious, but I'd never thought of it that way. "All my music is written with a visual image," he explained, "as soon as I saw the Confiance I knew it would be perfect. A great big empty cavernous space would be the sort of place purgatory would be carried out." In his film the commanders' eyes are wide with fear as they clutch at the steel hull in ghastly slow motion, flailing, falling, grasping at an immeasurable mid distance, dancing their slow death jig that will never ever end. Waltzing with their victims, silently screaming, surreal submariners. Yet the music is beautiful; harmonious and evocative punctuated by echoing wails of eerie agony.
The Confiance's motto is "a cargo of culture"; she's on a static voyage of artistic discovery. Sunday was her christening; the first of a varied programme of events and exhibitions. While she rose slowly on the tide, gently rolling with the submariners' sarabande, she seemed to know that she was floating on one of the world's most creative waterways.
The dance of death in progress on the MV Confiance.
Two dead submariners.
Tom Newman looks into the hold of MV Confiance
The full cast and crew in front of MV Confiance after a successful shoot.