Song picture
Big Bobs Water Music (Tresaith Song)
Like
Playlist
Comment Share
Album   $ - Name your price
Free download
Written for one of the memorable youth weeks held at Tresaith. Rev Bebb declares "No water in the building." Sadly Rev. Bebb passed away on November 30, 2023. Gone, but not forgotten. A wonderful man and faithful minister.
adrianjpratt tresaith revbebb nowater
Artist picture
Songwriter, Singer, Rock, Pop, Folk, Funk, Punk, Christian, Contemporary, 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's, 10s, 20s, covers, experiments, doodles and oodles of fun!
Introducing the greatest talent ever to emerge from the orange bedroom at my parents house. I play guitar like.... well, like a guy playing guitar. I tickle ivories. I twiddle on the computer. I sometimes enjoy beans on toast for breakfast. And in the cracks between the eating, sleeping, laughing, crying, working, breathing experience that is my life there sometimes slips out songs like these.
Song Info
Genre
Electronic • Dance
Charts
Peak #9
Peak in subgenre #2
Author
Adrian J Pratt
Rights
Adrian J Pratt 1989
Uploaded
December 31, 2023
Track Files
MP3
MP3 8.7 MB • 320 kbps • 3:49
Lossless
WAV 38.5 MB
Story behind the song
Big Bob’s Water Music (Tresaith Song) Back in the day a group of us would gather at the glorious Welsh Seaside location of Tresaith for a week of fun and fellowship. One of the champions of the week was the now retired Reverend Robert Bebb and his wife, Jackie. Robert was minister at Hoylake Presbyterian Church on the Wirral and later at Park End Presbyterian, in Cardiff. Among his other achievements he served for a while as the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Wales. But, for a small group of folk, he will always remain in their hearts as one of the leaders at Tresaith,Youth Holiday Fellowship, held at a Center sadly no longer a part of the Presbyterian Church of Wales mission. Here's a link to Rev Bebb talking about one of his favorite bible Verses: https://youtu.be/2HI_8Fzthek Robert was known for some of his phrases, that, in keeping us all in order, had to be repeated. One was “No water in the building.” Another, “I’m only going to say this once.” A major task each morning at any youth retreat is getting kids, who have stayed up way to late, out of bed. Quite often, at Tresaith, a piece of music would be blasted out to rouse them. A particular year came along, when, terror of terrors, the Bebbs were not going to be able to be in attendance. Fellow mimister Sion had the idea of recording Robert’s words on tape so as his presence would still be heard! One afternoon we traveled over to the manse in Hoylake and captured some of his immortal phrases. What to do with them? At that time, I had a small recording set up in a tiny room in the house we were living. I had obtained an Akai S700 Sampler, (For gear nerds one of Akai’s earliest 12-bit, 6 notes polyphony and precursor to the much better known S900 and S1000 models.) One thing it was good at doing was loading phrases that could be played, at varying pitches, across the keyboard. In went Rev Bebbs words of wisdom. I didn’t have a reel to reel deck at that time, so everything had to stay in the MIDI or digital domain (more nerd talk) but thanks to the wonder of Atari and Roland, I came up with a little ditty that became the “Wake Up” music for the year the Bebbs could not attend Tresaith. You would think that would be the end of the story. Just another song that became a legend in its own lunchtime. As the Internet became a place you could post music, it was a natural thing to put it out there for any who wanted to reminisce. I was incredibly surprised when a few years later, after moving to West Virginia, I received an email from a DJ somewhere in Asia, (Indonesia I think) asking for permission to use the song as part of the set he performed at Dance events. More recently I came across a graphic on Spotify that had to do with "Big Bob's Water Music" radio station. Seems that, for a while, Rev Bebb’s words went global. One of the beautiful things about music, of any style, is how it can take us back to relive happy memories of places and people. I can’t play this one without thinking of those wonderful days at Tresaith, and the folk who shared the experience. Good to still be in touch with many of them.
Comments
Please sign up or log in to post a comment.