from Richard Jeffrey-Gray: Still proud that I wrote the music for the last flight. A BBC commission. A little doggerel in the words but I wasn't going to give away half the royalties after I had conceived the thing. We felt the wheels of this last plane when still warm for the last time. Privilege. Then Prince Andrew slapped me on the back and said "terrific, well done". Wasn't expecting it so grunted at him. Trying to collapse me music stand, see. Was busy. That's the knighthood gone then. Perhaps the work articulates a transition from a manufacturing based, world beating nation to one based on heritage (a thought evolved in retrospect, of course) - where the only drivers of economy left are heritage or retail driven. A scenario where banks collapse, are immoral and untouchable and railway sidings are silent. Perhaps my elegaic tub thumping is a voice for this post-industrial era. You decide. A hopeful and grateful feeling was what I was aiming for, a sonic boom (which is orchestral) and the desire to fly as components of the work. Not a requiem so much. Luckily I could recycle a tune for the wedding in "Two Noble Kinsmen" I had used at the Old Vic (hence the two voices in the texture for the first part). I also used the tune for a funeral of a child and was able to tell the parents that this tune would be heard all over the world. That's what music and art is all about and what it's for. A window through which we see an alternative reality, I think someone said. The brief for the work was to evoke a mixture of the styles of Elgar and John Williams...and that the second section was simple enough for people to join in. So a hymn-like second section with the orchestration saving the monotony, twisting its way to articulate the words. A little miffed that the mix I could have done better given more time, but it had to be out quickly. Over 120 tracks in the end - big orchestra, hundreds of singers from 8-80 and probably beyond. Clifton Cathedral Choir and the Community at large. With over eighty thousand live audience and worldwide TV and with so many great people to help see the vision through, and all with my grateful thanks...here it is for better or worse :)