Dear Emmett and Yuta
thought you may like to see these few clips that have just come on line.
Love Nick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhzlqtWF ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvkLup-K ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFFv6ZeP ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASdmdzBdwJs

Thanks Nick for a great Sunday morning inspiration, and thanks to Jaap Kramer for posting this old Dutch videocast of "Iona" on YouTube. I don't believe I've ever heard a more ennobling Christian band - courage, freedom, honesty and selfless passion in those handsome faces.

I don't often hear a spirit of adventure in religious music, but this music stretches Celtic boundaries to New Worlds of expansive terrain. The vocalist is an absolutely beautiful woman with a forthright and expressive voice. The drummer phrases his battle plans with power and authority. The guitarist is the wild one, adding spice and sophistication to the melody. The sax sounds at times like "uillean" bagpipes and the lines are soaring and gliding.

And Nick on Stick with a flick of the wrist creates huge sound from bare bones. And those release gestures - Nick, you felt them even then in the mid '90s. Makes The Stick look good but entirely matches the music, the expression, and is somehow an integral part of your technique.

Where did all those beautiful faces and spirits go? I don't see them on TV or in L.A.

I'm sure you won't mind my sending this off to our two main Stick forums. Best Regards, Emmett.

This is, quite simply, superb live music. I was unfamiliar with this band's work. After listening to these and other Iona selections on YouTube, I will be purchasing some of their CDs - particularly the early ones. Thanks Emmett, Jaap, and Nick for posting this. The tragedy is, just as many have been dismissive of Nick as a musician solely because of his association with Kajagoogoo, many will again not experience superb examples of his singular talents because of his affiliation with a worship band. Blind bigotry is a b**ch......

...a band in which Nick played some truly amazing basslines... and in the Limahl-less incarnation Kaja, Sticklines as well!
The curse of the poodle-hair and make-up... another unsung hero is John Taylor of Duran Duran, a truly original bass player.

That was my question years before the internet was around. A local AM radio station from downtown Detroit did a short clip on them and played about half of one of their tunes. They claimed Iona was taking the US by storm. I asked several record shops in town about this new band from the UK called Iona, but no one knew what I was talking about. I forgot about them until I purchased an NS Stick some 15 years or so later and found this website, Twizzle brought up Iona, and I went looking again. I had also noticed the Iona credit on the Stick site under Artists/Nick Beggs. That lead me to Beggs' site and what albums to look for. Found "The Book of Kells" in a Borders in Ann Arbor, the only copy in the whole state. Fantastic music, some of the tunes go into a sort of obscure prog-rockish soundscape that reminds me of some of the old Yes albums like Relayer. (Just my opinion, some may disagree with me on that one)

With regard to religion, their lyrics remind me of some of the songs Loreena McKinnett wrote. More of a historical perspective from a time when pagan religions ruled the UK and monks worked in remote outposts like Iona and other islands. There are those that credit those monks for saving Christianity from extinction. According to Iona's website, those historical influences and actual visits to the island is where their inspiration is coming from. Quite different from what we see in religious music here in the US.