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Gavin Bryars Ensemble: Union Chapel, London

John Lewis, The Guardian, 19 October 2009

THIS OPENS a series of concerts raising money for Margins, a charity for London's homeless, and there's something grimly appropriate about tonight's choice of material. Gavin Bryars chose to perform his 1971 classic Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, based around a 26-second recording of a homeless man outside Waterloo Station. The unnamed tramp sings an improvised hymn, something that Bryars explains as showing "a belief in beauty against extraordinary adversity".

Total word count of piece: 295

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