Beam machine

På 25.3. & 26.3.2006 hadde vi æren å fremføre David Jackson's "Beam Machine" her i Bergen. David Jackson var i byen og han var tilstede under konstertene.


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Beam Machine @ Bergen
David, amogst space age chairs, during a rehearsal
Beam Machine @ Bergen
Fana Unge Musikteater I
Beam Machine @ Bergen
Fana Unge Musikteater II
Beam Machine @ Bergen
Ricardo is in control
Beam Machine @ Bergen
David busking at freezing point
Beam Machine @ Bergen
David, spotting the photographer
Beam Machine @ Bergen
David playing a great post-concert gig for us!
Beam Machine @ Bergen
"I can't stand still while playing" (quote DJ)

all pics ©sto03/2006
all pics for privat use only (...unless you ask me for permission)!



 

Følgende Text om "Beam Machine" er fra David's homepage.

Beam Machine*Star Messenger 2989*

I have one book of 14 songs for children called Beam Machine *Star Messenger 2989*.There is also a CD to accompany this. This is published by myself. It is a Space Story about planets with strange personality disorders! I do hope you enjoy this music and the Songs. It was a very big part of my life written over the years when I was a School teacher. I just did (in March) a great version in Ireland of this music with disabled children - although it was originally written for mainstream kids."

"Beamings !" (This is the traditional greeting of the Beam children or "Beamers". It is usually accompanied by the Beam salute: - horizontal, forward right arm movement with fingers becoming fully outstretched.)

Our story is set on Earth in the year 2989. It is about a very special anniversary space mission for the Beam Machine, to be called the STAR MESSENGER. Recent improvements in the Beam systems will allow this mission to visit several planets on their journey. This has never been possible before. What is more, there are reports that the peoples of several of the earlier colonised planets in the Greek Sector have strange personality disorders. A Crew with exceptional personal qualities will be needed. Hopefully, the members of the Star Messenger Mission will be able to identify the problems and put things right, before finally deciding where to settle and make their home.

It is exactly 1000 years since the very first Beam Machine left St Paul’s School in 1989. There have been countless other journeys to the stars in the intervening centuries, but up to now it has been impossible to leave an arrival planet once there. Because of the vast distances of space and time, it has also been impossible to have normal communications with "the colonies", so very little is actually known about what has happened to all of the Beam Children; except that they are still alive and have reached many different regions of our own galaxy. The famous Beam Foundation’s "Inter-Stella-Life-Detector" shows human life right across the Milky Way.

The Beam Machine uses the revolutionary FTG System - Focal Traction Gravity. This works by tuning the Laser Inferometer into the gravity of a far off star and simultaneously screening off any local, or other sources of gravity encountered on the way. The Beam Machine travels with the gravitons along a "gravity-beam", hence its name. The powerful Beam-Screens allow it to focus on even the minutes attractions found within our own galaxy. (So far, it has been impossible to travel further using this system. We can never, as yet, leave The Milky Way, restrictions of Permasnore survival being critical.)

Beam Machines are restricted to children because of the vast time needed for space travel. Biologists studying hibernation long ago discovered the secrets of "Permasnore" - a deep sleep process where ageing is slowed by 1/100. Only children can survive this. During the journeys, they attend "Dream-Beam-School" and are taught by computers all the knowledge they will need. Skipping real school is probably the main attraction for many of the usual Beam volunteers! Permasnore is suspected by psychologists to be the cause of personality disorders.

The original impetus for space travel was to escape a damaged, and thought to be dying, planet, but the Earth proved tougher and survived the mistakes of humans. As was shown by Lovelock in his Theory of Gaia, the Earth has metamorphosed countless times during its 4.6 billion years and always survived! However the threat of a giant meteorite can never be ruled out. There is also the knowledge that one day the sun will cool down. The imperative to conquer the stars has become the destiny of mankind. Nowadays, the ever growing population of Earth needs this opportunity for expansion. It is thought by many philosophers that the future evolution of mankind itself is dependent upon escape from the confines of Earth. Just as our intellect was once inspired and refined by astronomy, the challenges of other unknown worlds is expected to refine us beyond recognition. It is thought by some astrologers that exposure to the full effect of "the music of the spheres" will prompt the next metamorphic phase of human development. As Arthur C. Clarke predicted in Childhood’s End, it will be our children’s children’s children that will first realise the possibilities, and we will be unlikely to see it.

This Star Messenger Mission of the Beam Machine will become a test, or somewhat of an initiation rite, for each member of the crew. They will interact with the "natives" of the Greek Sector and behave in a manner to modify the obviously errant behaviour that has become the accepted norm. A small group of crew will interact with each planet and having inspired some miraculous sound therapy, and led wonderful singing, they will decide each time to leave. When the final planet Aggros has been healed by their interactions, the Crew will finally realise the cause of these strange personality problems:- it was a malfunction in Permasnore! Ulti-Mut (the Beam computer and ultimate scapegoat) will also inform them that good works, extra space travel and prolonged exposure to "the music of the spheres" has permanently altered their consciousness and mortality prospects. A hitherto impossible set of prospects is revealed:- they could escape the Milky Way altogether and depart for another galaxy, if they should wish to do so. Alternatively they could return to Earth, but to a different time from when they left - but risk losing their possible immortality! The children of the 2989 Beam Machine Star Messenger Mission will each have to make this momentous decision for themselves.