The Light Returns (The First Light Song)

Submitted by: John W.

During Lockdown, I was commissioned by First Light Festival to write a song for Lowestoft, Britain’s most easterly town, to be sung by community groups and choirs. It celebrates the solstices, plots its rich maritime history and references landmarks e.g. The Ness – the most easterly point, the ‘scores’ that run from the old cliff top down to the beach and the 750,000 year-old Palaeolithic flints, evidence of ancient humans, found in the cliffs. Invoking the atmosphere of the dawn, its optimistic message of hope and continuity looks to a time when we can all be together again.

Recorded live on the clifftop in Pakefield Church before the 2nd Lockdown, the video was launched by First Light on YouTube for the winter solstice and features versions by a community choir and local shanty group.