2018 marked the 40th anniversary of the launch of Plankton Records by a young singer and guitarist Simon Law in order to release the “Mirrored Dreams” vinyl LP by his (then) band Sea Stone. And in November 2018 we had a fantastic 40th Anniversary concert in East London to mark the occasion
Almost one year on and 2019 marks another important anniversary for Plankton’s founding partner as the end of September marks the 50th anniversary of Simon’s decision to become a Christian. “It was the most important decision of my life” says Simon “and one that really steered the direction of the rest of my life from the point on and up to the present day… and on into the future too!”
“Music and using it to communicate to others has always been a passion of mine so I wanted to mark the occasion with a concert of some kind, but not just a normal type of gig. Then I got to thinking about what other landmark events had also happened in 1969. The moon landing and the Woodstock festival were 2 obvious ones that came to mind and then there were other things more close to home such as my team Manchester City winning the FA Cup and my friend Graham Claydon became a priest. Graham was an important influence in my early years of being a Christian and remains a dear friend to this day. And the Youth Praise 2 song book was published. This was an import book for me as it included songs written for people of my age and it gave me songs that me and my band could perform before I had written any songs of my own”
“So, I’m putting on this 50th Celebration evening in my church at St Gabriel’s in Pitsea to celebrate my 50 years of being a Christian and I thought we’d start the evening by singing some of the songs from Youth Praise 2 together. It will be great to give them an airing again and it will give me a chance to acknowledge this important time in my life and the people who were in and around our youth group in Walthamstow. Then we are going to have a band gig with a difference. Steve Gale, who’s played bass with me in our band FRESH CLAIM since the late 1990s is joining me on stage with our sons – my son Issac and his son Matthew. Both of them play drums and Matthew also plays some keyboard. So that will be like ‘Fresh Claim & Sons’. And then, to close the evening, for those people who want to join me we will be holding Night Prayers in the Church from 10.00pm”
We know its going to be a joyful and fun time on the 28th and obviously we will be joining Simon to celebrate, reflect and remember together.
