"Going to the Army!" - Marc Harry's Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Had things gone to plan: then today – Tuesday 15th April 2025 I would have been preparing myself for one of my favourite events of the year.
 
Each Holy Week for quite some years now the Band and Songster Brigade from Lincoln Salvation Army here in the UK have presented an evening of reflective music for Easter.  The music chosen has usually been interspersed with bible readings and poetry written for and about the events of Holy Week leading up to, and including Good Friday.  Some years we have had a featured soloist as well to add to the evening.

Over the past few weeks, however, my health has not been too good.  The stresses of life, despite my general happiness in life, have exacerbated some health conditions that changed my life a great deal some 20 years ago – conditions that, as these recent days have proven, are still capable of coming back and haunting me from time to time.
 
 So, despite the preparations that we had made and the posters and leaflets produced to invite people to the event it has not been possible to go ahead THIS YEAR – let’s hope things can return to normal in plenty of time for 2026.

In the meantime, however, I thought - why not use the music chosen for this year, some used in previous years and some other items  from our wonderful Salvation Army heritage to produce a Holy Week programme of reflective music that can be enjoyed by many, many more listeners than our SA hall could hold – and, what’s more enjoyed and blessed by time and time again!

To mark the TENTH anniversary of the very first GttA podcast in July 2013 this is the first of a very special 4-part series of podcasts featuring music from each decade of the Army's existence right up to the present day.

The Salvation Army began - as The Christian MIssion - in 1865 when William Booth preached outside The Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel, East London.  Spreading throughout the whole of England, Wales and Scotland in its first decade it became The Salvation Army in 1878, Booth taking on the mantle of the General of his army.

Within 25 years, as we hear in this episode, 60,000 Salvationists could gather together at the Crystal Palace for a Silver Jubilee and today, 158 years after those humble beginnings the Army is at work in over 130 countries, right round the world.

This episode uses music with its origins in the earliest 40 years of the movement's history 1865-1905, a surprising amount of which is still known and occasionally used in the present day.  We hear music from writers such as Richard Slater, George Scott Railton, Kate and Herbert Booth (two of the Founder's children) and William Pearson as well as, of course, popular tunes of the day 'adopted and adapted' for the Army's mission a-plenty.

Some of the music has been adapted by well-known composers like Ray Steadman-Allen, Norman Bearcroft and Leslie Condon and sections featured include the ISB and ISS, Hendon, Portsmouth, Stockholm and Boscombe Bands, songster brigades from Birmingham and Moonee Ponds, Sydney Australia and a stellar collection of soloists including Susan Turner, Fred Crowhurst, Kaytie Harding and Ian Johnston - not to mention Commissioner John Lawley himself!

Enjoy this opportunity to transport yourself back in time to hear music and words with a relevance to the present age.

God bless you all.
Marc 

To mark St David's Day there is a distinctly Welsh flavour to the meeting this evening.

Some of the very greatest hymn tunes ever and some beautiful traditional Welsh melodies including 'David  of the White Rock', Suo Gan and Gwahoddiad.

Musical items from Cardiff Canton Band and Singing Company, Morriston Corps and soprano soloist Joy Naylor.

All wrapped in the wonderful message of Christ's salvation!  What more could you want?

When David wrote Psalm 51 he seemed to be asking for a New Testament forgiveness - hundreds of years before it became a 'thing'!

Ashamed and horrified by his sinful behaviour he opened his heart to God and begged to be given another chance.  According to Jewish Law, the only way he could achieve this was through making a sacrifice, a burnt offering to God - yet he realised that this was NOT what God wanted at all.  David asked to be purged of all evil, washed whiter than snow - as if by Jesus blood!  How amazing is that!

This week's meeting has the aim of bringing us all closer to God - for each of us to claim that 'washing' in Christ's blood - to be made more and more like Jesus with every day we live.

Songs include: 'Whiter  than the snow', 'To Be Like Jesus' and 'All My Work is for the Master'.  Music comes from the International Staff Songsters (Moment by Moment), Portsmouth Citadel Singing Company (Hand me down my Silver Trumpet) and the Boscombe Band with one of the very best of Salvation Army marches - Rosehill (there's even the chance to join in with that great chorus 'In the Army Ranks are We')

Join me for an hour of praise, worship, reflection and re-dedication.

Hallelujah!!

This week's meeting is based on a 2 word phrase that God spoke to me a few years ago - so clearly it may as well have been though my hi-fi speakers:

TRUST ME

Simple?  Well, not as simple as it sounds...but great advice all the same!

But it's a message not just for us as individuals - I BELIEVE IT'S ALSO A MESSAGE FOR THE CHURCH - as we step out into a world that has largely forgotten and ignored its Christian roots.

Music from Norwich Citadel Band, the ISB, National Songsters, Melbourne Veterans Band, Shirley Singing Company, the Royal Albert Hall and Butlins and some great songs to sing along with too!

This week's Meeting for Fortress Radio - the 52nd in my series - has a very special guest speaker - Capt Nicholas J. Samuel - CO at the London (Ontario) Corps in Canada.  You may know his name also as a well-known SA composer of band and songster music.

He reads from and speaks about Judges 2 - with insight about a wandering people and their relationship with an ever-faithful God.

Some great songs (And Can It Be?  To the Hills and music from the International Staff Songsters, Clydebank Singing Company, Excerpt from a RAH festival, Portsmouth Citadel and Enfield Citadel Bands - and much more!

Tired of the same old promises to change?  Still biting your nails?  Not losing weight...again?

The world needs more from Christians than trivial changes like these - it needs us to create a REVOLUTION!  If ever this world needed the knowledge of its loving Saviour, Jesus Christ then it needs is right now - it needs the PEACE of Christ, the LOVE of Christ, the HEALING POWER of His Holy Spirit.

Tonight's meeting reflects on the WONDER of Christmas - the MAJESTY of God, the AMAZING world and universe in which we are privileged to live.and the fact God should send His own Son to be the ANSWER to all mankind's problems.

Songs include:Praise My Soul, How Excellent is Thy Name, In The Love of Jesus, In this Quiet Moment and 'Send the Fire' while there is also music from the International Staff Band and Songsters, Sunbury Junior Singers and American Salvationist Major Albert Avery.

Start a revolution in YOUR life this year - for GOD'S sake!

The theme for the meeting tonight proclaims Jesus as 'The Light of the World'.

At this time of Advent  I am always made acutely aware of the aptness of Joy Webb';s beautiful song 'Come Into Our World'.  Yes, of course it is really HIS world but, as the song alludes 'men have forgotten Him and how to pray'.

Certainly, if EVER this dark world needed a light it is NOW...if ever it needed JESUS - it needs Him now.

We often think this is the job of professional preachers, church leaders and the very keenest and bravest of our fellow Christians - but that is not so:  if WE do not take Jesus into this world ourselves then there is no-one else TO do it!

Sit back and enjoy an hour of real Salvation Army worship and music - some great songs and music from the International Staff Band and Songsters, The German Staff Band, The Southern Chorus, The Sunbury Junior Singers, The Three Sopranos, Richard Phillips and the cast of Jesus Folk and a very real challenge for us all

God bless you all!

"Going to the Army!" is a podcast series featuring Salvation Army music. This 39th Episode is for November 2021 and continues the "Going to the Army!" ministry, which is now in its 8th year of broadcasting. 

This time we have the first part of a 2 episode 'special' using the music of American composers and recognizing the wonderful contribution they have made to Salvation Army Music over many, many years. 

As always, it features bands, songsters, soloists, a massed item from the Royal Albert Hall, and soloists including Derick Kane, Olaf Lundgren, Phil Cobb and Al Avery - all sharing with us music from the vast Salvation Army repertoire.


Composers featured in part one include James Curnow, William Himes, Erik Leidzen, William, Bruce and Bill Broughton, Stephen Bulla, Emil Soderstrom, Stanley Ditmer, William Gordon - and more!  I hope you enjoy this 'Star-Spangled' selection!


Originally begun for just a few friends and family members GttA has become SO MUCH MORE than that. The Episodes and 'specials' have been listened to or downloaded HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of times in all continents and more than 50 countries throughout the world - and has been played to even more by listeners who share them with family, church shut-ins and other friends who do not have access to the internet.


This new podcast continues the ever-growing ministry of GttA around the world and features both new songs and pieces and others that have been well-loved and very well-blessed for many years throughout the Salvation Army World. I am particularly grateful to people who send me requests for items they would like featured on GttA. 


"Going to the Army!" has also grown far more than I ever envisaged or even hoped! As a result we have needed to upgrade the hosting service on Podomatic many times and the renewal costs are now quite substantial - however donations to this ministry have been generously made and continue - particularly as a result of a recent JustGiving appeal. I am hoping to complete work on a new, purpose-built stuidio to continue and expand my ministry further in the coming days.



Any further donations to this ministry are gratefully received and my be sent via PayPal through the link on the right hand side of the podcast's main page at: www.goingtothearmy.podomatic.com The "Going to the Army" Facebook group recently passed 4,100 members from all around the world. "They shall come from the East, They shall come from the West and sit down in the Kingdom of God". Hallelujah! 




Much of the featured music is from my own transfers of old SA LPs, 78s and cassettes but some CD and original recordings are also included. Presented by lifelong Salvationist musician and actor Marc Harry this podcast features music by bands, songsters, singing companies and soloists. In addition, background information about the music, the Salvation Army and the presenter's own experiences are included. 




Feedback is welcomed - as are requests for songs/pieces that can be considered for future podcasts. - either here, on this page or to goingtothearmy@marcharry.com

A theme question for the meeting tonight may well be something along the lines of ‘Are You Weary’?  It’s that time of year again, isn’t it?  Half way between our summer holidays and Christmas, the weather - in the UK, at least, is turning colder and most of us have resorted to putting our heating on - at home and in our  Army Halls, the trees have turned that wonderful myriad of colours between yellow, red and brown and we’ve pulled our winter coats out of the wardrobe…yes, it’s definitely autumn out there, friends and, with it – for me at least – always comes a sort of mental weariness as if we just can’t wait for this period of a few weeks to pass – and Advent to start – never mind the endless Christmas Carolling that goes with it!
 
Sit back and enjoy an hour of real Salvation Army worship and music - some great songs and music from the International Staff Band, Brisbane Divisional Fellowship Band, Portsmouth Citadel Songsters and the Household Troops Band.

Proceed into a new covenant with Jesus - asking Him to let you 'rest your weary soul in Him' and we will truly be better placed to turn this old world upside down!

God bless you all!