The first time I met Victor Francis was at a prayer meeting in the early ’90s. Little did I know then the profound impact he would have on me and some of my music friends who happened to stumble upon the same youth group. Unassuming, he let me get involved with the music ministry and shadowed many of the activities I chose to follow. If I had known then that Victor was a professional musician, had recorded in sessions (with chart success), performed with world-class artists and was the drummer of a well-respected band (Vibrations) perhaps I wouldn’t have been so full of myself. However, humble as he was, many of his accomplishments went unnoticed to me. That is until I became more involved in music and began to understand more about the industry. That’s when he started opening up. The thing with small towns is that us small fish think we’re bigger than we are. Victor was a giant fish; he just hid it well and allowed us, kids, to do our thing. Looking back, I realise now just how lucky we were. And so thirty years later Victor and I found ourselves working on an album long in the making.
The genesis of the album goes back to the time of the late Bishop Caruana. Actually, it goes back further, to when Bishop Caruana was Mgr Caruana. At that time, Victor had about a dozen worship songs that were used weekly at various prayer meetings and masses. Mgr Caruana suggested that Victor should record them. Interestingly local artists recorded some of Victor’s songs back then. One of the prayer groups faithfully recorded a number of his songs and distributed it on CD too. However, about ten years later, Father Charlie (now Mgr Azzopardi) had the idea of cataloguing more of Victor’s music, in the way Bishop Caruana had asked. Being my spiritual director at the time, Fr Charlie approached me and asked about the possibility. Fortunately, nothing came of it then. It took a few more years, and a good conversation with Richard Gomila, to spark off the project and turn it into what it became.
Richard and I had spoken about a ‘Victor’ album while working together at Bayside School. But it was only after my return from the Franciscan University of Steubenville (2016), that we sat down to discuss it formerly. We both had similar ideas; we both had a similar working method and shared the same vision for Victor’s songs. Once we’d decided on committing to the project, we kidnapped Victor and told him the plan. Victor said yes, and we got to work.
One of the most important things we had going for the project was the Franciscan community’s prayers, and the masses said by Fr Charlie and other priest friends. And boy did we need the prayers! Our work was interrupted by outboard equipment suddenly becoming faulty, my computer system failing, sound interfaces dying, time restraints, scheduling issues, and many more matters. Thankfully, the prayers helped, as did a lot of hard work by dedicated friends coming together to honour Victor out of love.
Truth is everyone we asked to help in this project said yes as soon as we mentioned whose music we were recording. You see, Victor has spent his whole life helping everyone whoever needed help. Musically, he has performed with, lent equipment to, tutored, advised, and encouraged a few generations of musicians. This is one way some of these musicians could get together to say thank you to Victor. Moreso, many of those involved had sung Victor’s songs at mass or their prayer group. Victor’s music had accompanied many of us on our journey of faith. His music had formed part of our prayers. Imagine that.
In my next blog, I will talk about some of the processes we used to record the songs.
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