In 2004, during one of Frank Farrelly’s workshops,
to my surprise, I discovered that he had written a second book entitled
“Me and God”. This was the good news. The bad news was
it had only been published in German! I began discussing with Frank
the idea of producing an English audio version of “Me and God”
and was pleasantly surprised by his obvious enthusiasm, so we agreed
a recording date for May 2005.
As the recording date loomed closer, and I began
to make preparations with my first call being to my old friend and
fellow recording expert Pete Kelly. Pete is a gifted musician and
producer in his own right and has an eye for detail that I could only
dream of. We had worked together over the years on a number of projects
and it was Pete who in less that ten minutes convinced me that the
future of recording was in using computers rather than tape.
If you have ever worked or recorded in a studio,
you will know that regardless of the most careful planning, the final
result is ultimately down to the ability for the artist to perform
on any given day. I found myself wondering just how well Frank would
at 73 years old be able to cope with the thirty-seven chapters, consisting
of 37,000 words.
On the first day as Pete called for the very first
take, we both looked at each other, hoping that Frank would quickly
find his pace and relax into delivering his story.
We soon realised that we needn’t have worried.
Frank is like the Ernest Shackleton of therapy, in that once he sets
his mind on achieving something, there really is no stopping him!
I had allowed a total of eight days for the project
and had anticipated that the entire recording would be around six
hours once edited. Previous experience had taught me to allow a minimum
of one full day for each fully edited hours work. I had also considered
best and worst case scenarios from this session. The absolute best-case
scenario would be that we completed the entire project including artwork
in the allotted time. The worst-case scenario would be that Frank
would need to return to the studio in November prior to presenting
his workshop in Leeds.
On the first day we completed the first fourteen
chapters comprising of some 11,000 words! Pete was not familiar with
Frank’s work and could barely contain his laughter as he heard
Frank’s stories of his interactions with the nuns. Anyone who
has seen Frank in a workshop situation will realise that he has an
extraordinary tonal range and an excellent ear. Both of these abilities
were ably demonstrated throughout the recording sessions.
Our normal recording day would consist of starting
the session at 10.30am and recording until around 2pm. We would then
usually break for lunch after which Pete would return to his own studio
to edit the morning session. Back at Clara studios Frank and my wife
Sue would then listen to the previous day’s edits. In the evening
we would usually go out for dinner to mostly Italian restaurants and
discuss Provocative therapy, movies and all manner of other subjects.
When we returned to the house, we would then watch a movie of choice
on our home cinema set-up until around 2pm! Fortunately our taste
in movies was very similar and I was pleased to find a number of films
Frank had not seen. These included Luc Besson’s “Joan
of Arc” and “Open Range” with Robert Duvall and
Kevin Costner and Tombstone.
For a few moments one evening, I pondered upon the
concept of a Frank Farrelly audio commentary for a series of westerns!
Of course it should be no surprise that such a superb teller of stories
would also be an admirer of other people’s excellent tales.
During a break on the third day I recorded an interview
with Frank for www.nlpmp3.com on various aspects of his work including
his interactions with Carl Rogers and the history of Provocative Therapy
dating from the early 1960s. Frank commented that Carl’s view
was that Frank would “never make a dent on the old guard”
but rather would have a better response from new up and coming therapists.
Of course many NLP trainers and practitioners have
heard of Frank, but fewer have been fortunate enough to see him in
a workshop situation where you can appreciate just how big an influence
he was on the creation of NLP.
On the fifth day we began final editing. What some
people forget is that when you record an audio book its important
to listen closely to the entire recording, which in this case was
close to five hours in length. A good friend of Frank’s, Noni
from Germany, who had been involved in the production of the original
book, finally located the preface to the book and a copy of a 1937
picture of all the entire Farrelly family, depicted in the book and
was kind enough to e-mail a copy to us.
On day 5 we organised the artwork for the project
and we contrasted the Farrelly family picture from 1937 with one of
Frank and myself in the studio. My good friends Karl and Darren at
RRS Music in Leeds worked tirelessly to produce some initial copies
of the CD set before Frank departed to Germany. Both of them remarked
on how good the audio quality is, which is the highest compliment
you can get from sound engineers. We recorded all the speech in 32bit
resolution using SE tube microphones, which produce really superb
fidelity. The recording was done mostly in single takes with no additional
reverb or effects added to the audio material.
“Me and God” is a fascinating book of
stories from Frank’s early life up to the age of sixteen. My
view is that the book is an excellent treatise on all human relationships
from the personal to the cosmological and divine. The book also gives
a good insight into how Frank’s family life was undoubtedly
a major influence on the creation of Provocative Therapy. Frank’s
unique humour is evident throughout this work and this humour is also
reflected in the choice of chapter titles, my favourite being “How
I almost lost my immortal soul with a protestant heretic girl one
night at a drive-in movie” and “The Crucifixion and the
burning at the stake”
On the eighth day Frank departed for a well-deserved
holiday in Venice with 5 sets of CDs. The “Me and God”
recording sessions gave me an excellent opportunity to see one of
the great masters of communication up close. Whether you love a great
story or are simply interested in learning more about the creator
of Provocative Therapy, then check out the “Me and God”
set of CDs and prepare for a magical ride into the mercurial world
of Frank Farrelly!
“Me and God” is exclusively available
from Human Alchemy online at www.human-alchemy.com.
The first chapter of the book is available as a free mp3 download
from www.nlpmp3.com.
