Stephen Fearing Music

These shots are from Denmark, just outside of Præsto, where MC Hansen (Sentimentals) lives. I stayed in Præesto for a few days and visited the nearby Fanefjord Kirke (portions of which date back to the mid 1200’s) to see the famed wall paintings. Denmark is a fairly secular country but has exquisitely beautiful churches (and cemeteries!) maintained by the state for the use of the population at times when one wants to be close to one’s spirituality - “hatch, match, despatch… etc” (an interesting concept and so Danish). Before the reformation, Denmark was Catholic, but sometime around 1535, King Christian III adopted Lutheranism as the state religion, dissolved the Catholic Church, confiscated its vast properties (imagine!!) and, well, changes were made… including whitewashing over these weird and wonderful paintings in Fanefjord Kirke. They were rediscovered in 1927 and have been painstakingly restored.

More pictures from Stirling, Scotland. Whilst walking about, we noticed that many of the doorways had carvings above them - a form of early advertising “The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker…” The final ones are from a boys club and these two inscriptions made me laugh “Play the game” and “Keep on smiling.” Good advice for any era.