The C on stage

Among the little known aspects of life in the Vatican (at least to outsiders) is the regular Sunday night concert given by the revolving members of the official Vatican band, The Holy See. "The C," as everyone there knows it, has been led by each Holy Father in turn through a half-dozen papacies.

In various eras it has been mainly a calypso band, a hard-rock band, a rock-jazz-fusion band, and even for a time a Texas swing band. These days, if you weren't paying attention, you might think Carlos Santana was leading it.

Almost every week there are guest appearances, usually though not always by other clerics. Among the guest musicians have been several Archbishops of Canterbury, two Archbishops of Cyprus, the Very Rev. Desmond Tutu and even, for several years off and on, Oral Roberts himself. Roberts is legendary for his performance of a c&w version of Let It Heal, a song he learnt as a boy at summer camp. Bill Clinton famously showed up once with his saxophone but he was perceptibly drunk and was asked to leave.

In the 1980s, Tom Lehrer, visiting Rome for a maths conference, was invited by the Holy Father (Wojtyła, of blessèd memory) to sit in. Lehrer stayed longer than he expected, playing piano in the band for over a month. "The C" nearly got renamed The Rag in his honour.