Recently I posted about Geoff Tate touring last year on the 30th anniversary of Operation:Mindcrime, the landmark album he made with Queensrÿche. He’s still touring and was back in Dublin, just over 12 months since starting his tour here last January. It was just after the announcement that the Orthodontic Society of Ireland (OSI) was successful in its bid to have Dublin host the European Orthodontic Congress in 2025. There were a few connections running through my mind.
Operation:Mindcrime was released about 30 years ago – its older than the OSI!
That said, as a distinct specialty within dentistry, orthodontics had been around for decades but in Ireland, it hadn’t been organised into a cohesive body until some orthodontists took the initiative to get together and organise meetings and events to improve their knowledge of the work they loved to do. To this day, we get in speakers from all over the world to share their knowledge and experience with us.
Rock music had been around for decades, and even the concept album had been around since the 60s (you can argue over which was the first concept album, but presumably we all agree that the most famous ones are The Wall, Dark Side of the Moon, Tommy, What’s Going On). Queensrÿche didn’t invent something new, but they did do something that was unique for their own time and place when they recorded their legendary record.
I think the thing that struck me most was the almost biblical, Exodus-like, journey between then and now for both OSI and Mindcrime. The people that started the journey would not be the same people that finished it. Some of them would be, but they wouldn’t be leading the tribe by the time they arrived. In fact, there may actually be no end to the journey, it just goes one indefinitely. I thought about that in some way or other almost every time I put the OSI presidential chains on: I am continuing a journey begun by those that have gone before and it will be carried on by those that come after me.
Queensrÿche still make music and perform, but they are not the same band that recorded MIndcrime. For a start, Geoff Tate is no longer their singer, but he’s the one in Dublin singing the songs he made with them. In fact the band he leads isn’t the same one he performed with last year. It’s an international line up – and all from Europe, including musicians from Italy, Scotland, Germany and Ireland.
It’s still another 6 years to the EOC event in Dublin. By that time, the OSI membership will be significantly different. The planning will start seriously in the year ahead as it already has done for the 5 EOC events that will happen before our one- a bit like the logistics and road managing for a rock band on tour. I hope Geoff Tate will continue touring and making more records – it turns out he’s joining a band called AVANTASIA for most of 2019.
The thing here is that we all seem to be serving a higher purpose, music or orthodontics – be it for audience members or patients – we want to do the best for them with the things that we do to the best of our talents. The people that do it will change over time, the combinations of these people will change more often, and the people we do it for will change regularly.
In different ways, we bring smiles to faces, and it’s a lot of effort, but it doesn’t seem like work, because orthodontists love what they do.
I suspect Geoff Tate does too.