Subverting genre
This year, Mr W and I have made a promise to ourselves to say ‘yes’ more to activities outside work. As a consequence of this we have been on two actual holidays (not just snatched vanning weekends), and we have been to see live music several times this year – two folk festivals, two gigs, a concert and a musical.
The first of the year was to see the oft-seen (for us) Lord Toffingham, a Glam rock cover band who perform hits from the seventies to the nineties. We don’t go to every gig of theirs but went this year and were pleased to heard a few more tracks in their set list that we hadn’t heard last time. I always enjoy seeing how they put the glam twist on newer tracks.
In the early summer we attended the local Folk festival – one which offers a fairly standard fare of local folk groups (more than one shanty group thanks to our coastal location) – acoustic groups, a wassailing troupe and occasionally a ‘big name’ performer. Last year was Eliza Carthy, I don’t recall any so well-known this year, though I may be wrong. We did get to see the wonderful Nicola Collis, an acoustic folk singer who put me in mind of ‘O’Hooley and Tidow’ though she performs admirably on her own. Her content is an amusing commentary on everyday experiences – a modern take on trad folk, fewer ‘rolls in the hay’ and more ‘work is stressful and tiring’; songs most can identify with. I wouldn’t call this subverting genre, more bringing into the 21st century (not dissimilar to Lucy Spraggan’s ‘On Facebook’) .
Later in the summer we attended Cambridge folk festival. This had a glorious array of World folk music. The festival has always been good about providing opportunities for performers from all around the UK – platforming Scottish, Irish and Welsh folk as well as trad style English folk. Broadening in the last few years to more worldwide folk. Initially I was a little reluctant – I had a particularly narrow view of what amounted to folk, but after taking in some of the joyous sounds this summer I thought more about it and realised that ‘folk’ doesn’t mean British; I gave myself a stern talking to – folk music is defined as: ‘music that originates in traditional popular culture or that is written in such a style. Folk music is typically of unknown authorship and is transmitted orally from generation to generation’
I did not enjoy all of the musical offerings of the festival – I still have my favourites (as would anyone), but I stopped being so closed minded about what constituted performers appropriate for a folk festival. Especially when my own narrow view was a little biased – I thoroughly enjoyed Passenger’s performance of 2022 and many would claim Passenger as ‘pop’ but his set was an excellent and eclectic mix. When I first read that Kiefer Sutherland was on the 2023 list, I was concerned that it was country music (a genre I am not a particular fan of) but stayed to watch the set anyway – being a fan of vampire movies who watch The Lost boys the year it was first released on VHS (I am that old), how could I miss the Dreamy ‘David’ performing with his band?
Mr W and I both found the set far more enjoyable than we had expected.
My hit of the weekend was the set by Grace Petrie, self-acclaimed “socialist feminist lesbian” and protest singer. Entertained us with her witty patter and again a set list which we could both identify with.
So far my experiences were not subverting genre at all; early in September we had the opportunity to see Otway and Barrett perform at an intimate local venue – one previously performed at by ‘The Band with no Horse’ and as I attended with two of their members, they were proud to suggest that Otway and the ever-patient Barrett were following in their footsteps. It was my first experience to see the self-labelled ‘pop singer’ and I was entertained to say the least – never have I seen a pop act include a wheelie bin, a theremin or a backless guitar in their performance. I asked Mr W on the way in (I know, it’s embarrassing I didn’t know who they were but I have never claimed to be a music aficionado) what genre they were, expecting folk music or possibly 70s / 80s rock music. But he said, ‘They’re pop music’. Listening back and thinking back to the show – they are not necessarily what we would call pop music this year, but in their decade, they were far more similar to the popular trends of the time. Wikipedia reports them as ‘folk’ and their array of instruments would potentially suggest that, but John (and other reviewers2) all claim him and his long-term partner (in the performance sense) Wild Willy Barrett as pop1. Perhaps due to their outstanding 1978 performance on ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’ – The ‘pre-Top of the POPs’ measure of whether someone had ‘made it’ in music. I had a ball of a time at the gig, and I hope to see them again before they officially retire.
Our next step off the beaten track was an act that is more familiar to me – I have been listening to ‘Fascinating Aida’ for years and was delighted to discover they were on in our local theatre. Fascinating Aida is definitely bushing the boundaries and breaking out of the traditional mould of their genre – the name would suggest opera and the vocal performances are spectacular, however I think their official designation is ‘cabaret’ – now I know cabaret traditionally includes an element of subtext (the Wikipedia definition claims: ‘The entertainment, as performed by an ensemble of actors and according to its European origins, is often (but not always) oriented towards adult audiences and of a clearly underground nature.’3). But Fascinating aida isn’t so much subtext as TEXT!!! Their shows are rated 18 and very much not suitable for younger or more sensitive audiences with unfiltered language and content not suitable for this blog.
One might attend their show and seeing three glamourous ladies on stage assume they were in for a suave and sophisticated evening of song, but once the trio launch into the raucous and hilarious ‘cheap flights’ or ‘dogging’ it soon becomes clear that they are not what you might expect.
Lastly, while the musical genre has been previously subverted – the show ‘Cabaret’ opening the doors to more ‘adult’ content, and ‘The Rocky Horror picture show’ taking the next step into ‘cult musicals’, it is safe to say that this year’s ‘Stranger Sings’ is taking another step forward – creating a quite adult parody of the already cult show ‘Stranger things’, the show was an excellent take off of the tropes of the Netflix show and made friendly fun of some of the cheesier elements of plot (and plot holes) and character. We were kindly gifted the tickets for the show (again local theatre) on the last weekend in September and I am very pleased we accepted as it was a great night out.