tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349172932024-03-13T13:10:48.185+00:00Folk ForumHere’s a record of my research into the practices of folk and amateur music - clubs, sessions and events where people meet to share and enjoy each other's performances of songs and tunes. I'm also interested in how folk is perceived within mainstream culture - why it is often marginalised, under-represented in the media and mocked by TV commercials. Should folk fans care if their music has an image problem? Feel free to read and enjoy and please add your comments or email me any useful links.Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-7934009416638138432007-11-23T17:41:00.000+00:002007-11-24T12:18:02.043+00:00Roots music - the real thing<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/R0cYcKfkhaI/AAAAAAAAAGI/YPWsbtD2bIU/s1600-h/Wrens_Trust_Rough_Music_Orchestra1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/R0cYcKfkhaI/AAAAAAAAAGI/YPWsbtD2bIU/s200/Wrens_Trust_Rough_Music_Orchestra1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136100772171515298" /></a><div><strong>FAE Training Day - Friday 16 November: Roots into the Community.</strong><br /><br />This turned out to be a more informal and interactive session which even included a chance to perform some music! Advertised as ‘everything you need to plan and deliver a successful community arts project’, the session was run by <strong>Marilyn Tucker </strong>and <strong>Paul Wilson</strong>, respectively Artistic Director and Music Director for <strong><a href="http://www.wrenmusic.co.uk/">Wren Music</a> </strong>in Devon. With the two of them and five delegates seated around the table, we were able to get into serious discussion on the relationship between folk music and community activity.<br /><br />Essentially, the session showed how folk music can be a catalyst for social action. Marilyn and Paul talked us through examples of projects they had run (are running) and then led a brainstorming session (if that term is still permissible) on how to set up a community arts project.<br /><br />The music session, which immediately followed lunch, was a demonstration of how a workshop can be run. Each of us took up an instrument that we had never played before (in my case, a fiddle) and Paul taught us each a few bars of melody or rhythm. We put it all together and, hey presto, we had the makings of a folk orchestra. It was definitely a feel-good moment of the day and, as Paul pointed out, effectively put into practice Christopher Small’s concept of <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1lOx9nr0aHkC&dq=musicking&pg=PP1&ots=lWaA4Uz5sP&sig=jYdA7evuvqskI9x--Y1jTIMW8X4&prev=http://www.google.co.uk/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3Dmusicking%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch%26meta%3D&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail">‘musicking’</a>.<br /><br />Here’s my summary of the key points that I gained from this training day:<br /></div><br /><blockquote><br /><p>1. Communities can be defined in different ways, meaningful to different groups, i.e.<br />(a) geography<br />(b) shared interest (e.g. fans, bikers, morris dancers, etc.)<br />(c) shared demographic details (e.g age, race, nationality)<br />(d) constructed or artificial community (e.g. constituency, newspaper circulation area, local radio transmission area)<br />(e) self-defining or self-selecting community or sub-community (e.g. based on style, taste, self-image, social class)<br /><br />2. Folk (music) can be defined in terms of repertoire:<br />(a) traditional (sourced from archives and collections)<br />(b) vernacular (music as a form of expression by a specific nation, region or group of people)<br />(c) popular (literally ‘of the people’ with broad appeal) </p><font color="#000000">The term ‘folk song’ or ‘Volkslied’ was coined by <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521863032&ss=exc">Johann Gottfried Herder</a> in the 19th century, while ‘World music’ was a term popularised by Peter Gabriel, referring (arguably) to ethnic music for white western markets.<br /></font><br /><p>3. Organisations that run community projects or events may be:<br />- public (state funded)<br />- commercial<br />- voluntary (not for profit but may still be paid)</p></blockquote><br /><p>The activities also highlighted the intense planning process, especially the increasing need to obtain approvals from various bodies, e.g. CRB checks, Health and Safety legislation, equal opportunities; or research to ensure that religious observance or cultural practices are catered for.<br /><br />There was also some discussion at the beginning and end of the session on the integrity of folk music and concerns that this should not be turned into something alien for people who are devoted to that music. Reference (quite emotional at one point) was made to the <a href="http://imaginedvillage.com/">‘Imagined Village’</a> project that was recently performed at the Warwick Arts Centre and regarded, by some, as a post-modern spectacular collage of musical styles reflecting an <em>erstaz </em>'community' rather than a preservation of genuine folk tradition. (These views are not necessarly those expressed by this blogger - never saw the show but have seen the <a href="http://imaginedvillage.com/audiovideo/13/">video clips!</a>) <br /><br />This indicated the importance of folk as a grass-roots, community based activity – a practice rather than a product.<br /><br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/FolkArts_England"><span style="font-size:78%;">FolkArts England</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/community"><span style="font-size:78%;">community</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Wren_Music"><span style="font-size:78%;">Wren Music</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Christopher_Small"><span style="font-size:78%;">Christopher Small</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Johann_Gottfried_Herder"><span style="font-size:78%;">Johann Gottfried Herder</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_music_definition"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk music definition</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Peter_Gabriel"><span style="font-size:78%;">Peter Gabriel</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Imagined_Village"><span style="font-size:78%;">Imagined Village</span></a><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-84271893279006869812007-11-19T21:54:00.000+00:002007-11-19T22:25:58.639+00:00News from Newcastle<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/R0ILL6fkhXI/AAAAAAAAAFw/Dk0Xo6NuuJs/s1600-h/Eoghan+Neff.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134678824463926642" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/R0ILL6fkhXI/AAAAAAAAAFw/Dk0Xo6NuuJs/s320/Eoghan+Neff.gif" border="0" /></a>We interrupt this blog to announce that Irish fiddle-player, <strong>Eoghan Neff</strong>, whom I had the pleasure of meeting during the <a href="http://folk-forum.blogspot.com/2007/04/analysing-amateur-musicmaking-reporting.html">British Forum for Ethnomusicology event</a> at the University of Newcastle earlier this year, picked up an award for giving the best postgraduate paper at that conference. Sadly I missed it - I was only there for one day and Eoghan's talk was rescheduled to a different day.<br /><br />Heard the news from his father who found my reference to Eoghan in this blog. <a href="http://www.neffbros.eu/Eoghan_Achievements.html">Click here</a> for further details - and, if you're reading this, Eoghan - congratulations!<br /><br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/BFE_Conference"><span style="font-size:78%;">BFE Conference</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"></span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Eoghan_Neff"><span style="font-size:78%;">Eoghan Neff</span></a> </span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-54392171216343976482007-11-19T13:26:00.000+00:002007-11-23T18:04:45.768+00:00Raising cash - the strategic way<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/R0GzGafkhWI/AAAAAAAAAFo/eFD9lbd85jY/s1600-h/busking.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134581972951401826" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/R0GzGafkhWI/AAAAAAAAAFo/eFD9lbd85jY/s320/busking.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong>Training Day - Thursday 15 November: Fundraising For Folk.<br /></strong><br />I wanted to attend this to find out what advice is given to folk events organisers - not only in terms of funds available and form-filling procedures, but also how to approach funding agencies and sponsors and present one's objectives in a way that's meaningful to them. I wasn't disappointed.<br /><br />The session was led by <strong>Wendy Smithers</strong> of <a href="http://www.thehubuk.com/">the hub arts consultancy</a>. She was joined by <strong>Polly Robinson</strong>, fundraiser for the <a href="http://www.berniegrantcentre.co.uk/">Bernie Grant Arts Centre</a>, London and <strong>Ben Lane</strong>, former <a href="http://www.prsfoundation.co.uk/">PRS Foundation</a> funder.<br /><br />The training day can be distilled to six key messages which are vital for anyone seeking funding. These were:<br /><br /><blockquote>1. Get information across quickly and succinctly<br />2. Be strategic; have clear objectives<br />3. Sponsorship is an investment, not a donation. Think of what you can offer in return.<br />4. Build relationships. Think of potential funders as potential partners.<br />5. Research. Research. Research. Don't send out 'all-purpose' applications; tailor each one to the interestes of the funder.<br />6. Show passion.</blockquote><br />Topics that were covered were:<br />- <strong>Commercial sponsors:</strong> could they offer support either through cash or 'in kind' for a folk music project? For example, a 'media partnership' could involve press or broadcast coverage and free advertising<br />- <strong>Public funding</strong>, e.g. Arts Council or National Lottery. Some concern was expressed on the impact of the Olympics on the availability of funds for other, smaller projects.<br />- <strong>Trusts and foundations</strong>.<br /><br />My overall impressions from this training day were very positive; I think all participants felt the same. We even had a chance to work in groups and prepare and pitch a project idea to the other participants. A lot of attention was given to presentation techniques and interpersonal skills - possibly surprising if you consider that a lot of fundraising is form-filling. This did however serve to emphasise a partnership relationship with funders and the need to be clear in one's thinking about project aims and objectives.<br /><br />The session included advice on how to present a (balanced) budget and also brought home clear messages on accountability and evaluation. This illustrates the broader value of this session as far as my own research was concerned. It demonstrated how enthusiasts of folk arts need to understand and enter into the mindsets of potential funders, i.e. participate in management, commercial or political discourses, in order to achieve the support they need. This may mean re-presenting the argument that you are preserving a vital tradition to one that shows your sponsor tuned in to PR benefits of supporting heritage.</div><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/FolkArts_England"><span style="font-size:78%;">FolkArts England</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/fundraising"><span style="font-size:78%;">fundraising</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/sponsorship"><span style="font-size:78%;">sponsorship</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Arts_Council"><span style="font-size:78%;">Arts Council</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/National_Lottery"><span style="font-size:78%;">National Lottery</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/heritage"><span style="font-size:78%;">heritage</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/discourse"><span style="font-size:78%;">discourse</span></a><br /><br /><br /></span></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-91694673716694170742007-11-18T12:13:00.000+00:002007-11-18T17:39:00.292+00:00'With A Little Help From My Friends...'<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/R0B3yqfkhVI/AAAAAAAAAFg/H4onDHOL2ls/s1600-h/fae%2520logo%2520new.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/R0B3yqfkhVI/AAAAAAAAAFg/H4onDHOL2ls/s200/fae%2520logo%2520new.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5134235287486235986" /></a><br />Eastwood – birthplace of DH Lawrence – was the venue for this year’s <a href="http://www.folkarts-england.org/">FolkArts England</a> gathering which incorporated three events: the FAE Training Days, Folk Industry Focus Days and the Conference for the Association of Festival Organisers. With the strapline 'With a little help from my friends', the programme provided a great opportunity for people in all apects of folk performance, promotion and education to offer and gain support, intelligence and a chance to network.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.folkarts-england.org/conference/focusdays.htm">Focus Days</a> programme ran 15-16 November and delegates discussed and explored current issues in education and training, publicity and marketing. The <a href="http://www.folkarts-england.org/conference/afo%20conf.htm">conference</a> on 17-18 November included sessions on media, promoting young acts, ‘greening’ your festival, dealing with bad weather, cancellation insurance, ticketing and website design.<br /><br />However, the <a href="http://www.folkarts-england.org/training.htm">training days</a>, also 15-16 November, had the greatest potential for my own research, so I signed up for both sessions. Thursday's looked at fundraising for folk events; Friday's session, entitled ‘Roots into the Community’, looked at planning and delivering community arts projects.<br /><br />I will write up a separate post for each and another on observations and thoughts from the Conference itself. Then I shall resume the task of updating my review of literature.<br /><br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/FolkArts_England"><span style="font-size:78%;">FolkArts England</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/AFO_conference"><span style="font-size:78%;">AFO conference</span></a><br /></span></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-35872716684931605382007-09-21T00:11:00.000+01:002007-09-21T00:26:43.998+01:00Capturing and Preserving Tradition<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/RvL_0UBjQrI/AAAAAAAAADw/MhRTyH0xe98/s1600-h/edison_phonograph.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5112429801212428978" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/RvL_0UBjQrI/AAAAAAAAADw/MhRTyH0xe98/s320/edison_phonograph.jpg" border="0" /></a><em>Back to the initial literature review. This is Part 3, following my August 27 blog.</em><br /><br /><strong>Music as folklore</strong><br />As Pegg has indicated, much of the research effort into British folk music, from the late 19th century to the present day, has been directed to the collection of songs, tunes and dances for the purposes of preservation, education and social history. <a href="http://www.springthyme.co.uk/ballads/child_child.html">Child’s extensive work</a> on the ballad traditions of England and Scotland (2005) provided an impetus for the 20th century folk revivals (see <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ballads-into-Books-International-Conference/dp/3906761673/ref=sr_1_2/202-6480767-9983022?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190326027&sr=1-2">Cheesman & Rieuwarts 1997</a>), although earlier collections of popular songs, for example by Thomas Percy (1729-1811) and Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), were already in the public domain.<br /><br /><a href="http://library.efdss.org/cgi-bin/textpage.cgi?access=off&file=aboutSharp">Sharp</a>’s comprehensive study (1907) stimulated renewed interest in English folklore although his seemingly heroic rescue of almost-forgotten songs from obscurity was not without its critics. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Imagined-Village-Culture-Ideology-English/dp/0719029147/ref=sr_1_1/202-6480767-9983022?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190326483&sr=1-1">Boyes</a> (1993) comments an inherently conservative view of folklore epitomised by Sharp and reinforced by the establishment of the <a href="http://www.efdss.org/">English Folk Dance and Song Society</a> in 1932 through the merger of the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dance Society, formed by Sharp in 1911 (Schofield undated, <a href="http://www.efdss.org/history.htm">online</a>). Sutton records accusations by Sharp’s contemporary, Mary Neal of inaccurate collecting, pedantry and obstruction of mass participation in the folk movement (Sutton 2000 <a href="http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/england.htm">online</a>).<br /><br />Nevertheless, Sharp’s work revealed the existence of a wide range of sources of ‘folk’ material. His contemporary, Percy Grainger introduced a revolutionary means of collecting songs in the first decade of the 20th century, by recording performances of folk singers on a phonograph (<a href="http://fmj.efdss.org/contents/fmj/volume_4/contents_3.htm">Yates 1982</a>). Collections, which helped fuel the post-war folk revival, included <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Penguin-Book-English-Folk-Songs/dp/0140116354">Vaughan Williams and Lloyd (1959)</a>, <a href="http://www.pegseeger.com/html/ewan.htmlSeeger">(1960)</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.L._Lloyd">Lloyd</a> (1967), Raven, J. (1971 and 1977),* <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jolly-Machine-Industrial-Discontent-Midlands/dp/0906114659/ref=sr_1_1/202-6480767-9983022?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190328579&sr=1-1">Raven, M.</a> (1974) and the prolific collections of Roy Palmer (1974, 1986, 1998)**.<br /><br />Historiographies of folklore are critiqued by Harker (<a href="http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=524889377&searchurl=isbn%3D0091407303%26nsa%3D1">1980</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fakesong-Manufacture-British-Present-Popular/dp/0335150667/ref=sr_1_1/202-6480767-9983022?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190329268&sr=1-1">1985</a>) who, along with <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Imagined-Village-Culture-Ideology-English/dp/0719029147/ref=sr_1_1/202-6480767-9983022?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190326483&sr=1-1">Boyes</a> (1993), represents a ‘revisionist’ approach to the study of revivalism in folk music (<a href="http://www.efdss.org/songbib.htm">Atkinson 2006: 6-8</a>). Harker observes that the preservation of folk songs was effectively a form of ‘mediation’ reflecting ‘assumptions, attitudes, likes and dislikes’ (Harker 1985:xiii). He argues:<br /><blockquote>…unless we are prepared to learn to cope with cultural products, like songs, which derive from workers’ culture, then history will continue to be written from the ‘top’ down...<br />(Harker 1985:255)</blockquote><br />Returning to <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Revival-1944-2002-Ashgate-Popular/dp/0754632814/ref=sr_1_1/202-6480767-9983022?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190329593&sr=1-1">Brocken</a>, concerns on the mediating role on folk ‘tradition’ by bourgeois collectors and archivists have resonance in today’s folk club performances, which:<br /><blockquote>…can (and do) reek of … musical virtuosity and elitism. Sessions and singarounds do not belong to the common musical parlance of young people of the twenty-first century and do not relate to their social mores or everyday social interactions.<br />(Brocken 2003:130)</blockquote><br />He levels a similar criticism at Britain’s biggest-selling folk magazine, F-Roots, which, he argues: ‘continues to present folk music as an anodyne substance soaked in the values and mores of its largely middle-class clientele’ (op cit: 140).<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* Raven, J., 1971, Kate of Coalbrookdale: Songs from Broadsheets of the 18th and 19th Century, London: Robbins Music; Raven, J., 1977, The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham, Wolverhampton: Broadside<br />** Palmer, R. (ed.), 1974, A Touch on the Times: Songs of Social Change 1770-1914, Harmondsworth: Penguin; Palmer, R. (ed.), 1986, Everyman’s Book of English Country Songs, London: Omnibus Press (reprint of 1979 edition by London: Dent); Palmer, R. (ed.), 1998, A Book of British Ballads, Felinfach: Llanerch (reprint of 1980 edition of Everyman’s Book of British Ballads by London: Dent)<br /></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-61251867845169798962007-09-11T15:11:00.000+01:002007-11-23T17:52:45.637+00:00Ethnography or ethogenics?<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/R0cTXqfkhZI/AAAAAAAAAGA/kShnEFzwGqI/s1600-h/sherlock.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/R0cTXqfkhZI/AAAAAAAAAGA/kShnEFzwGqI/s200/sherlock.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136095197303965074" /></a>I've finally got my hands on a copy of <a href="http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/~bs0sco/psyweb/johnsmith.htm">John Smith</a>'s paper, <em>The Ethogenics of Music Performance</em>, in which he undertakes a social-psychologist's analysis of behaviours and roles in his local folk club, the <a href="http://www.lewismusic.co.uk/PondLife/PondLife.html">Glebe Live Music Club</a> in Sunderland.<br /><br />The links between this and my own research are obvious and, glancing through the pages, I noted immediately some similarities in his approach. For example, he discusses the spatial arrangements of the club room and the impact this has as an environment on human interaction and role enactment - a theme I also addressed in my conference papers in <a href="http://folk-forum.blogspot.com/2007/04/analysing-amateur-musicmaking-reporting.html">Newcastle</a> and <a href="http://folk-forum.blogspot.com/2006/09/starting-point.html">Birmingham</a>.<br /><br />Another point that struck me was the similarity in organisation, routine and indeed repertoire encountered at a folk club in Sunderland in 1985 with those features today of many folk clubs that I have visited in the English Midlands. Although I did expect this to be the case.<br /><br />What I didn't expect was the opportunity this paper provides to reflect on methodology and ethics.<br /><br />Ethogenics is a term I hadn't seriously explored up until now, but <a href="http://www.people.ex.ac.uk/PWebley/psy1002/lecture09.doc">according to some sources</a> it does address some of the methodological problems of ethnography, not least because it takes into account the ability of researcher to share or empathise with the cultural knowledge and values of those being researched. In this case, the author was analysing the folk club that he himself ran and took part in. Rather than pretend to put on a social scientist's hat as he wrote up his results, he was able to apply the social psychologist's tools of analysis from a more informed basis. In many ways, this approach is similar to David Grazian's study of a Chicago Blues Club that <a href="http://folk-forum.blogspot.com/2006/10/is-this-real-thing.html">I have discussed earlier</a>.<br /><br />At the same time this also raises an ethical consideration. Should the researcher let on to his fellow singers, musicians and auience members that he is studying their behaviour? If they know, would it change the way they behave, or the way they feel about the presence of the researcher? Because I attend folk clubs anyway, usually as a floorsinger, occasionally as a guest or a guest host, my presence at these events is accepted as normal. But I don't turn up armed with tape or video recorders, or laptop, or even a notebook and pen. Recording my observations relies on my sometimes precarious memory but I still feel more comfortable with that than drawing attention to my role as a researcher at the venue itself. It seems to me that this problem is inherent and inevitable for the ethogenist (if that's the right word!) more than it is for the ethnographer.<br /><br />Hopefully I'll have more insight when I actually read John Smith's paper. Will report on that soon - and continue with the overall lit review, (now that my computer is back online).<br /><br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/John_L.Smith"><span style="font-size:78%;">John L.Smith</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Glebe_Live_Music_Club"><span style="font-size:78%;">Glebe Live Music Club</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/ethogenics"><span style="font-size:78%;">ethogenics</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/ethnography"><span style="font-size:78%;">ethnography</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_clubs"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk clubs</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/David_Grazian"><span style="font-size:78%;">David Grazian</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/ethics"><span style="font-size:78%;">ethics</span></a> <br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-49965853871326149942007-08-27T16:11:00.000+01:002007-08-27T17:07:12.845+01:00Naming the beast….<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/RtLtFlTgONI/AAAAAAAAACw/Q76UtBa0CKk/s1600-h/instrument.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/RtLtFlTgONI/AAAAAAAAACw/Q76UtBa0CKk/s320/instrument.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5103402007933237458" /></a>Here’s part 2 of my initial lit.review, which sets out a simple structure and includes references to attempts to define ‘folk’. This was necessarily brief; the word length of the assignment prevented a more detailed discussion. <br /><br />I have since read a slightly tongue-in-cheek definition that nevertheless highlights the discursive differences that this research seeks to address, i.e. between folk practitioners and the popular music media. It was provided by Stuart Maconie in a <em>Radio Times </em>article about the Cambridge Folk Festival:<br /><blockquote>Cambridge's definition of folk is dizzyingly broad; basically it means anything not likely to appear on Chris Moyles' show...</blockquote>…/…<br /><br /><strong>Literature search strategy and aims </strong><br />My research focuses less on form and more on practices. However, to provide a context of current understandings and debates on folk music in the UK, this paper highlights literature that has delineated academic understanding of both forms and practices of folk music for much of the 20th century (particularly the latter half). It also considers literature on ‘popular’ music, in the specific sense of music produced by cultural industries to manipulate audience tastes and choices.<br /><br />Debates on the definition of ‘folk’ music provide a starting point. I shall then consider texts that characterise three approaches to the study of folk:<br /><br />(1) as ‘folklore’ and expressions of social history; <br />(2) as a musical style and genre, and <br />(3) as means of expressing cultural identity. <br /><br />Some sources that fall within the second category also highlight the position occupied by folk as a commodified form within the practices of contemporary music industry. Other texts, which historically may have adopted the ‘folk as folklore’ perspective, relate to the third category of this review through their insights into the sociology of participation in folk music.<br /><br /><strong>Defining ‘folk’ music</strong><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Popular-Music-Concepts-Routledge-Guides/dp/0415347696/ref=sr_1_2/202-8972382-9458208?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188226393&sr=8-2">Shuker</a> cites the <em>Music Central </em>CD-ROM’s description of folk as ‘…simple, direct, acoustic-based music that draws upon experiences, concerns, and lore of the common people’ (Shuker 2002:134). Inevitable issues of taxonomy arise from his discussion of ‘folk culture’; the term ‘folk’ may encompass a variety of categories including world music, roots music, protest songs, songs identified by their regional origins and the output of contemporary singer songwriters.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Pleasure-Essays-Sociology-Pop/dp/0415900522/ref=sr_1_1/202-8972382-9458208?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188226535&sr=1-1">Frith</a> seeks to explain difficulties in defining folk through ‘a history of the struggle among folk collectors to claim folk meaning for themselves' (Frith 1988: 113). Attempts by folk musicians to define their art highlight <a href="http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1923989,00.html">McLean</a>’s view of folk as ‘something of an elastic classification’ (McLean 1996). She cites an interview response by one English folk musician, Seth Lakeman which reflects the view of folk as: <blockquote>the people's music … That's evident in how many folk music festivals exist. Cambridge is the biggest - I think 15,000 go to it - but there are so many others that are attended by 3,000 or 4,000 people </blockquote>(See also <a href="http://folk-forum.blogspot.com/2006/10/seth-lakeman-acceptable-fa_116212879780437603.html#links">my earlier post</a>)<br /><br />Debates on the concept of ‘folk music’ reflect differing allegiances to historical movements and manifestations of vernacular and acoustic music. <a href="http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=music.09933.3">Pegg*</a> (2007) summarises and contrasts the influences of ‘folk music revivals’ in Europe and the United States, which have established frameworks for understanding the concept but also for division on the authenticity of music that claims to be ‘folk’. She points to the American Folk Revival as one major influence, which:<br /><blockquote>…came out of the social and economic setting of the 1940s in which many young people believed that the parent generation had gravely mismanaged the world. Figures such as Pete, Mike and Peggy Seeger, and Alan Lomax, promoted engagement by college students and intellectuals in the ideas of populist folksong. <br />(Pegg 2007 <a href="http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=music.09933.3">online*</a>)</blockquote><br />In contrast, she alludes to two British folk revivals, the first dating back to the collections of middle-class enthusiasts, especially Francis James Child (1825-96) and advocate for an early 20th century folk revival, Cecil Sharp (1859-1924). The second, reflecting post-World War II socialist and Marxist movements, was instigated by such figures as singer and songwriter, Ewan McColl (1915-89) and song collector A.L.Lloyd (1908-82).**<br /><br />Pegg identifies a subsequent distinction made by participants between ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary’ folk music manifested through different styles of folk club, which ‘began to develop “traditions” of their own’ (<a href="http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=music.09933.3">Pegg <em>op cit</em>*</a>). The former incorporated ‘vocal techniques and mannerisms considered to be intrinsic to a “traditional” style, such as singing nasally with the hand cupped over one ear…’; the latter reflected the influence of new acoustic guitar techniques, epitomised by Martin Carthy: ‘sensitive finger-picking and open-string tunings that enabled drones to be produced’ (ibid).<br /><br />* These links only work if you are a signed-up subscriber to <em>Grove Music Online</em><br /><br />** For more detailed examination of their influences and the emergence of folk as working class cultural expression, see <a href="http://www.biad.uce.ac.uk/research/cssonlysite/researchers_staff_profile.asp?mky=1&group=3&raeid=42">Long</a> (2001: 96-141) and <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Revival-1944-2002-Ashgate-Popular/dp/0754632822/ref=sr_1_1/202-8972382-9458208?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188227145&sr=1-1">Brocken</a> (2003: 25-42)<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/literature_review"><span style="font-size:78%;">literature review</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_music "><span style="font-size:78%;">folk music</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_music _definition"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk music definition</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Stuart_Maconie"><span style="font-size:78%;">Stuart Maconie</span></a> <br><span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Cambridge_Folk_Festival"><span style="font-size:78%;">Cambridge Folk Festival</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Chris_Moyles"><span style="font-size:78%;">Chris Moyles</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/popular_music"><span style="font-size:78%;">popular music</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Roy_Shuker"><span style="font-size:78%;">Roy Shuker</span></a> <br><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_culture"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk culture</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Simon_Frith"><span style="font-size:78%;">Simon Frith</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Guardian"><span style="font-size:78%;"><em>Guardian</em></span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Seth_Lakeman"><span style="font-size:78%;">Seth Lakeman</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_revival"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk revival</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/American_folk_revival"><span style="font-size:78%;">American folk revival</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Pete_Seeger"><span style="font-size:78%;">Pete Seeger</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Alan_Lomax"><span style="font-size:78%;">Alan Lomax</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Francis_James_Child"><span style="font-size:78%;">Francis James Child</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Cecil_Sharp"><span style="font-size:78%;">Cecil Sharp</span></a> <br><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Ewan_McColl"><span style="font-size:78%;">Ewan McColl</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/A.L.Lloyd"><span style="font-size:78%;">A.L.Lloyd</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_clubs"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk clubs</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Martin_Carthy"><span style="font-size:78%;">Martin Carthy</span></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-65777604124441607532007-08-24T22:47:00.000+01:002007-08-25T00:19:19.512+01:00Taking stock<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/Rs9S2lTgOLI/AAAAAAAAACg/MEBWXiI9684/s1600-h/singaround1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/Rs9S2lTgOLI/AAAAAAAAACg/MEBWXiI9684/s320/singaround1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5102388000514390194" /></a>Time to get this blog active again! The research hasn’t been dormant since the last entry but it hasn’t been very systematic either – gathering sources, making notes but not really getting engaged with any debate since my visit to Newcastle.<br /><br />However, I did receive confirmation that the process of undertaking a PGCE – as a requirement for registration of the research at UCE – has been successfully completed. Part of that process was an initial literature review. I’m going to set it out here in this blog but in instalments and with hyperlinks and tags – partly to remind me of what I’ve covered so far and, possibly, to stimulate some discussion – who knows?<br /><br />So here is the introductory section, which seeks to (pardon the cliché) ‘map the terrain’. <br /><br />... / ...<br /><br />My research addresses practices of ‘amateur’ music performance and consumption within the network of folk clubs and music and song sessions across the UK. It identifies discourses inhabited by organisers, performers and audiences and studies their motivations to share folk music in an informal setting. <br /><br />In tackling these issues, this study addresses a concern raised by <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0754632822/ref=sib_dp_pt/026-9064347-0830820#reader-link">Brocken</a> on the contemporary folk scene in Britain in the wake of (at least) two folk revivals. <br /><blockquote>This folk discourse has become caught up in a consolidation and a permanence that has relations only to, or with, the images created at its own inception. … In what was originally a space for absence of rules, a rejection of music rules, the folk club has now become caught up in the revival’s own rituals. … [It] has now become the tradition, only resembling itself. <br />(Brocken 2003:124)</blockquote> <br />While reaffirming this self-contained, self-referential aspect of folk clubs, my research considers evidence of tension between the largely unregulated practices of amateur performance and encroaching institutional, political and cultural contexts in which they operate. <br /><br />The activity of reviewing scholarly literature on folk music reveals an irony in defining the object of study as ‘music of the people' (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/folkcountry/guides/folk/">BBC, online</a>) – in a literal sense, ‘popular’ music. A clear paradigmatic distinction exists between an extensive body of research on ‘folk’ music as a traditional or vernacular form (e.g. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Village-Song-Culture-Collection-Oxfordshire/dp/0709900597/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187989631&sr=1-1">Pickering 1982</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Study-Music-Modern-World-Folkloristics/dp/025320464X/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187990136&sr=1-1">Bohlman 1988</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Traditional-Western-Continents-Prentice-Hall-History/dp/0133232476/ref=sr_1_4/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187990227&sr=1-4">Nettl 1990</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Popular-Music-England-1840-1914-History/dp/0719052610/ref=sr_1_2/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187990325&sr=1-2">Russell 1997</a>) and research since the 1980s into ‘popular’ music as a product of a cultural industry (e.g. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Pleasure-Essays-Sociology-Pop/dp/0415900522/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187990427&sr=1-1">Frith 1988</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Popular-Critical-Concepts-Cultural-Studies/dp/0415299055/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187990520&sr=1-1">2004a, 2004b, 2004c</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Popular-Music-Aesthetics-Manufacture/dp/0340652233/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187990625&sr=1-1">Toynbee 2000</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Studying-Popular-Music-Culture-Media/dp/0340741805/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187990675&sr=1-1">Wall 2003</a>). Both approaches agree on the notion of music as a form of cultural expression but much of the history of research into folk has veered towards anthropology and the study of ‘folklore’ while the concept of ‘culture’ in studies of ‘popular’ music is often aligned with post-Marxist conceptions, following a trajectory established by Adorno’s (<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Record-Rock-Pop-Written-Word/dp/0415053064/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187990768&sr=1-1">1941</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Culture-Industry-Selected-Essays-Mass/dp/0415058317/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187990879&sr=1-1">1991</a>) interests in agencies and practice of cultural production of music as a commodity (see <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adorno-Music-International-Library-Sociology/dp/0415162920/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187990949&sr=1-1">Witkin 1998</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Popular-Culture-International-Library-Sociology/dp/0415268257/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187991018&sr=1-1">2002</a>). <br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Popular-Music-Studies-David-Hesmondhalgh/dp/0340762489/ref=sr_1_4/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187991124&sr=1-4">Hesmondhalgh and Negus</a> identify 1981 as the year that popular music ‘began to emerge as a recognisable field of academic study…with the establishment of the <a href="http://www.iaspm.net/">International Association for the Study of Popular Music</a> and the launch of the academic journal <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=pmu">Popular Music</a>' (2002:3). While folk music’s place as a style and influence is acknowledged in some studies of the ‘popular’ (see for example <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Terms-Popular-Culture-Blackwell-Guides/dp/0631212647/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187991683&sr=1-1">Kassabian, 1999:116-7</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cultures-Popular-Issues-Cultural-Studies/dp/0335202500/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187991753&sr=1-1">Bennett 2001:24</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Studying-Popular-Music-Culture-Media/dp/0340741805/ref=sr_1_1/026-9064347-0830820?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187990675&sr=1-1">Wall 2003:30-31</a>), a cursory browse through the journal suggests that rock, jazz, hip hop, punk and, in particular, blues are more likely to attract scholarly attention as ‘popular’ forms of music.<br /><br /><blockquote>1. The New York Times, 7th July 1971, credits Louis Armstrong with the infamous statement, “All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song.”</blockquote><br /><br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/literature_review"><span style="font-size:78%;">literature review</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_music "><span style="font-size:78%;">folk music</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/amateur_music"><span style="font-size:78%;">amateur music</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_clubs"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk clubs</span></a> <br><span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/music_sessions"><span style="font-size:78%;">music sessions</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_revival"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk revival</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_culture"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk culture</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/popular_music"><span style="font-size:78%;">popular music</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Michael_Brocken"><span style="font-size:78%;">Michael Brocken</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Theodor_Adorno"><span style="font-size:78%;">Theodor Adorno</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/IASPM"><span style="font-size:78%;">IASPM</span></a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Popular_Music_journal"><span style="font-size:78%;"><em>Popular Music </em>journal</span></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-80649501923973864032007-04-25T16:15:00.000+01:002007-04-25T18:02:02.355+01:00Analysing amateur musicmaking - reporting work-in-progress to the BFE<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/Ri-Aag1UItI/AAAAAAAAABY/C8kLtqOzhVA/s1600-h/Amth+session.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/Ri-Aag1UItI/AAAAAAAAABY/C8kLtqOzhVA/s320/Amth+session.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5057402099538862802" /></a>The <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/music-conferences/BFE2007/welcome.htm">BFE Conference</a> at Newcastle was something of a hit-and-run event for me. I was only able to attend the first day of the 4-day event and inevitably there were several items that I would have enjoyed attending, including <a href="http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/neff.htm">Eoghan Neff</a>'s talk on the 19th century fiddle-player<em>Edward Cronin </em>and a cylinder recording of his performance of <em><a href="http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/RRTuneBk/gettune/00000805.html">Banish Misfortune</a></em> - scheduled for Day One but got put back last minute to Day Four.<br /><br />I was fortunate to attend <a href="http://www.thepipingcentre.co.uk/tuition/tutors/simon-mckerrell.html">Simon McKerrell</a>'s talk: <em>Modern Scottish bands (1970-1990): 'Cash as authenticity'</em>. This raised some fascinating (and for my research, highly relevant) points on how financial considerations proved to be a driving force in the popularisation of traditional Scottish music. He referred to the success of bands such as Silly Wizard, the Battlefield Band and Capercaillie to demonstrate how the priorities of making a living, touring, producing albums and playing through a PA system have become dominant factors in the revival of traditional music in Scotland. Quoting from his abstract:<br /><br /><blockquote>...commercial success [is] measured through record sales and cash from gigs, as the new authenticity which eventually prevailed over the earlier, ideological revivalist model of success based upon repertoire and style.</blockquote>My own presentation was well attended, with some interesting follow-up questions on my research work-in-progress. Here is the abstract that appeared in the programme:<br /><br /><blockquote><strong>Regulating the amateur: traditional music and cultural control<br /></strong><br />This paper examines the discourses of folk music within the ‘amateur’ network of folk clubs and music and song sessions across the UK. It provides details of research in progress into the tensions between the largely unregulated practices of amateur folk music and three external agencies which appear to impinge upon them:<br /><br />1. The music industry as a commercial enterprise setting 'professional' standards in performance, organisational practices and technical resources.<br /><br />2. Administrative and bureaucratic practices of regulation ranging from the PRS, local authority licensing, etc. to cultural agencies seeking to promote folk as a form of creative or community artistic expression.<br /><br />3. 'Mainstream' popular culture and its transformation of 'folk' culture into commodity forms, e.g. for Irish theme pubs, medieval banquets, etc.<br /><br />I argue that these agencies represent a form of cultural control seeking to regulate amateur music practices and the experiences of performers and audiences. Based primarily on participant-observation study of folk clubs in the English Midlands the research examines how discourses of ‘mainstream’ culture, commodification and political management are apparent in amateur folk events and asks whether these undermine the perceived integrity of amateur music as a genuine form of cultural expression.<br /><br />The research acknowledges studies of folk music as forms of cultural expression (e.g. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0295953381/sr=1-3/qid=1177516853/ref=olp_product_details/203-5176485-0826338?ie=UTF8&qid=1177516853&sr=1-3&seller=">Blacking, 1974</a>; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oral-Traditions-Verbal-Arts-Anthropology/dp/0415048419/ref=sr_1_11/203-5176485-0826338?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177516974&sr=1-11">Finnegan, 1992</a>) and of generic and structural developments in forms of traditional music (e.g. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Devils-Music-History-Blues/dp/0156255863/ref=sr_1_1/203-5176485-0826338?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177517031&sr=1-1">Oakley, 1977</a>; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electric-Folk-Changing-English-Traditional/dp/019517478X/ref=sr_1_1/203-5176485-0826338?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177517125&sr=1-1">Sweers, 2005</a>). It develops themes identified in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Revival-1944-2002-Ashgate-Popular/dp/0754632822/ref=sr_1_1/203-5176485-0826338?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177517168&sr=1-1">Brocken</a>’s study of the British Folk Revival (2003) through its localised focus on a folk music circuit and its experiential, ethnographic approach.</blockquote><br />The bottom-line argument that I tried to put across was the surprising lack of research that currently exists on folk music as performed in small, non-commercial, back room folk clubs. There is plenty of literature on folk music as folklore, folk music as a social and cultural phenomenon and folk as a style or genre but I argued that my research would be filling a gap in the understanding of 'amateur' folk music as a social practice.<br /><br />Feedback from fellow delegates included some good constructive support and advice. I was reminded of one, albeit dated, study of a folk club in action - Smith, J.L., 1987, ‘The Ethogenics of Music Performance, a Case Study of the Glebe Live Music Club’, published in Pickering and Green's Everyday <em>Culture, Popular Song and Vernacular Milieu</em>. It was also suggested that I refer to former BFE chair, Jonathan Stock - this is <a href="http://mustrad.org.uk/articles/ethnomus.htm">one item</a> by him that I've found useful.<br /><br />It was also reassuring (if slightly alarming at first) to speak to one delegate who had actually performed at two of the folk clubs that I referred to as case studies of social and cultural spaces for amateur music practice. She recognised and supported points I'd raised about room layout and proxemics for 'concert' style and 'singaround' events. I may blog on that more later.<br /><br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/BFE_Conference"><span style="font-size:78%;">BFE Conference</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Eoghan_Neff"><span style="font-size:78%;">Eoghan Neff</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Simon_McKerrell"><span style="font-size:78%;">Simon McKerrell</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/amateur_music"><span style="font-size:78%;">amateur music</span></a> <br><span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/traditional_music"><span style="font-size:78%;">traditional music</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/popular_music"><span style="font-size:78%;">popular music</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_revival"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk revival</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_clubs"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk clubs</span></a> <br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-4945911058229922002007-04-15T15:15:00.000+01:002007-04-15T23:01:35.320+01:00The day the music died<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/RiJFQELb_HI/AAAAAAAAAA4/GHIMfU9of9g/s1600-h/Dufus.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/RiJFQELb_HI/AAAAAAAAAA4/GHIMfU9of9g/s200/Dufus.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5053677874165054578" /></a>While preparing for the <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/music-conferences/BFE2007/welcome.htm">Newcastle Conference</a> (see <a href="http://folk-forum.blogspot.com/2007/03/where-does-folk-become-popular.html">previous item</a> of this blog), I thought it would be useful to consider sub genres and hybrid genres of 'folk' music. There are of course many, ranging from roots and world music through to folk rock, punk folk, acid folk, folk metal, folktronica, neofolk and 'anti-folk' - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-folk">click here</a> for the Wikipedia entry on this latter concept!<br /><br />I've only recently become familiar with the idea of'anti-folk'. One of my UCE colleagues, Mark Sampson runs <a href="http://ironmanrecords.co.uk/">Iron Man Records</a> in Birmingham and regularly manages UK tours for New York band with anti-folk tendencies, <a href="http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.asp?epk_id=87507">Dufus</a> (pictured).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Popular-Music-Aesthetics-Manufacture/dp/0340652233/ref=sr_1_2/026-2932828-0003664?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176651287&sr=8-2">Jason Toynbee</a> discusses genre in popular music and argues for an understanding of ‘genre as a social process’, rather than simply as a set of textual properties:<br /><blockquote><p align="left">…social formations often have a strong affiliation with musical genres and may invest them with intense cultural significance. (Toynbee 2000:103 - see references below)</p></blockquote><br />This is an important point. Genres are often seen as a set of properties inherent in the music itself, or self-referential categories. People who talk about genres often ignore the social processes that brought them about in the first place. From other texts I've been looking at (<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Imagined-Village-Culture-Ideology-English/dp/0719029147/ref=sr_1_3/026-2932828-0003664?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176651389&sr=1-3">Georgina Boyes</a> 1993, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Folk-Scene-Performance-Identity/dp/0335097731/ref=sr_1_4/026-2932828-0003664?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176674382&sr=1-4">Niall Mackinnon</a> 1993 and, in particular, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fakesong-Popular-Music-Britain-Harker/dp/0335150667/ref=sr_1_8/026-2932828-0003664?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176651525&sr=1-8">Dave Harker</a> 1985 and <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Revival-1944-2002-Ashgate-Popular/dp/0754632822/ref=sr_1_1/026-2932828-0003664?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176651577&sr=1-1">Michael Brocken</a> 2003), a view is emerging of a post-revival folk scene, at least in the UK, appropriated by the middle-classes imposing their own definitions of 'folk' as a musical genre. Their 'cultural capital' and skills in academic research of folklore have produced a huge reservoir of folksongs and tunes (and dances and mummers plays) which can be preserved, covered and arranged, often by new blood folk musicians with access to modern instruments, digital recording studios and the short list to Radio 2's Folk Awards.<br /><br />This is great if you don't mind the 'folk music' genre affiliated with bourgeois myths reinforced through the 'preservation' of 'traditions' (folk-as-heritage). But this masks the essential revolutionary act of performance that folk music represented in the 1950s and early 60s as a back-room-of-the-pub alternative to an encroaching, glitzy and commercialised pop music culture. Think of Ewan McColl in the UK and Woody Guthrie in the US.<br /><br />Preservation techniques for any 'museum' piece could include embalming or even taxidermy, but for processes like these to be applied, the original life force must first be removed. So here's something to think about - by preserving 'folk', are the middle classes essentially killing it and stuffing it?<br /><br />'Anti-folk' suggests a convergence of traditional music and punk mentality, rejecting the polish and professional gloss that folk music has had to acquire to get accepted by mainstream media propomoting 'populist' tastes. The author of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-folk">Wikipedia entry</a> refers to: <blockquote>music that sounds raw and poorly executed, but mocks the seriousness and pretension of the established mainstream folk scene and also mocks itself.</blockquote>This appeals to the revolutionary sentiments that my own middle class upbringing didn't quite succeed in suppressing. Some who know me may argue that this description is not a million miles from the sound of <a href="http://www.oddsods.net">The Oddsods</a> - a band that I know has been accused by <a href="http://www.warwickfolkfestival.co.uk/">some</a> as not a 'serious' folk band (although we're seriously not 'anti' folk - we just see folk music as something that should be fun and broad in appeal!)<br /><br />The trouble with 'anti folk' as a sub genre is that it could end up heading in the same direction as 'punk' - a category of commercial music that has its own section in the CD displays of HMV and Virgin Megastores.<br /><br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/genre"><span style="font-size:78%;">genre</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/anti-folk"><span style="font-size:78%;">anti-folk</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Dufus"><span style="font-size:78%;">Dufus</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Iron_Man_Records"><span style="font-size:78%;">Iron Man Records</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/preservation_of_folk"><span style="font-size:78%;">preservation of folk</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Oddsods"><span style="font-size:78%;">Oddsods</span></a> <br><span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_music"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk music</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/middle-class"><span style="font-size:78%;">middle-class</span></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Boyes, G., 1993, The Imagined Village: Cultural Ideology and the English Folk Revival, Manchester: Manchester University Press<br /><br />Brocken, M. 2003, The British Folk Revival: 1944-2002, Aldershot, Ashgate<br /><br />Harker, D., 1985, Fakesong: The manufacture of British ‘folksong’ 1700 to the present day, Milton Keynes: Open University Press<br /><br />Mackinnon, N., 1993, The British Folk Scene: Musical Performance and Social Identity, Buckingham, Open University Press<br /><br />Toynbee, J. 2000, Making Popular Music: Musicians, Creativity and Institutions, London: Arnold </span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-43272914203595912562007-03-29T17:39:00.000+01:002007-04-15T18:03:19.476+01:00Where does 'folk' become 'popular'Does 'folk' equal 'popular' (i.e. 'of the people')? If only it were that simple. I'll be attending and speaking at a conference in Newcastle which explores the spaces between these two concepts. Where does folk end and popular begin? Perhaps I'll find out, courtesy of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology.<br /><br />I'll be reporting on this event when it happens in April. Meanwhile, check out the <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/music-conferences/BFE2007/welcome.htm">conference website</a> and <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/music-conferences/BFE2007/programme.htm">definitive programme</a>.<br /><br />Also the <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/music-conferences/BFE2007/roundtable.htm#FF">'Round Table'</a> papers makes interesting reading for those who argue on the definitions of folk - I'll be posting more shortly on a recent heated argument on that topic here on the normally tranquil Coventry and Warwickshire folk scene...<br /><br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/BFE_Conference"><span style="font-size:78%;">BFE Conference</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/ethnomusicology"><span style="font-size:78%;">ethnomusicology</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/popular_music"><span style="font-size:78%;">popular music</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_music"><span style="font-size:78%;">folk music</span></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-48993957742634931872007-03-25T16:20:00.000+01:002007-03-25T17:05:26.050+01:00Music PR – a dynamic topic where even the teachers are learners<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/RgaUZ8c05nI/AAAAAAAAAAY/JgKo16IjYX4/s1600-h/OSGodiva05a.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mVKZRDPh2E/RgaUZ8c05nI/AAAAAAAAAAY/JgKo16IjYX4/s320/OSGodiva05a.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5045883605959894642" /></a><br /><blockquote><em>Here's the text of my article that was published in the PR magazine, <strong><a href="http://publicsphere.typepad.com/behindthespin/">Behind The Spin</a></strong> - archived here for reference, and with additional hyperlinks. The magazine also used this pic of the band's 2005 line-up, taken by <a href="http://www.chelewillow.com">Chele Willow</a></em></blockquote><br /><br /><strong>Pete Wilby is acting Degree Leader for the <a href="http://www.mediacourses.com/courses.asp?cat=1&courseID=7">Public Relations</a> strand of UCE Birmingham’s degree in Media and Communication. In his spare time he plays guitar for a folk band. Introducing the course’s new module in Music Promotion and PR has given him a golden opportunity to bring these two interests together.</strong> <br /><br />'Rock journalism,’ pronounced the late Frank Zappa, ‘is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read'.<br /><br />If any statement was designed to point out glaring skills gaps in contemporary information society, this was it.<br /><br />From the perspective of teaching PR, it was the ‘people who can’t talk’ bit that particularly concerned me. Rock bands, or any type of musical act for that matter, should be just as keen to hit the right buttons of public opinion as a large corporation or a political party. It’s a skill that’s equally as important as performing on stage. Sadly, being able to sing is no guarantee of being able to talk to journalists or indeed to fans.<br /><br />Wearing my other hats as a musician and a music journalist, I had to agree that here was one industry that attracts a lot of people who really could do with a better understanding of media relations and reputation management.<br /><br />I play for a folk band. There – I’ve admitted it. And I’m willing to concede that as a genre, folk music needs to put in a lot of work to develop its own PR, but that’s a topic for another article in a future edition. Suffice it say that I have had many years experience of promoting <a href="http://www.oddsods.net">The Oddsods</a>, arranging gigs and media interviews and encouraging audiences to turn up and buy CDs.<br /><br />This experience has taught me many things. For example, you won’t get much press coverage without a good quality, eye-catching photograph. You need a simple catch-phrase to describe your sound (ours is ‘music for a rare old time’). And don’t expect daytime radio presenters to know anything about your style of music or ask anything more complex than ’What do you call that vertical drum thing? (answer: a bodhran.)<br /><br />As a writer and broadcaster in folk music I have also recognised the difficulties experienced by many up-and-coming acts in getting their message across. Like any other source of potential media interest, musicians need to come up with good news angles and be able to engage audiences with simple, direct and above all, interesting messages. <br /><br />Even the best music journalists find it a challenge to say something worthwhile about acts whose biographies are self-indulgent metaphor with no substance, whose image relies on low-resolution poorly-composed photographs and whose entire PR strategy seems to be based on a website that’s tortuous to navigate and offers little reward for anyone who tries.<br /><br />So when the chance came to launch a module on Music Promotion and PR for UCE’s <a href="http://www.mediacourses.com/index.asp">Media and Communication degree</a>, I grabbed it with both hands. The timing was perfect. We had established a successful specialist route in public relations and had just introduced a new specialism in The Music Industry. The module would fit neatly into both routes and could also be offered as an option module to students focusing on broadcast, print or web-based media. Here was one way to provide a reality-check for musicians seeking fame and fortune and to enable them to identify and apply the communication skills needed to succeed. It was also an opportunity to bring together my own passions for PR and music performance.<br /><br />The module’s objectives are to explore the practices and techniques of music PR and promotion and help students develop a working knowledge of PR and marketing theory in the context of today’s music industries. The classes have been taught jointly by myself and Mark Sampson, whose independent record label, <a href="http://www.ironmanrecords.co.uk/">Iron Man Records</a> is based in Birmingham specialising in rock, punk and ‘anti-folk’. We were determined to cover the broad spectrum.<br /><br />For both of, this was a classic journey of discovery. Surprise number one was that very few of the 17 students who enrolled were actually musicians. One or two were, or had partners who were. The majority, however, were students who were primarily interested in PR as a career and the possibility of building up the skills and knowledge for this more glamorous area of the profession. Not for them the risks of struggling to survive as touring performers – musicians may come and go, but the demand for music promoters lives on forever.<br /><br />This proved a distinct advantage for the delivery of this module. While the students may have had personal musical preferences, we were able to encourage them to consider the art of engaging publics for a wide range of musical genres – from choral to country, traditional singers to tribute bands, blues to barber shop quartets. Some of them, without any prompting from me, even undertook critical analyses of promotional tactics adopted by folk bands and their agents.<br /><br />Surprise number two was the extent of the learning curve that we all had to travel. For Mark, teaching students in the company of a university academic turned out to be something of a business investment, enabling him to pick up on some useful ideas. Ours was a ‘good cop/bad cop’ approach with Mark as the ‘practice’ man and me as the ‘theorist’. However he found himself tuning in to my presentations on diffusion theory and game theory as offering new ways to think through the day-to-day challenges of his job.<br /><br />Mark believes that the traditional marketing theories, such as E.Jerome McCarthy’s four P’s marketing mix model, will always be relevant to music promotion. However, he also admits that developments in online music promotion – blogs, podcasts, YouTube and viral marketing – have caused him to rethink his own promotional strategies from scratch and develop his own post-Arctic Monkeys model. <br /><br />Meanwhile – and just like the students – I was finding Mark’s own observations a treasure-trove of insights, not readily available from standard textbooks. We were able to gain a valuable ‘here-and-now’ insight into the structure of the music industry, its reliance on networks of contacts, its professional values and its perspectives of artists and audiences alike. <br /><br />Also, his comments on how to talk to music journalists, follow up press releases, encourage positive gig reviews, win audience support at live gigs (the PR value in the simple act of talking with paying punters after the show) and maximise one’s online impact had me reaching for my own notebook, determined not to miss any of the advice that would benefit my own band.<br /><br />As for the students, it’s encouraging to see evidence of a more analytical and strategic approach to music promotion and a keener awareness of how to relate to media practices and expectations. They’re working on their final assignments as I write this – a comprehensive press pack plus recommendations on visual identity, online presence and brand identity. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.<br /><br />Meanwhile, I have found myself reflecting on the PR implications of a module on music promotion within a Media Studies degree course. It is difficult enough to find mainstream press reference to Media Studies without the phrase ‘Mickey Mouse course’ somewhere in the same paragraph. The idea of students analysing bands’ MySpace pages and discussing the PR benefits of adopting babies in Malawi could prove too tempting to resist for tabloid editors who treat media degrees and the ‘glitzy’ side of PR with equal degrees of scepticism. <br /><br />Nevertheless, the music industry accounts for acres of newsprint and eons of air time. Life without music is no life at all and from chart shows to movie soundtracks, music is the lifeblood of popular culture. According to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the music industry contributes nearly £5 billion per year to the national economy, £1.3 billion of which is from export earnings.<br /><br />The contribution to this from my own efforts as a musician may be negligible, but it seems to me that the development of skills in music promotion and PR are a very worthwhile occupation. <br /><br />And who knows? One day in the not-too-distant future, one of my own graduates might consider folk music to be the new chic with The Oddsods at the cutting edge.<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Filed under:<br /><br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/music_PR">music PR</a>    <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/music_journalism">music journalism</a>    <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/marketing">marketing</a>    <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/PR_education">PR education</a>    <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/UCE">UCE</a>    <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_image">folk image</a>   <br><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Iron_Man Records">Iron Man Records</a>    <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Oddsods">Oddsods</a><br /></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-23454575034997825172006-12-15T08:31:00.000+00:002006-12-16T11:10:30.210+00:00If you're reading this, Mr Blair...This from Dominic Cronin on the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/uk.music.folk">UK.music.folk</a> newsgroup<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#660000;">Dear all,<br /><br />I mentioned a couple of days ago down in the bowels of some licensing thread or other that I had taken advantage of the new e-petition feature on the Prime Minister's web site, and created a petition with the following wording:<br /><br />Main text: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to recognise that music and dance should not be restricted by burdensome licensing regulations.<br /><br />Details: The recently introduced changes in licensing law have produced an environment where music and dance, activities which should be valued and promoted in a civilised society, are instead damaged by inappropriate regulation. We call on the Prime Minister to recognise this situation and take steps to correct it.<br /><br />I would like to invite you all to join me in this petition. The cynic in me says it won't do any good, but there's still a part of me that says, what the heck, give it a go anyway. It can't hurt.<br /><br />Obviously, the more support this gets the better, so please publicise it anywhere where that might do some good.<br /><br />The petition is to be found at </span><a href="http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/licensing/"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/licensing/</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#660000;"><br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br />Dominic Cronin</span></blockquote><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/licensing_law">licensing law</a>    <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/petition">petition</a>    <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/uk.music.folk">uk.music.folk</a><br /></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-91049718219280920302006-12-13T23:33:00.000+00:002006-12-16T11:11:48.445+00:00Tensions at the RockinghamThis email is being circulated by John Sparrow of the Stoneyport Agency in Edinburgh and illustrates precisely one of the areas of tension that I am investigating. The commercial interests of the company that manages a chain of pubs (or indeed of a manager of one venue in that chain) does not fit with the idea of unpaif volunteers running a successful folk club. The club itself has to justify its exisitence in terms of drinks sales.<br /><br />Here's the email and correspondence:<br /><blockquote><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">Hi<br /><br />If it's not folk dying it's something else ...<br />:(<br /><br />references:<br />Spirit Group run The Rockingham Arms, Wentworth, Yorkshire. Spirit group is the managed division of Punch Taverns, the UK's leading pub company with over 9,200 pubs nationwide.<br /><br />The burden of the mesage is that The Rockingham Arms FC is to close - very soon indeed. "The Rock" has hosted a very succesful folk club for 33 years which has been run by the same guy all those years - Rob Shaw..<br /><br />This message - below - arrived today from John Willis aka Jonti down in Doncaster Yorkshire and makes very sad reading indeed.<br /><br />Says Jonti: "Just spoken to Matthew Crehan on the phone and there seems no way he will give Rob even a few weeks grace to move out with planned dignity. It's the unacceptable face of capitalism all over again."<br /><br />Seems to me if you run a folk club in Spirit Group pub (and with 9200 of them there's a good chance there's at least one more club in a Spirit Group pub) you'd better be asking the manager what his/her plans are for what you do in their premises. I'd have thought that owning 9200 pubs was pressing at being a monopoly in fact.<br /><br />jb<br />:)<br /><br /><br />.... I have already written a letter to the MD of Spirit Group Mr Andrew Knight..........sadly it never got to his desk but I have had a reply from the Spirit Group Business Development Manager Mr Matthew Crehan (I've copied the email exchange below in bold blue italic to save confusion should this email get passed on).<br /><br />I have also spoken to the Spirit Group customer relations department and with Matthew Crehan (Spirit Group Business Development Manager) directly today (Tuesday). He has promised to look into it further and call me back again tomorrow - Wednesday.<br /><br />He made it clear that his main job & concern was to increase the profitability of the pub but would take into account other factors if it could be shown that music @ The Rock' on a Friday did have a significant (£) contribution to make to the Rockingham Arms pub at Wentworth.....which we all know it does. - How one quantifies the "cultural value" of the last 33 yrs is a formula I will leave to smarter buggers than me!<br /><br />I should point out that Matthew Crehan has been completely professional and "concerned" in the conversations I've had with him so anyone fancying having a "shout" at him would possibly not help things. With a bit of gentle persuasion/lying/cheating and stealin etc I did manage to get his mobile number from Spirit Group head office which of course I can't possibly circulate .........07884 113522m oops ! How did that come up?<br /><br />I reckon 30 or 40 persuasive discussions might have some impact if anyone cared to call him direct or put a call through to the Managing Director (Andrew Knight) on the number below.............. that I can freely circulate.<br /><br />Spirit Group 107 Station Street Burton on Trent<br />Staffordshire </span><a href="http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&amp;amp;db=pc&lang=&addr1=&client=public&addr2=&advanced=&addr3=&pc=DE141SZ&quicksearch=DE14+1SZ&cidr_client=none" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">DE14 1SZ</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><br /><br />Tel: 01283 545320 Fax: 01283 502357 e-mail: </span><a href="mailto:hub@thespiritgroup.com"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">hub@thespiritgroup.com</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><br /><br />I hope that people reading this email feel as strongly as we and do 2 of 2 things .........firstly email or call the company about this and secondly forward this email to other like-minded folks who may also express their concern by phone or email.<br /><br />cheers<br />Jonti<br /><br /><br /></span><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">copy of my correspondence<br /><br />In a message dated 10/12/2006 08:34:06 GMT<br />Standard Time, hub@thespiritgroup.com writes:<br />Ref: ACK2/01256951 10<br />December 2006 </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Mr John Willis </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">35 Harrowden Rd </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Doncaster DN2 4EL </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Dear Mr Willis<br /></span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">RE: Rockingham Arms </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Thank you for contacting us regarding the above Public House and letting us know your issues. Our investigation may involve a number of people within our business and I will ensure that you receive a full response, either from myself or a colleague whom I have personally asked to deal with your issues, as soon as we have reached a satisfactory conclusion. Please ensure that the reference number at the top of this letter is quoted on all correspondence. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Thank you again for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Yours sincerely </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Matthew Crehan </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Business Development Manager<br /><br /><br />Dear Mr Knight, </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Regrettably I find myself writing to ask your guidance and intervention in what I believe to be an unjust and commercially naive decision by one of your general managers of The Rockingham Arms public house in Wentworth Village, Nr Rotherham South Yorkshire. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">The barn/function room of the establishment has hosted the internationally renowned Rockingham Arms Live (folk) Music Club every Friday for a few months short of it's 33rd (continuous) year. Your manager has just given 1 weeks notice that the club must pay a room rental of £100 per night rising to £150 in June.........this of course is in reality "notice to quit" as such a rent would make it impossible for the club to operate at all and also impossible to honour the artists contracts that have been agreed often some 6 months in advance. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Two years ago The Rockingham Arms Folk Club won the highly coveted BBC Radio 2 Folk Music Club of the year award bringing not inconsiderable kudos and prestige to the village, the establishment and by association Spirit/Punch Taverns (of which I am a nominee account shareholder). </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">The music club has been run weekly and continuously for over 40 weeks of each year for the past 32+ years by main organiser and founder Mr Rob Shaw with a dedicated (and unrewarded) small team of volunteers. These people have formed and continued this non-profit making club for all that time purely to keep traditional and associated acoustic music live, all for the benefit of local and far afield music lovers, up and coming musicians and artists etc. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Significant benefit is also brought to The Rockingham Arms by the dedicated (and unpaid tenure) of the music club. The existence of the music club adds significant cultural value to the venue, the locality and also your company. In addition to the cultural value there is and always has been significant financial value added to the Spirit balance sheet by not only the drinks revenue but also the accommodation that is often booked for visiting artists, bands and visitors to the music club. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">There has long been a difference of opinion about the financial value accrued to the establishment by the operation of the Folk Music Club on the site. It has been suggested by recent managers that very little in the way of financial turnover is produced in the barn/function room........there is a degree of truth in this though further & thorough investigation, were it to be impartially undertaken, would prove the opposite. The drinks / beer stock in the barn has always been (A) very limited & (B) of consistently poor quality for more than 20+ years due to the general lack of use of the barn/function room bar throughout the week which impacts significantly on the quality of the draught beer in particular. Consequently, all the folk club regulars (& there are lots) routinely walk around to the bar in the main building where we all know there is not only much greater choice but beer of consistently good quality. This serves to disguise greatly the actual (rather than perceived) financial income that the operation of the Rockingham Arms Music Club brings to the establishment. This could be properly investigated as it has not been. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">The club has many members from as far away as Manchester & the North East who regularly attend. I've been going there for most of the dates for the past 33 years and would estimate that the audience averages between 60 and 70 customers weekly. That's a lot of turnover over the years. If the club is forced to close or move so unceremoniously after so many years of loyal tenure I am certain that all the many people that visit The Rockingham Arms each Friday night would never walk through the door again and the disappointment with the treatment meted out by such an obviously inexperienced manager would have far reaching consequences. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">There is no doubt that when local, regional and national press, radio and tv gets wind of the ousting of the club, the consequences for the establishment could be severe. (I don't recall who said that there was no such thing as bad publicity but perhaps it remains to be seen.) The Rockingham Arms gets a virtually weekly mention on National Radio 2 (Mike Harding Folk Show) when major artists are (regularly) booked and also is weekly mentioned (not just) in "The Music Listings" of local and regional newspapers but also in the editorial section due to the close links with journalists that have been wrought over many years. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">All this positive and free publicity is brought to your door by the efforts of the music club organisers rather than by any effort or investment by Spirit. As an investor in the Leisure/Pub/Retail sector I fully understand the commercial rationale in trying to maximise shareholder value and returns. It may well be that the macro plans of your company leaves no place for "anomalies" like a folk music club in the managed house sector of your business. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">I would hope that this were not the case but if it were, firstly a comprehensive audit of value should be undertaken to accurately assess the added value of The Rockingham Arms Music club at Wentworth and secondly you could walk the walk by bringing some fresh thinking to the way that you deal with partners with a 33 year track record. If your intention is to move the music club out then that's ok but surely some "entitlement to reasonable notice" could be applied in this case and at least allow the club to move on with some dignity and a planned relocation. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">I would reiterate that no-one makes any money or personal gain from the operation of the music club except your company. The only "payment" that the organiser(s) of this institution gain is the satisfaction of not only running the country's premiere small music venue for music of our national heritage but also the satisfaction of providing a high value service to all music lovers that attend. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Please look into this situation more carefully and try and support and reinforce the value of one of the best assets of your establishment in Wentworth. I do trust that this letter will actually get onto your desk and I am sure that with such a strong career record in the industry you will be able to investigate, advise and intervene for the long term benefit of all. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">Attached to this communication is the letter issued by your manager Mr Morton to Mr Rob Shaw giving only the one week to find the funds to continue. Do please try to apply some fresh thinking to this as it appears that your local manager is merely "taking a guess". There is no way that the barn can be let more lucratively within the next 2/3 months without a great deal of investment....so do the right thing and give the club a couple of months under the current arrangement to assess it's options. </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">yours sincerely </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">John Willis </span></strong></em></p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;">35 Harrowden Rd Doncaster DN2 4EL<br />Tel 07939 148603</span></strong></em></p></blockquote><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Rockingham_Arms">Rockingham Arms</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_clubs">folk clubs</a>    <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Punch_Taverns">Punch Taverns</a><br /></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-1163500683067303452006-11-14T10:36:00.000+00:002006-11-14T10:38:03.076+00:00Refresher breakStuck at home, feeling full of a flu-ey cold, coughing, croaking and in need of cheering up. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCG2E6AtNfc">This did the trick!</a><br /><br><font size=1>Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Bob_Dylan">Bob Dylan</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Weird_Al">Weird Al</a><br><br /></font>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-1163277721221739772006-11-11T20:01:00.000+00:002006-11-11T21:21:10.336+00:00Gimme that authentic backroom musicWas the late 1960s the peak period for folk clubs? They were, according to one account I read today, which described them as:<br /><blockquote>...run by private organizers and often located in back rooms of pubs... the clubs were of a strong amateurish nature, with a performance pattern consisting of an opening or warm-up performance by resident or visiting 'floor singers' followed by the featured guest performers...</blockquote><br />Hey, wait a minute. Either the folk scene is in a time warp or this passage is describing what many folk clubs are still like in the early 21st century. OK - audience members and artists might be older and greyer but the patterns established by the earnest young followers of the likes of Ewan McColl and Ian Campbell have changed very little. Judging by one or two folk clubs I can think of, neither has the decor in the back room of the pub!<br /><br />The passage I quoted is from Britta Sweers' book, <a href="http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Music/PopularMusic/PopRockPopularCulture/?view=usa&ci=9780195158786"><em>Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music</em></a>, published last year and one of the texts that I'm covering in my literature review. The book is actually an account and attempted explanation of the emergence of English folk-rock in the 1960s and 70s. It sets out a 'sociocultural' portrayal of electic folk but also discusses generic issues arising from the fusion of the traditional and the modern.<br /><br />Going back to folk clubs, Sweers argues that there was a distinct change in the 60s folk club scene. Clubs started out (in the wake of skiffle clubs) as venues for traditional music, singer-songwriters, blues and American folk music. By the mid-60s, British and Irish music were more dominant with much more emphasis on 'authentic' performances of traditional songs.<br /><br />While the overall trend that Sweers describes here is fairly accurate, I would argue from my own experience that different types of club have emerged to cater for different audience tastes. This may be a sweeping generalisation on my part, but looking at the guest lists of the larger, more 'professional' folk venues, they seem to concentrate on a hybrid of the 'authentic' traditional, presented in an accessible form for modern audiences, using improvisations, complex harmonies, blues-rock guitar riffs and so on. Not sure that Ewan McColl would have approved.<br /><br />The smaller, back-room-of-pubs clubs and sessions are probably more 'authentic' if you define folk as literally 'music of the people' - even if some of the people sing and play 60s popsongs, Gershwin and Wild Rover.<br /><br><font size=1>Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Britta_Sweers">Britta Sweers</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_rock">folk rock</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_clubs">folk clubs</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/authenticity">authenticity</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/literature_review">literature review</a><br><br /></font>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-1163171628828664422006-11-10T14:55:00.000+00:002006-12-16T11:10:06.609+00:00Hanging out with Dylan<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5390/3446/640/Bob%20Dylan2.jpg"><img style="CLEAR: all; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5390/3446/320/Bob%20Dylan2.jpg" /></a><br /><br />I haven't got round to starting my own MySpace site yet - I keep promising myself to do so, but with a major research project on the go, three blogs to maintain, a weekly newspaper column, a demanding day job, a band and a determination to hang onto some quality time with my wife (plus a dog and two cats), there haven't been enough hours left in the day.<br /><br />My wife, Chele has only recently set up her own <a href="http://www.myspace.com/imchelewillow">MySpace site</a> but she has wasted no time in 'social networking' with some pretty cool 'friends'. I'm not quite sure how this works but her 'My Friends' list to date includes Seth Lakeman, Randy Stonehill, The Paperboys, Sean Lennon, Los Lonely Boys, Nickel Creek, Dixie Chicks, James Taylor, Neil Young - oh yes and Bob Dylan.<br /><br />Now neither of us really believes that Mr Zimmerman sat at his computer and personally pressed the key that linked his site to Chele's - although he might have! Social networking does at least give the impression that the internet knows no barriers between celeb musicians and us humble mortals. And for Chele, setting up MySpace friendships with music heroes is proving a fascinating exercise in putting their PR strategies to the test. What started out as a bit of fun ('let's see if we can link up with 'so-and-so') has become something of a revelation. Dylan's MySpace page offers some interesting personal trivia that only 'friends' would share. Did you know, for example, that he prefers Pepsi to Coke and Burger King to MacDonalds?<br /><br />I'm wondering how big a part MySpace will play in my research into amateur music networks by the time I complete the dissertation. One of my themes is the tension between 'amateur' and 'professional' practices in folk music. Will social networking websites break down the barriers - or is it creating an illusion of egalitatianism in this here global village between the folk mega-star and the humble floor singer?<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/MySpace">MySpace</a>    <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Bob_Dylan">Bob Dylan</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/music_PR">music PR</a>    <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/amateur_music">amateur music</a><br /><br /></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-1162227289640094032006-10-30T16:25:00.000+00:002006-10-30T16:59:00.956+00:00Rescuing the Polish traditionThanks to Dagmara for this interesting email in response to the Folk Forum blog. I have permission to reproduce it here (I have made some small edits to clarify the English).<br /><br /><blockquote>I've just read your blog from cover to cover, and to tell you the truth I can see that you're really into it but nowadays it's really hard to "save" folk-music. It's such an interesting subject and there are so many issues - but I think that it's all about the young generation!!! All the issues depend on them. From the very beginning - I think that the problem is situated in the past. I mean it's a big folk treasure as well as a disaster, that this kind of music possesses historical and traditional sources. If you try to accost some of the young people on the street and ask them "what do you think about folk music?", then you'll hear: traditional, boring, old-fashioned... It's all about stereotypes. Everybody associates folk music with those descriptions.<br /><br />It's always been the case that what our parents or grandparents like is not interesting to us. It's the nature of growing up - if there is something what the young people associate with parents, they don’t like it.<br /><br />The next issue is incomprehension. It's very similar with classical music - young people might like it but not for a long time. After a few compositions they'll say BORING - why? Because they don’t understand this music, they don’t know how to listen to it, how "to see" the art in it, they don’t know anything about it. There are some talented, young people who love this music but generally most of the youth don’t like it because of their incomprehension. And the same problem is with folk music - after few songs or compositions they start to feel bored, because they can't pick up on the art of this music.<br /><br />There are some countries with old folk traditions like my country (Poland), and all young Poles don’t like this kind of music only because of the "age" of this music and tradition of course. I mean we respect our traditions but for us this music can't be popular, commonplace (daily music) because we have this music at every traditional celebration or wedding and we associate this music with traditions only. But there is something about this music - folk music - it's really weird that young people say 'boring, old fashion and traditional' so it means 'not for them', but at the same time those kind of big concerts like Woodstock (where there are always 3 folk bands at least)then you can see how amazing, with power, happiness and natural fascination they are dancing, singing, screaming and having a really good time - even better than to their own, favorite kinds of music. So where is the power of folk music??? <br /><br />In the end I just wanted to say that for me the only way to "save" and make this kind of music more popular is just try to mix it with different kinds of music. In my experience those experiments are a perfect solution. Personally I’m really interested in folk with rock music - this mix for me is just perfect. I think that more experimental music will be more liked by youth, or mix folk with electronic music - I mean I never heard this composition but it sounds interesting. I know that if you try to mix folk with different kinds of music you'll lose part of the natural folk innocence but if you wanted to save all the nature of folk music you'll be still on the same level with it like now, that there is a small group of people who are really interested to it. Nowadays the young generation has the strongest voice in the music sector, so I think that if you convince them, then you'll achieve success.</blockquote><br />I asked about the impact of traditional folk music in Poland. Dagmara (sorry I don't know if the writer is a he or a she) replied:<br /><blockquote>...you can find Polish folk tradition in every single part of this country. It's a huge sphere of art, books, stories, celebrations, painting and music of course! Poland is a rich source of folk tradition, and to be honest with you 'one life is not enough' to do a research about it. In Poland we call it INDEPENDENT CULTURE. We have plenty of folk festivals every year, concerts, promotions of folk music, sponsors, editions, periodical newspapers, schools etc. (like I said before Poland is a huge folk market). The Polish Ministry of education try to turn young people's interest in folk traditions and mobilize them - that is all those festival are every year and it's a really big performance.</blockquote><br />Dagmara - thanks. Hope you keep reading the blog and commenting! I wonder whether we should expect the British Department for Education to be so pro-active in promoting folk?<br /><br><font size=1>Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Poland">Poland</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_tradition">folk tradition</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_image">folk image</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/music_promotion">music promotion</a><br><br /></font>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-1162142128569390912006-10-29T17:01:00.000+00:002006-11-11T21:15:10.633+00:00In praise of Kate & co.<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5390/3446/640/Kate%20Rusby2.jpg"><img style="CLEAR: all; FLOAT: center; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5390/3446/320/Kate%20Rusby2.jpg" border="0" /></a> <br />My good friend Bob Brooker wrote a review of a recent Kate Rusby concert. I'm sure he won't mind me quoting it here as it was circulated to a wide circle of local folk fans:<br /><blockquote>I had the ultimate pleasure of seeing Kate Rusby at the Arts Centre last night. (I just have to tell someone!!) I can honestly say that in fifty years of enjoying music in one form or another - this was the highlight of it all.<br /><br />Her band that included John McCusker and Andy Cutting plus a superb guitarist from Orkney and an equally brilliant double bass player, along with five members of the Coldstream Guards, ("The Brass Boys!"), gave such a polished and professional performance - it is little wonder she has just won the 'Best Live Act', (it is safe to say that no other act stands a chance!), plus many other acolades. Many of the songs were from the album 'Little Lights' with a splattering of older and newer material. There's not a female singer in the whole world can equal this natural talent, plus the talents of her accompanying musicians.<br /><br />If you get the chance to see this 'Autumn Tour' then go! If you hate folk music - you'll love this gig!</blockquote><br />The review inspired one person to respond - 'so it was OK then?'<br /><br />I've seen Ms Rusby on an earlier tour and she is definitely one of the best young singers in the UK folk scene (and beyond) - plus a good, media-friendly 'ambassador' for the folk movement.<br /><br />Bob's final comment - 'if you hate folk music...' - highlights the continuing debate about what <em>is</em> folk music and what do people <em>think</em> is folk music? I haven't seen members of the Coldstream Guards perform on brass in a local folk club although my own band's music sessions often attract two very fine cello-players who fit in well with the more traditional fiddles, banjos, bodhrans and guitars.<br /><br />Kate, John, Andy & co. clearly appeal to a much wider audience than those who regularly frequent folk clubs by drawing on 'tradition' to produce a very 'popular' form of music. They are also great originators within the genre, writing some superb songs and tunes. But much of their popularity also lies in how they perform and I wonder if this indicates a major difference between 'folk' music as performed in the 'amateur' environment of a folk club, and 'popular' music, as performed in a professional 'showbiz' environment.<br /><br />The former usually focuses on the song or tune itself - who wrote it, where it came from, etc. - while the latter usually focuses on the performance - how the song is sung, how the artist relates to the audience, all the stuff they look for in the X-factor.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Kate_Rusby">Kate Rusby</a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_image">folk image</a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_clubs">folk clubs</a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_tradition">folk tradition</a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/popular_music">popular music</a><br /><br /></span>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-1162128797804376032006-10-29T13:29:00.000+00:002006-11-11T21:01:31.646+00:00Seth Lakeman - the acceptable face of folk music<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5390/3446/640/sethlakemantrio2.jpg"><img style="CLEAR: all; FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5390/3446/320/sethlakemantrio2.jpg"> </a> <br />This week sees the launch of the <em>Guardian</em>'s latest online outlet, <a href="http://music.guardian.co.uk/"><em>Music Guardian</em></a> which includes a <a href="http://music.guardian.co.uk/folk">section on folk music</a>.<br /><br />This is very welcome to folk fans who feel that folk is getting a bad press or, even worse, no press at all. For my own research, it offers more scope to examine the relationship between the experience of folk music at a 'grass roots' level (the humble folk club or music session) and mainstream media representations of folk.<br /><br />The headline of the <a href="http://music.guardian.co.uk/folk/story/0,,1929502,00.html">Seth Lakeman article</a> raises an interesting question- 'What, no Shaggy Beard?'. The question it raises in my mind is - who is this article aimed at? It's an informative piece of writing, but can't resist at least a passing reference to the classic folk stereotype:<br /><blockquote>True, his songs are about myths, legends and stories of old, but they tell their tales with timeless melodies and ear-catching hooks more readily associated with polished pop songs. And yes, his good looks and his lack of a woolly hat, scraggy beard and knitted waistcoat haven't exactly hindered his progress.</blockquote>It offers Seth Lakeman as an example of folk's increasing appeal to younger people (although you tend to hear his single more on Radio 2 than Radio 1) but - and this is hardly surprising for a national newspaper - it reflects a view of folk as experienced by arts centre and festival audiences and a discourse of 'folk' celebrities, high media exposure and the 'mainstream'.<br /><br />These are the criteria for 'success' in folk music. There is also an indication here of how folk music itself is becoming more accepted and acceptable within the wider media discourse. It offers younger, more glamorous protagonists who fit more readily into established ideas of what makes a 'celebrity' - much more attractive and newsworthy than sweaty morris-dancers!<br /><br><font size=1>Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Guardian">Guardian</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Seth_Lakeman">Seth Lakeman</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/music_journalism">music journalism</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_image">folk image</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/music_promotion">music promotion</a><br><br /></font>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-1161623103185221472006-10-23T17:29:00.000+01:002006-10-30T01:15:48.533+00:00Is this the real thing?I'm now in the early stages of putting together a literature review. I feel like I'm standing at the base of the foothills, bracing myself for a lengthy trek through the entire mountain range of published material that relates in some way to the study of amateur music and outlets for folk and traditional music.<br /><br />Last week I gave a presentation to my colleagues at UCE plus a few postgraduate students. The event was part of a series of monthly research seminars that we run in the Department of Media and Communication and I was pleased with the turn-out and interest. The presentation was similar to the one I gave at the <a href="http://folk-forum.blogspot.com/2006/09/starting-point.html">IASPM Conference</a> in September but included some work-in-progress.<br /><br />The discussion session afterwards was quite lively (three of us continued it today outside the building during a fire alarm exercise!) and much of it focused on questions of authenticity. Is 'traditional' folk in some way a 'true' or 'pure' form of music and can it be preserved as such. How does music (or dance) get defined as 'folk' anyway - and does this description or category somehow bring the music <em>closer</em> to the lived experiences of 'real' people - or does it make it more distant from consumers of popular culture such as the X-factor, hip hop or Abba tribute bands?<br /><br />These questions of authenticity are certainly going to be important in my own research. One colleague suggested I take a look at David Grazian's book <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/15592.ctl"><em>Blue Chicago</em></a> and I have now located a copy. The author knows the Chicago blues scene well, as a punter and as a musician and is interested in questions of authenticity. Do venues in Chicago offer a 'genuine', authentic experience of the blues? Hmm - does a visit to the local folk club offer a genuine, authentic experience of folk music?<br /><br />Grazian discusses authenticity in an <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/305686in.html">interview</a> and addresses such questions as (basically) whether white men can sing the blues. I may well be addressing questions on whether folk music can only be performed by people over 50 (as some people seem to think!), or whether such concepts as nu-folk or folk-rock or Young Tradition awards offer a challenge to popular concepts of 'authentic' folk.<br /><br><font size=1>Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/research_proposal">research proposal</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/IASPM">IASPM</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/David_Grazian">David Grazian</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/blues">blues</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/authenticity">authenticity</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/literature_review">literature review</a><br><br /></font>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-1160434894292232762006-10-09T23:31:00.000+01:002006-10-10T00:05:34.796+01:00What does it take to get an audience on a rainy night?I received a phone call tonight from a local club organiser with an update of information to include in my newspaper column. He also told me that he was closing the club in December as he wasn't getting enough audiences to cover the guests' fees. One of his forthcoming guests (I'll mention no names here as this is a public blog) had sent him very little information about themselves that he could use for publicity. <br /><br />The gig was arranged on the phone and since then he had received a couple of posters but no press pack, photos, biography. I checked for websites and found none that this act were operating themselves. There was some online presence but most of it consisted of comments from other event organisers, plus a site for buying CDs online. There were no photographs of sufficient quality to be used by newspapers.<br /><br />No doubt when these guests arrive, the act will be disappointed by the low audience turn-out. No doubt also that they are probably damn fine musicians travelling some distance to do the gig, so presumably they will expect the club to pay them the agreed fee even if it is evident that the club loses a lot of money that night (well - to be more precise - the organiser. The money will come out of his pocket).<br /><br />For me, this highlights an observation I have often had about the UK folk circuit - in particular, acts who haven't broken into the 'mainstream' but are getting regular gigs at smaller venues. The venues are usually run by enthusiastic amateurs who do not make money from their work - in fact, they often lose money. Yet there is a business relationship of sorts set up when the gig is arranged. A fee is agreed, plus a statement of how many sets, the length of each set, arrival time, whether a PA is needed, etc. Club organisers in my experience are optimistic souls who offer the bookings with the conviction that a large crowd will show up. Often, this does not happen. And often this is because the artists are 'professional' enough to charge a fee but are still 'amateur' in their outlook, believing that the minimum amount of promotion is needed to pull in a crowd. <br /><br />They have to ask themselves - why would anyone come to see me perform on a rainy night if they haven't heard of me? What message should I be putting across, via publicity offered to the folk club, to convince people to get out of their cosy homes and drive over to the venue to watch me perform? Sadly, many acts on the smaller club circuit are not honest enough with themselves to ask that question. They think that people should come to see them anyway and if people don't, it's the club's fault.<br /><br />Club organisers should also ask themselves - how can I convince people to come and see this act? Is it enough to consider that I think they're worth booking? The answer to that is no, that is not enough. There has to be a compelling reason offered for audiences to give up their time, home comforts and cash to sit in your folk club and watch someone they have never seen or heard before. But, as I said, most folk club organisers are too optimistic to think that people need a much stronger reason to get out to the club than the fact the guest is a good musician. If the guest doesn't have a decent website or good quality publicity, there is nothing to give people the incentive to come and watch them perform. And sure enough, they won't.<br /><br><font size=1>Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_clubs">folk clubs</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/music_promotion">music promotion</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/marketing">marketing</a><br><br /></font>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-1159971445743875372006-10-04T15:15:00.000+01:002006-10-04T15:24:49.100+01:00The man who put words to the thoughts of Billy Bragg.Dan Davies was one of the respondents to my <i>Screaming Headlines</i> blog items, <a href="http://screamingheadlines.blogspot.com/2006/09/confessions-of-folk-music-journalist.html">Confessions of a Folk Music Journalist</a>.<br /><br />He refers to his new <a href="http://dandavies23.wordpress.com/">blog</a> - a repository of his own articles, including a piece which he ghost-wrote for Billy Bragg. Well worth a read.<br /><br /><br><font size=1>Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_journalism">folk journalism</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/"></a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Billy_Bragg">Billy Bragg</a><br><br /></font>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-1159952242367689732006-10-04T09:20:00.000+01:002006-10-04T15:15:10.616+01:00Could young tradition contribute to the demise of folk clubs?Here's the text of a press release that recently came my way...<br /><blockquote><strong>Stratford sees an explosion of Young Talent</strong><br />BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award 2007<br /><br />On Saturday 14 October 2006 the Civic Hall in Stratford-upon-Avon will be filled with the sounds of some the best up and coming young talent performing folk, roots and acoustic music as part of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award 2007. BBC Radio 2’s Mike Harding Show has invited 12 of the many soloists, groups and duos that entered this prestigious competition to attend a Semi-final Weekend in Stratford- upon-Avon.<br /><br />On Saturday evening at 7.30pm the Semi-finalists will take to the stage in a public Audition Concert where the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award judges will choose acts to go through to the Final to be held in London on 1 December 2006.<br /><br />Tickets for the Audition Concert are free and open to everyone but booking early is advised as numbers are limited. To reserve a ticket please contact the Civic Hall on 01789 207100.<br /><br />These young performers are all aged between 15-20. They will spend the weekend learning new skills from high profile musicians Robert Harbron and Eliza Carthy and be taught the tricks of the music trade, immersing themselves in making music and song. <br /><br />The finalists will be announced on Mike Harding’s show on Wednesday 18 October, 8-9pm on BBC Radio 2 and the Final can be heard on BBC Radio 2 on Wednesday 6 December, 8-9pm.<br /><br />The winning act from the Final will record a session to be broadcast on BBC Radio 2’s Mike Harding Show, appear at three top UK festivals - BBC Radio 2 Cambridge Folk Festival, Towersey Village Festival and Fairport’s Cropredy Convention and receive a year’s free membership to the Musicians’ Union.<br /><br />Previous winners include Tim van Eyken who now has a successful solo career having been a regular member of Waterson:Carthy, exciting Celtic group Uiscedwr who have performed at many of the UK’s festivals and Scottish fiddle player Lauren MacColl, who has recently been seen performing with BBC Radio 2 Horizon Folk Award 2006 winner, Julie Fowlis.</blockquote><br />What's significant about this is the drive by the BBC to promote young folk talent and there's no doubt that a generation of impressive young singers and musicians are keeping traditional music alive and accessible to younger audiences. Not just the BBC, but many organisations are working hard to keep the average age of active folk performers lower than 65! <br /><br />One regular source of newblood performers is the University of Newcastle's <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/undergraduate/course/W340">folk and traditional music degree</a> whose teaching staff includes Kathryn Tickell, Catriona MacDonald and Alistair Anderson. I often find myself referring to this course when writing up background details of guest artists for the Warwick Folk Festival programme.<br /><br />Many of these talented youngsters are nurtured almost from birth, sometimes by parents who are themselves professional folk artists. It does raise a nagging doubt in my mind - are these youngsters being fast-tracked into folk stardom? <br /><br />Many older generation folk (and non-folk) performers will extol the virtues of working the clubs and developing a professional status through experience and the University of Hard Knocks. My impression (but I have no solid evidence for this) is that many of the 'bright young things' do not have a lot of experience of travelling the country and playing the folk clubs - at least the smaller ones - but often step straight into the circuit of larger and concert-style folk venues.<br /><br />Yes there are many exceptions and yes most young folksingers have some experience of folk clubs and folk sessions. Spiers and Boden come to mind as two young musicians who have hosted excellent sessions and haven't fallen into the trap of presenting themselves as instant superstars. But there is a concern in my own mind that many young performers see their musical careers as pop stars playing the larger festivals and arts centres while traditional folk clubs miss out. They can't afford to book them or have to charge pretty high admission - concert-style prices.<br /><br />I took part in a Singers Night at a folk club in Coventry recently. The organiser was convinced that the club would be closed by Christmas because of falling audience support and higher fees charged by guests. Most of the people there (and there weren't many of us) were over 40 and the one young singer who turned up sang from a repertoire of old Beatles and Searchers songs (which was good to hear but not what they teach at the Univertsity of Newcastle I suspect!).<br /><br />It seems to me that while the new industry of young folk talent is keeping folk music alive - i.e. making sure that the old songs and tunes are still being played and heard - it is also a possible factor in the demise of the informal, low-budget, backroom-of-the-pub folk clubs.<br /><br><font size=1>Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/BBC_Young_Folk_Award">BBC Young Folk Award</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/"></a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Newcastle_University_folk_degree">Newcastle University folk degree</a><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/"></a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_clubs">folk clubs</a><br><br /></font>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34917293.post-1159087886756731982006-09-24T09:41:00.000+01:002006-09-24T10:01:25.280+01:00Image problem? What image problem?The idea for starting this blog came out of a discussion that developed on my <a href="http://screamingheadlines.blogspot.com/2006/09/confessions-of-folk-music-journalist.html">Screaming Headlines blog</a>. The item referred to folk music's image problem and while it was relevant to the blog's overall theme of PR and journalism, the responses encouraged me to establish Folk Forum as a place to build up links and open up discussion on the practices of folk and amateur music.<br /><br />Of course, some folk enthusiasts would argue that the image problem is only there if you want folk music to be mainstream and that part of the charm (and power) of folk is that it doesn't conform to the demands of the major labels. This point was made by Tom Paxton when I interviewed him several years ago - he talked about the problem of commodified 'ersatz' folk music (he gave the Kingston Trio as an example) and how he and his friends would sit outside in the evening, drinking wine and thanking God that they hadn't been 'discovered' by the major labels.<br /><br /><br><font size=1>Filed under:<br /><a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/folk_image">folk image</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/commodified_music">commodified music</a>   <a href="http://del.icio.us/Pete_Wilby/Tom_Paxton">Tom Paxton</a><br /><br><br /><br /></font>Pete Wilbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13060476231318960495noreply@blogger.com0