Without the minds of mental girls, what would singers sing?

[alexsarll]

I knew I'd be early to the Barge so I dawdled as much as possible, maugree the 'no loitering' signs outside one of the posher riverside blocks. After all, surely they can't do me for loitering when I'm clearly brooding? I'd always been aware that the Thames was tidal but I'd never noticed how quick that tide came in; the water level goes from 'exposed beach' to 'almost over the embankments' in less than an hour. Sat waiting for the doors to open I had chance to get properly stuck into The Leopard; thus far it seems to share a mood with Brideshead Revisited in its ambivalent elegy for a fading aristocracy, but allied to a more political sensibility which is painfully aware that any supposed position of power brings more responsibility than power. I suspect it will thoroughly depress me before it's done.

When 7pm rolls around, I discover that all the tables are already reserved. Well...maybe they are. The MC reckons I can have the bench at the end, at least temporarily. Four letter words ksta and mzdt join me before someone decides they may have a claim on said bench, but in spite of my polite offer to cede it they retreat. They then proceed to glower at us throughout the show. The English are so hopeless at standing up for their rights, it's no wonder we have this government.


At Jeays' December shows, most of the songs are chosen by audience members; the audience members are chosen by raffle ticket. None of our numbers came up, but mzdt and my joint first choice and both of ksta's get played anyway. Now, this isn't in order but is a list of all the songs played:

New Song Possibly Called What Would Singers Sing
Parry County
Mr Jeays
Trains
Cupid Is A Drunkard
Geoff
Say You Love Me
Only This High
Ed Is At The Ritz
Madame
Little Philip
The Laughing Song
The Man From Del Monte
Deathbed
London
The Knife
Midnight In Trieste
When The Sun Goes In
The Mas De Bagne Loups
The Raj
Catherine
Down At Harry's
The Turning Of The Leaves

Notice anything about that list? First, the sad songs predominate. At one point the order of raffle tickets was juggled that proceedings not become too depressing. Second, and I think more important: not one of the "confused peacenik songs" was requested. No 'I'll Never Be An Idiot In Great War Soldier Uniform'. Because after you've heard them a second time you realise that they're actually trite, didactic and unworthy of his talent. There are political elements to many of his other songs, certainly, but here they're deployed as they should be, as context to stories and sadness, not as Sixth Form rants.
And in part because the polemics were absent, and in part because the Barge is the venue which suits him best, it was a marvellous show.


Spam subject line received yesterday: "lemming melodic hobbes protease malnutrition somerset silvery zeroes chao consanguineous deputation reason toxicology broken desultory eastman eminent osmotic denial nameplate restaurant transmissible doldrum clip incant"

Comments

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

Probably a good job I couldn't make it as Only this High never fails to make me weep buckets.
But bah anyway.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

And the sad factor is only enhanced by the Thames lapping outside the window.
How was your show?

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

Oh it was good once we finally got on the stage!

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

All the sad songs, so, all my favourites then, really. I really resent these evening work meetings (with the minor advantage that I just tipped +10 on the flexisheet, making it almost a moral duty to arrive late and leave early every day until Christmas). Patriot isn't trite, it's just wrong. It's actually a fairly coherent expression of what it wants to say.

Spent the day listening to Jeays on my new mp3 phone anyway.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I don't know - Auden or Shelley, for instance, did manage hymns against patriotism with which I disagree, but which don't actually *annoy* me.

[mzdt.livejournal.com]

I'm staying out of this one...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I can like art with which I disagree, just as I can dislike art with which I agree. For instance, I hate Japan's 'Adolescent Sex' ;).

[juliet]

Ooh, shiny. Bah! to having to decorate NewHouse :-( Maybe next year I'll make the Christmas gig...

(OTOH, we *did* manage to finish the last of the wallpapering, so that was good)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

So do you now have a surplus of paste? Because from past experience one never has quite the right amount. And what the Hell does one do with surplus wallpaper paste?

[juliet]

Yes, loads, cos we were very nearly finished on Sunday before running out of paste, so there was only a roll's worth of papering to do.

I am not 100% sure what you're *supposed* to do; what we *did* was to dilute it heavily & chuck it down the outside drain....

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Of course, within the next month you'll inevitably find some situation in which paste would be really handy.
(Or so the cliche goes. But when I chucked out about 20 defunct biros, a use for them still miraculously failed to arise)

[juliet]

Yeah, but I've never bought into that - just chuck the damn stuff out! (but then, I am Anti-Hoarding, although occasionally have to fight my inner squirrel to remain so. I'm getting better at chucking out Stuff Generally, but do have a tendency to retain mementos).

The only occasion I could think for requiring wallpaper paste within the next month would be if the wallpaper we've already put up fell down. I Sincerely Hope this will not happen, & anyway, we'd likely have bigger problems then. I need the empty bucket more :-)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Whereas I don't think there's much inner about my squirrel; I'm justsurprised I don't have a bushy tail. Only having to pack two rooms over the course of this year has inspired me to chuck stuff out at all, and even then I've ended up retaining an awful lot of stuff.
Mmmm, Stuff...

[ksta.livejournal.com]

yerrr, I used to keep defunct pens in the hope that the world would become a better place if I , and then we all, bought refills for biros.

I didn't and it hasn't.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Did you make your train OK?

And new number me up! alex.sarll@pa.press.net

[ksta.livejournal.com]

aye, ta.

it only took me 1 hour and a bit to get home as well, which was nice.

[thermaland.livejournal.com]

(My box was so long because LJ was gefacked around the time I was editing the poll and things went wrong.)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

(Thank you for answering that in such a place as to bump up this post's rather anorexic comment count)

[rentaghost31.livejournal.com]

you see what happens when i'm busy?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Your efforts are appreciated, but yesterday's would have managed 58 even without your strand!

[electrodeserter.livejournal.com]

Oh, and incidentally, I'd just like to point out how much I like the idea of there being bands called Lemming Melodic Hobbes, Silvery Zeroes, Desultory Eastman and Transmissible Doldrum.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I bet nickeii already has their albums.

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

Desultory Eastman and Transmissible Doldrum

Maybe they could be Combustible Edison tribute outfits.