29 f
new chord sequences for the same tunes by nods and winks and all the rest. That delightful moment comes when you realise that nobody is actually playing the tune any more! The whole thing is coast- ing on its own impetus – that’s very good for your soul.”
J.J. “Also, playing for that circuit acquaints you with a great many different venues. We’ve had snooker tables as stages, great barns, aircraft hangars, all sorts of places… and lots of people with different expectations – some in cowboy hats, some totally unaware of what they might get, unable to categorise the music. You learn a great deal about audiences I think. We made a lot of mistakes publicly, but we gave value for money – we were always exciting, even when things didn’t quite work.”
Do you find it more exciting playing for people who haven’t got preconceived ideas about what kind of folk music they’ll listen to? Presumably at something like a PTA it just hinges on making their feet work?
J.J. “Oh definitely. And there’s a real sense of achievement from taking those people through from something very sim- ple and in the end putting them through a dance they never thought (and maybe you never thought) they’d be able to do at the beginning of the evening. And creating an atmosphere like a festival. We gave them some pretty heavy songs too, sometimes: we always tried to keep some songs in – shatter them by the interval and slip a cou- ple of songs in. It’s well worth it.”
Somewhere between the first and sec- ond Oyster albums, you dropped the word ‘Ceilidh’ from the name. Presumably this means you have intentions of being seen as more than just a ceilidh band?
I.T. “Putting it in the name originally was intended to convey the song-and- dance thing, but the number of people who understood that – the word never became totally current in English – the number of people who understood it was outweighed by the number who expected you to go along and do Irish rebel songs or something.”
J.J. “I wish we did have a really good word for it, because I’m not keen on ‘Barn Dance’ or ‘Country Dance’ because they put people off. I love that combination of dance and song. I wish British audiences were more aware of the idea that you can go along and listen to something without being regimented in chairs. You can have a few pints, you can dance some of the evening as part of it.”
Maybe one of the reasons why dances have been a growing business at the same time as there have been people expressing boredom with folk song clubs is the better socialising chances?
I.T. “There’s nothing wrong with that
– there’s nothing naughty about going to a club for social reasons, that’s ridiculous. A club will thrive better if it’s a focus for people who go along, if they like to meet each other.”
J.J. “Many people would lament the passing of the Whitstable club – but it served its purpose because for four or five years it brought together musicians and singers in a terrific atmosphere. When it finished, it had spawned us as a band, ceilidhs going on where people met for social reasons, two morris sides, a mum- mers side, a medieval dance group and numerous sessions that were going on, even on the same night as the club. It brought those people together and all
The Oyster Band, November 1985: Ian Telfer, Ian Kearey, Alan Prosser, John Jones.
those activities proliferated from it. The social atmosphere was one of the greatest arguments against the club in its later years – it had a bloody miserable landlord, a cold room, and having to sit through what had become rather mediocre music. People were ready to drift off.”
Years ago, like many people in song clubs, I used to get miffed if somebody dared talk, and you get the compere going “shhh… shhh…” but I’ve come round to thinking that if you’re generating a good atmosphere with the music, and people are talking a little because they’re enjoy- ing that atmosphere you’ve created with the music, it doesn’t matter. You’ll hold the listeners if the music’s good. It’s differ- ent if it’s downright oblivious rudeness of course. Surely folk music, of all music, is social music rather than art music?
J.J. “This barrier of not being sup- posed to enjoy yourself is still there. British people more than most, I think, need that barrier broken down – I don’t know whether it’s drink that does it, or dancing, but there’s got to be something.”
So from the evidence of English Rock- ’n’Roll, you’re adding to just being an
improvising dance band, arranging songs well. Given an ideal world, where would you like to be heading if people will let you?
J.J. “Once you’ve got five individuals in
a band, there’s a greater desire to use each one to the full. And once you spend time on arrangements and get as much of a kick out of them as we do on songs, then you look for a reciprocal thing from the audi- ence; that they respond and enjoy it in the same way. So we are looking for an audi- ence that listens to the music more now.”
“Certainly one of the ideas behind the English Rock’n’Roll album was playing to moods – using a slow morris tune in the same way as a simple Celtic air, to listen to, and the storming of the songs, piling everything in. Not just to show how rocky we can be, but to drag every ounce of appeal out of those songs. Although some are originally a bit thin, through lyric reconstruction you can make a really good story, one that’s immediate, out of English songs. And the tunes are stunning.”
You can find the whole 1983 Oyster Band interview online at
www.frootsmag. com/content/features/oysterband F
With first drummer Russell Lax (second left) at the South Bank, September 1986.
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