David Kilpatrick wrote "Lovely girls, aren't they? Actually, it does sound as if the 'attack' was less serious - more like just a part of the girl's hair getting cut off, not a massacre......." And so on. David, I think this might be worth a blether when we bang into each other again, but it must be less than fascinating for others on the list to have such a detailed discussion on the affairs of one little Scottish Border town - except maybe as an insight into the reality of Scotland today - aye, whaur's yer mists and lochs noo?? All the same there are some general points that come out of your posting and that of Philip's on the same subject that are relevant to the subject of Scottish traditional music and society today. "...Kelso will remain the way it is - visually attractive, pleasant enough but devoid of any real culture apart from teachers, teachers' kids, professionals and professionals' kids ...." "Real" culture being...? "...Kelso is hell; the only kids who stay here are in factories, on farms or unemployed." Ah. The dreaded working classes. The vast majority of these are decent kids David, even if they don't share your notions of "real" culture. Kelso is not hell. Incidentally I've not been to the Red Lion for a while - but that's got nothing to do with coming "face to face with elements I don't want to remember". I don't recall coming face to face with many people at all at the Red Lion - the session you had going previously in the Waggon was much better, really great at times, until as Philip said the new management cleared the room and brought in an accordionist.. On a more general note for those on this list - whereabouts does "traditional" music get played around the world? What is the "traditional" music that gets played? How popular would you say "traditional" music (and culture) is? Nowadays I mainly play the fiddle. I used to be a singer. When I lived in the city of Norwich in England I used to go to a folk club which was regularly stowed out. The people who came along were often enthusiastic singers themselves - even if they didn't do solo spots. Occupations included teacher (of course!), civil servant, bus driver, porter, painter and decorator and so on. The Labour Club in Norwich was also a place where folk music was popular - a lot of singers and players were involved in fund raising and taking supplies to mining communities during the big strike of 1984. Folk or traditional music has a big tap-root and goes deep in many people - who may or may not wish to go out of an evening and sing hale and hearty sea shanties or drinking songs. When I was younger I wanted to go out - the pub, pictures (movies) dancing. I loved and hated all the usual stuff from the pop culture of the day. On a Saturday night I was a typical adolescent drunken yob, not out of place on the streets of Kelso, where we used to spend a lot of time, weaving our way back to Galashiels in a car at the end of the night. Amongst my friends however an attachment to Scottish music and notions of Scottishness were never that far under the surface. We were Scots and that was important. My point here Philip is that you can assume "traditional" music is deader than it is. Those who love this music and want to play it all the time will always be disappointed if they expect others to constantly queue up wanting to listen to them. People have all sorts of other things they want to do. That gets me to the "session". The "pub session". I first came across the "pub session" sometime in the 1970s I think. A pub advertised "live music" and we went along. I expected somebody playing music in the pub to the audience, a bit of rapport - the usual stuff. There was a group of players in a corner. They arranged themselves in a circle - half with their backs to everybody and played tunes all night. Any talk they had was amongst themselves. The music was good, but it was such a closed environment people in the pub began to lose interest and talk amongst themselves (I later learned that this is quite acceptable - "sessions" are meant to appear organic and casual - you don't involve the people at the bar). After a while I lost interest myself and just wanted the musicians to leave as we couldn't blether properly while they were blattering away in the corner. I don't recall when the "pub session" was invented - I associate it with the Irish Tourist Board circa late '60s but I may be wrong. When I was growing up in the Scottish Borders informal music making took place in people's houses. There were also concerts and dances (a lot of these would be called ceilidhs now). You went to the pub for a drink. Now I don't have anything against playing in pubs (apart from the carcinogenic cigarette smoke which also makes every fibre of my clothes stink and can have a bad effect on my wife who has asthma), but I think we make a mistake if we confuse the popularity of the pub session amongst drinkers with the state of health of the music itself. People still go to the pub for a drink, a blether, to play the machines, to watch Sky Sports. The last thing you probably want is a bunch of apparently self-absorbed musicians knocking out a constant stream of tunes that you can neither turn down nor off - even if you did start the evening tapping your feet. The pub session has no real roots in this part of the world, and, with one or two exceptions (like the Pilot pub in Berwick) has failed to take off. Kids mainly want to play and listen to pop music, like they always did. Kids get pissed on a Saturday night, like they always did. Traditional music is alive and as well as any other in the Scottish Borders. How is it with you?? Eric Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
