Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield

Subject: Emma Hartley's Glamour Cave blog
From: EmmaHartley
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 10:25 AM

Thanks to Max for a warm welcome. Here's a link to my blog, which is about folk.

http://theglamourcave.blogspot.com/2011/07/pilgrims-way-bestows-wayside-courtesies.html

The latest post is about a three-piece called Pilgrim's Way who are about to release a terrific first album. But the blog's been going since January and I post at least once a week, so there's lots on there.The most-read posts include one about how to get yourself on Later with Jools Holland

http://theglamourcave.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-get-yourself-on-later-with-jools.html

and some reviews of the Bristol folk festival

http://theglamourcave.blogspot.com/2011/05/bristol-folk-festival-at-colstan-hall.html

and the London Feis

http://theglamourcave.blogspot.com/2011/06/london-feis-finsbury-park.html

Hope to hear from some of you :-)

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: GUEST,Pedant
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 03:27 PM

Sorry kid, you can't be metrosexual and from Macclesfield. Just not possible.

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: EmmaHartley
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 07:18 PM

I believe they get as far as Manchester from time to time ;-)

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Stu
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 10:53 AM

You can be now, Macclesfield is trendy with the hip folkies. A disproportionate number of musicians and artists in the town given the actual population size. In the recent Barnaby Festival we had 39 separate exhibition spaces for the visual arts, a new reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (part of which is set near the town), buckets of live music (the town has it's own professional opera company) plus any questions broadcast from the church etc etc The monthly Treacle Market has proved a godsend for the town with arts, crafts, books and an excellent food market, and live music all day.

Did I mention music? Apart from a very lively live music scene, some of the town's most famous sons and daughters are musicians of note, including John Mayall, Jim Moray, Ian Curtis and the mighty Nodster lives here. As for folk music, it's no co-incidence that Pilgrims' Way are from this neck of the woods. There is a very healthy folk scene and musicians come from miles around to play in in the town's sessions (yes, even from Manchester). Some of these musicians (like myself) frequent this bearpit of a board and are top class, knowledgeable folkies who play for the love of the music.

Manchester? Pah! It's the real thing in Macc.

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 25 Jul 11 - 02:52 AM

How can you mention Macclesfield and music without mentioning The Macc Lads ?

Macclesfields greatest talent.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 25 Jul 11 - 03:03 AM

The Macc Lads? They must be drawing their pensions about now... :-)

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Stu
Date: 25 Jul 11 - 04:07 AM

Hmmm, quite easy to 'forget' to mention The Macc Lads. Still see one or two of them around town, all respectable now.

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 25 Jul 11 - 05:12 AM

Beer and Sex and Chips and Gravy, what a great song.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Stu
Date: 25 Jul 11 - 06:17 AM

The first album was good but some of the subsequent stuff was a little, er, un-PC and not in a good way. I might still have my "eh up, let's sup" badge I got from the indoor market somewhere. Could be worth something, I might ebay it. Things were never the same after the Bell End Cheese shop closed down. I used to work at the printers where they got their cassette covers printed, and Muttley was charm personified. As is the case with these things it was all a big joke; they went to the posh private school in the town.

Some talented folk around the town and no mistake, luckily we're moving away from The Macc Lads and into some bloody good music.

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Gurney
Date: 25 Jul 11 - 08:17 PM

How times change. Once, if a metrosexual anything appeared in Macclesfield, they would swiftly reappear on a string in the gift shop.

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Richard from Liverpool
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 10:24 AM

Perhaps semantic shift has occurred and changed it beyond recognition, but the very word 'metrosexual' winds me up. There's an ugly oxymoron here, and that doesn't have anything to do with Macclesfield. Metrosexual, to my mind, has consumerist overtones that sit ill at ease with the vibrancy and do-it-yourself nature of folk music. Metrosexual brings to mind moisturiser, cosmetics, and the importance of surface appearance over form and depth. Not characteristics I'd like to associate with any kind of music.

I am an unashamedly urban male, but you can stick your grooming products up your arse.

Interesting blog, by the way.

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: davyr
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 06:50 AM

Thought I might as well plug this lot, as nobody else has mentioned them:

http://watersgreenmorris.btck.co.uk/

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 07:16 AM

Could someone explain to this simple Yorkshireman what ' metrosexual folkies ' actually means ? or is it just a buzzword ?

Dave H

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 01:06 PM

I was wondering the same Dave. Macclesfield is a bit of a strange place - I even bought an electric guitar there for £15 last week - charity shop jobby - mandola sized stratocaster knockoff made for brats - should play quite nicely once I've fettled it.

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: glueman
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 03:36 AM

Metrosexual was a word I thought I understood until I read the definition on Wikipedia. Hidden away is a quote that's closer to what I assumed it means: "(Simpson's) original definition of the metrosexual was sexually ambiguous, or at least went beyond the straight/gay binary; marketers, in contrast, insisted that the metrosexual was always "straight" – they even tried to pretend that he wasn't vain."

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: SteveMansfield
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 06:22 AM

Metrosexual was a word I thought I understood until I read the definition on Wikipedia.

Encyclopaedia was a word I thought I understood until Wikipedia came along ...

It's the sexually ambivalent and urban dandy connotations of the word that I find odd about applying it to Pilgrims Way as well.

Not that I know anything and care less about their private lives and personal grooming habits, but it was an interesting choice of description that didn't strike me as particularly apposite (let along relevant).

Maybe I'm missing something. The music's great though!

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: GUEST,baz parkes
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 07:30 AM

Perhaps Ed used to drive a Metro...oops, no, they're all too young...

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 08:43 AM

And what has it got to do with folkies in Macclesfield ? or are they all that way inclined ?

Dave H

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 08:44 AM

Perhaps Emma Hartley may care to explain.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Stu
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 09:56 AM

As a Macclesfield folkie I don't recognise Metrosexuality as one of the traits of my peers, we leave that sort of thing to people from Alderley Edge. We're all reet down't earth here.

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: GUEST,punkfolkrockers
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 10:05 AM

what about us Provincialsexuals ????

and even them there thoroughly dubious Ruralsexuals !!!!!????


..ok, shower gel once or twice a week is just about tolerable


but moisturizers and hair care products !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Stu
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 10:36 AM

We knew our old session pub was under threat when they put air freshener in the bogs. There's all sorts in there now (soap, a welly washer etc). And the place doesn't smell the same, no eau-de-cow anymore; they've even got ice now, for crying out loud.

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 12:56 PM

Which pub would that be SJ? Can't say that I've played in ernest in Macc for umpteen years but I could be tempted. Apart from that, the words "Metrosexual" and "Macclesfield" seem to have been used more for their alliterative merits than as a reflection of real life.

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: EmmaHartley
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:20 PM

Metrosexual. In the sexually ambiguous sense. I thought I explained what I meant in the blog. Girls dressed as boys, Lucy singing in a male narrative voice, that kind of thing. Nothing to do with cosmetics. Or marketing.

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: Stu
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:22 PM

The Harrington Arms in Gawsworth; it's my favourite pub in the world but I don't go much an more for a number of reasons, although I've been a player there for nearly 20 years now. In truth, the session is suffering a bit as the new owners serve food which they need to do to keep the pub a going concern, but it's not the same as the old days of cowshite and grime.

However, nothing is permanent and the pub is buzzing and they've done a great job and are lovely people but I suspect folk music is not at the top of their list of priorities, and last Friday there were too many diners to make it comfortable in the tap room. The session has been going over 30 years continually and can be excellent, but quality is (as ever) variable.

I'm glad the pub has a rosy future as it's a gem, but how long folk will be there is anyone's guess; could be 30 more years, could be 30 more weeks.

Subject: RE: Metrosexual folkies from Macclesfield
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 03:47 PM

Never mind the air-freshener, the rot set in when they built inside toilets and put in a bar. And when the lager tap went in I swear you could hear the former landlady spinning in her grave...

It's still a great pub and the new owners have modernised it very sensitively, but it's the way of things that they depend on food sales. However they do continue to make us very welcome so no complaints on my part.

I'm struggling with the idea of my mate Tom Kitching as an "urban dandy".