Floor Singers are the backboe

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: Banjiman
Date: 20 May 09 - 01:00 PM

Gedi,

I think we can only both speak from our own experiences . I'm actually very glad your singers club brings in new people!

Hopefully my post was not a put down of floor singers and singers clubs...... just a plea that "pro/guest bashing" achieves nothing.

Cheers

Paul

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: Gedi
Date: 20 May 09 - 08:19 AM

I agree with Mike above, there is a niche for both, and it is a pointless excercise to 'bash' one in favour of the other.

I go to the Beech Singaround, which has a variety of talent, and it is always, without exception a great evening. We do not have Guests so indeed the members are the club and vice versa. Also I would have to disagree with Banjiman where he says

"Floor singers and singing clubs are great (I attend 4 Regularly) but will do little to bring more people into the folk fold."

I know of several people who have started coming to the Beech who were not into folk previously, including a French lady who has been known to give us the odd French folk song.   

I think it is a welcoming atmosphere, and the 'inclusivity' that brings in people (including newcomers to folk), not necessarily the big names.

Ged

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: MikeofNorthumbria
Date: 20 May 09 - 06:52 AM

Why waste time arguing about whether floor singers are more necessary than professional guest artists (or vice versa)? Both species have a niche in the ecology of folk music, and life would be less interesting if either became extinct.

It's difficult to slice bread with a spoon, or drink soup with a knife, so we keep both handy in our kitchens. But while we go on and on debating whether the knife is aesthetically more pleasing than the spoon, or the spoon is morally more admirable than the knife, the bread goes stale and the soup gets cold.

I'm tempted to suggest that the same metaphor might be applied to some of the other artificial antitheses which generate so much heat and so little light on this forum - for example the traditional versus contemporary argument - but that might raise the blood pressure of some of our regular correspondents to a dangerous level.

Wassail!

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: GUEST,Warwick Slade
Date: 19 May 09 - 03:45 PM

Floor singers are the salt of the earth and their talents should be recognised. At least some have now shared their talent with a wider audience as the latest CD by Terry McDonald illistrates, suitably entitled 'The Secret Diary of a Floor Singer' Catch a track on
www.myspace.com/terrymcdonalddorset
Better still buy a copy. He can be contacted via the Warwick Slade Web site
I do believe he will soon be hear on Paul Burke's raido show

Support you local floor singer!

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: SunrayFC
Date: 19 May 09 - 12:11 PM

Isn't folk surprisin'

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: Banjiman
Date: 19 May 09 - 07:28 AM

Here we go again..... let's all knock the pros!

Floor singers and singing clubs are great (I attend 4 Regularly) but will do little to bring more people into the folk fold.

I also run a concert club where we have booked supports and main guests. As well as attracting a fair proportion of the clientele from the singers clubs I attend we all so get audience who would have no interest in attending a singaround or litening to a succession of "amateur" singers on a guest night. (We have a singaround after the guests have done there slots for those who want to stay).

I can honestly say that none of the booked acts that we have put on appear to have passed the point where they are enjoying it and are only doing it for the money.

Paying people allows us to bring in very talented unknowns and knowns from other parts of the world who would otherwise not make it to our local clubs.

Why the constant jibing from some quarters suggesting that all "paid" performers are some how not as committed as the "amateurs"? That really is a load of twaddle!

I wonder if most of the knockers have tried and failed to make it as booked guests and that is why they hold such a grudge?

Surely it's just horses for courses?

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: Bernard
Date: 19 May 09 - 07:08 AM

The thing about floor singers is there is no doubt at all that they do it for the enjoyment it gives them.

I occasionally get the impression that some so-called professionals have passed that point long ago and do it primarily for the income it brings.

Okay, there isn't a fortune to be made on the folk scene unless you're one of the lucky ones, but you know what I mean... and admittedly they are the exception, not the rule.

No, I won't name names, that wouldn't be fair - partly because it couldn't be an exhaustive list!

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 19 May 09 - 06:43 AM

So no, it is not a tautology or even an obviosity.

Absolutely. BUT if it wasn't for floor singers I doubt I'd hear any Folk Songs that weren't sung by long-dead traditional singers on the various field-recorded archives. Floor Singers are more than the backbone of folk, they are the heart & soul of thing - the whole point & purpose of what still remains a great night out no matter where I might fetch up, thus restoring my faith in life, the universe & everything...

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 19 May 09 - 06:38 AM

In some clubs, including Exmouth, ALL the singers are floor singers, they comprise the total entertainment as well as a good proportion of the audience. We've had some 'names' ( Paul Downes, Mick Groves,Eddie Upton) popping in for a spot, but they were quite happy to be treated the same as our range of trad and contemporary, upcomoingand establishes, young and not so young singers who perform for pleasure and camaradarie. Tonight, Our second birthday, wil be heaving, and I'll be lucky to get everyone on.

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 May 09 - 06:12 AM

It's a point of view that is highly contentionus - look at all the threads here busily telling us that if floor singers sing the rest of the world leaves...

So no, it is not a tautology or even an obviosity.

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: bubblyrat
Date: 19 May 09 - 04:55 AM

And yours is becoming anally tautologous.

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 09 - 04:47 AM

Guest...but the floor singer is a contibuter

As is the bird watcher in a birdwatching club. A better example may be to say the "the walkers are the backbone of a rambling society"

My point was just that SunrayFC's comment is banally self evident...

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 19 May 09 - 04:31 AM

Guest...but the floor singer is a contibuter. You may be thinking of the audience, or in many clubs nowadays the audient, singular. We have been known at Llantrisant Club to have a round of applause from a room full of singers for the only non singing audient.

What a brilliant idea Sunray, yes I did recognise several faces and how good to put names to some of tham. I hope it becomes a heavy tome, perhaps even a hardback.

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 09 - 03:34 AM

"back bow" is also a type of dress

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 May 09 - 03:32 AM

Well, it could also have been a typo for "backbow" which is a guitar neck that curves the wrong way causing unwelcome rattles and buzzes to those playing simple root position chords...

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 09 - 03:26 AM

Can't disagree but it's a bit like saying "the people who watch birds are the backbone of any birdwatching club"

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 19 May 09 - 02:49 AM

Delighted to see you have Jason Rosser on your list of suspects. He sings with Capstan Full Strength, who are the guests at the Lewes Saturday Folk Club in Sussex on Saturday 24th. October, when they are singing at our Harvest Night and will be doing songs on a seasonal theme. We're also serving home-made harvest loaves and English cheeses and apples.

I remember Jason as a quiet, shy youth of about sixteen on tour with Chingford Morris in Cornwall in 1976. Most of the time you'd hardly have known he was there, except when he apologised in a faint whisper for being in someone's way or diffidently requested a glass of bitter lemon. His choice of songs was remarkable for its thoughtful, sensitive and subtly poignant qualities.

As a member of a folk club committee, I heartily subscribe to your thoughts about floor singers.

Tootle pip,

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: open mike
Date: 18 May 09 - 05:19 PM

yes, a recent thread was about kendall being bucked off a backhoe
so i immediately pictured singers on a backhoe.

in case a clone fixes the typo,
the original thread title was
" Floor Singers are the backboe"

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: Joe_F
Date: 18 May 09 - 04:13 PM

That's one of those Janus typos. My first guess was "backhoe"!

Subject: RE: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: SunrayFC
Date: 18 May 09 - 03:18 PM

Meant to say BACKBONE!!!! Silly me!

Subject: Floor Singers are the backboe
From: SunrayFC
Date: 18 May 09 - 03:17 PM

Not the best of labels for what I consider to be the backbone of any club. But that's what they are known as. Even been one myself!!

The SUNRAY FOLK CLUB has a wealth of local talent and I thought it would be nice to give them some exposure.

A booklet is soon to be produced, and they appear on our web site.

You may even know one or two!!!

http://www.sunrayfolkclub.co.uk/Sunrayfloorsingers.htm