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Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: johncharles Date: 18 Feb 11 - 05:13 AM Dear Ruth and Lizzie could you not continue this unedifying argument elsewhere.
-Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: theleveller Date: 18 Feb 11 - 05:09 AM "Pete Quin is the only other person who seems to remember Marc's existence." Just as an aside, would that be Pete Quin the ragtime and blues guitarist and singer/songwriter? If so, we were at school together and both helped to run Bridlington folk club at various times. I lost touch with him around 1967. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Date: 18 Feb 11 - 05:03 AM No one wanted Sidmouth FolkWeek to fail. No one was waiting in the wings to swoop and take over. The truth is that after 3 years of being run by a team of volunteers (including your husband), the festival was many tens of thousands of pounds in the red. The current board stepped up to the plate and bailed out the festival, which at that point really WAS in danger of dying, managed to convert some loans from local councils to grants and reducing (yes, reducing) the standing debt to £60k - which the current 3 directors covered from their *own pockets*. I personally took a pay cut of two-thirds from my previous position in order to come on board and work for the festival in 2009 (so you can chuck your conspiracy theories about how I was plotting to take over the festival right out the window - the sale of my house actually subsidised me working for Sidmouth in my first year). Our technical partners, Stage Electrics, also did their best to help us through a difficult financial year. But we changed a lot of how things had been run previously - developing programming, and most important putting much-needed budgetary controls in place. The upshot is that, in my first year of the festival (2009), we made a surplus revenue of £20k. In 2008 the festival had LOST £20k. Last year, 2010, we made a surplus of £30k. The debts (run up during your ex-husband's time) are being paid off, we have new partnerships with nationally significant venues to tour shows we are originating, and the future looks pretty good. But in these difficult financial times, nothing can be taken for granted, so anyone continuously slinging lies and willful misinformation at the festival could still cause it substantial harm....>>>>>> Gordon put in far more than the rest of you lot put together, to save Sidmouth...and for that he was metaphorically stabbed in the back and his reputation was dragged through the mud by folks on here and folks who are connected to Bellowhead, and the person concerned is one of your friends, I believe you've told me before. (please note, no names have been mentioned here) ALL that I have said about some folks wanting the festival to be shut down completely, so the town would realise what they'd lost is absolutely true. There were plans afoot to do that...but others wanted to be sure that Sidmouth would be saved for generations to come... And THEY are the people to thank for the festival you now have...because without them, Sidmouth may very well have died a horrible death, with the Town Council NOT allowing it to come back to the town. There was *always* that fear, that possiblity. Thank you. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Ruth Archer Date: 18 Feb 11 - 05:01 AM Lizzie, you put on line the e-mail telling you to stop harassing BBC staff or they would take legal action. Anyone who ever saw the BBC board saw your obsessive campaigns and hysteria manifest on a regular basis. I know Mel - in real life. You know, that thing that happens when you turn off your computer. So I know exactly what the staff looking after the messageboards thought of you. Your husband was one of about a dozen people who worked on the festival after Mrs Casey left. But he was not a festival director in, say, the Steve Heap or Bill Rutter sense, much as you'd like to make it seem so. He ran open mic sessions, and from what I can tell is a very nice bloke. End of. Point is, the festival is nothing to do with you. I am nothing to do with you. The BBC board does not even exist any more. Get a bloody life. Move on. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Date: 18 Feb 11 - 04:57 AM Gee whizz, no wonder Mumford & Sons don't want to be a part of the 'official' English folk world... |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Date: 18 Feb 11 - 04:54 AM As I said, if you don't want people to comment on your unpleasant postings, don't write them. I know what happened with the BBC, not you. Thanks for your version though. They were taking steps to stop the 'witch hunt' against me, *their* words...I told them to name any member of staff I'd threatened or harrassed, they did not come back to me, until I took over their board, when finally they started to take notice. No-one was threatened, or harrassed, or anything else, personally, by me, but their complaints section got a rollicking, that's for sure...addressed to no-one at all. Also the Head of their Customer Service Department agreed with all that I told her and was horrified by some of the comments she read on that board. She told me she'd look into it in far greater depth and for me to ring her back in 2 weeks, which I did....And then she told me, terribly apologetically, that she couldn't talk about it, wasn't allowed to, and that 'order' had come from far higher up. Can I ask the Mudcat team why 'ruth archer's' vitriolic posts about me, and about Al, are permitted to remain on this board, and yet my answers to the allegations about me are now being removed?????? Please note, there is no personal vitriol in this post about you, just a re-addressing of the TRUE facts, about something that you know very little about because you were not privvy to what was going on at the time 'from the other side'. And my husband (as he was back then) whether you like it or not, WAS a Director of Sidmouth, helping out in many areas, for quite a few years, wherever he was asked. Ask Derek Schofield, he was working alongside him...and The Acoustic Cafe brings in a fair amount of people to *your* festival too, so I'd support it, rather than belittle it. Thanks. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Ruth Archer Date: 18 Feb 11 - 04:44 AM "And I have that 'officially' from the BBC team themselves." Rubbish. Re-writing the past does not make your version of the past true. The BBC actually threatened you with legal action if you did not stop harrassing their staff - you put the bloody e-mail on line, so we all saw it (you seemed to find it hilarious at the time, but your sense of humour has always eluded me). Even now they shudder when they talk about you. You got yourself banned from the BBC board for being obsessive about bands, attacking other members, and generally being a holy nuisance. Similarly, you have never been anything to do with Sidmouth FolkWeek, and your ex-husband used to run some open mic sessions. You know absolutely nothing about the inner workings of the festival, and nothing you say about it comes with any authority. As with everything else in your strange little world, you have made up a lot of destructive lies with the intent of doing as much damage as possible. You really need to get some professional help. But just to set the record straight once and for all: No one wanted Sidmouth FolkWeek to fail. No one was waiting in the wings to swoop and take over. The truth is that after 3 years of being run by a team of volunteers (including your husband), the festival was many tens of thousands of pounds in the red. The current board stepped up to the plate and bailed out the festival, which at that point really WAS in danger of dying, managed to convert some loans from local councils to grants and reducing (yes, reducing) the standing debt to £60k - which the current 3 directors covered from their *own pockets*. I personally took a pay cut of two-thirds from my previous position in order to come on board and work for the festival in 2009 (so you can chuck your conspiracy theories about how I was plotting to take over the festival right out the window - the sale of my house actually subsidised me working for Sidmouth in my first year). Our technical partners, Stage Electrics, also did their best to help us through a difficult financial year. But we changed a lot of how things had been run previously - developing programming, and most important putting much-needed budgetary controls in place. The upshot is that, in my first year of the festival (2009), we made a surplus revenue of £20k. In 2008 the festival had LOST £20k. Last year, 2010, we made a surplus of £30k. The debts (run up during your ex-husband's time) are being paid off, we have new partnerships with nationally significant venues to tour shows we are originating, and the future looks pretty good. But in these difficult financial times, nothing can be taken for granted, so anyone continuously slinging lies and willful misinformation at the festival could still cause it substantial harm. Nothing I have said is not already in the public domain. It has been explained to the businesses and the people of Sidmouth, who are completely on side - because EVERYONE wants the festival to survive and thrive, as it's good for the folk world and good for Sidmouth. Everyone, of course, except for a sad and embittered woman somewhere in Devon, who has decided that she must overthrow her "enemies" no matter how much damage she does or who else gets hurt. Mudcat have already removed three posts by her about Sidmouth from this thread and twice identified her as a troll, so I am sorry if this seems irrelevant, but I will not cower in a corner any more while she feels free to sling mud all over an event whose only sin is to be doing okay, no thanks to her. So Lisa/Lizzie, please take your vivid imagination and your conspiracy theories elsewhere. Put your considerable energies into something - anything - constructive. But leave me and Sidmouth FolkWeek out of your nasty campaign. Again, I would be grateful if you do not speak to me or refer to me, or the organisation I work for, in future. I want nothing to do with you. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Shimrod Date: 18 Feb 11 - 04:27 AM "The English Folk World is, at times, a very disturbing one, in my eyes, because of the bitchiness and bullying that lies within it ..." That's a world that I don't recognise, Lizzie. Let's just imagine another world for a moment ... oh I don't know, 'The English Free-range Stamp Collectors Collective', perhaps? Anyway, there they are collecting their free-range stamps, swapping them and discussing their finer points and technical details such as what to feed them, how much and when. Suddenly in bursts someone forceful and characterful who shouts at them: "Stop doing what you're doing, you're doing it all wrong, start doing what I say or I'll shout at you some more!!" What do you think might happen then, Lizzie? Do you think that there's a possibility that they might get a bit irked and start shouting back? Actually, in a completely different area of my life from the folk world, I find myself in a similar position to the forceful character above. But I know that if I start shouting at people they will ignore me and I will get nowhere. My intuition tells me that, if I'm to make progress, I have to keep my voice down, use tact and diplomacy, be patient but keep up the pressure. And do you know, I think it's beginning to work. I think I'm getting somewhere! |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Alan Whittle Date: 18 Feb 11 - 04:07 AM let it go Liz. Sometimes you could cry for the pity of it (efforts of a creative lifetime consigned to oblivion), but there isn't any percentage in swapping insults. They feel the way they do. we feel the way we do. There isn't a conversation there, as they say. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: johncharles Date: 18 Feb 11 - 04:01 AM mumford and Sons have variously been described as, Folk, Folk/Rock, Folk/Rock/Indie. It is, a how long is a piece of string question, where agreement to differ might be better than some of the unpleasant exchanges in this thread. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Alan Whittle Date: 18 Feb 11 - 03:35 AM purist, probably your right. The needle was there between the two encampments - even back then. This folk package tour with The watersons and Bert Jansch and the Yetties and Fred Jordn cam to town (Exeter) 1965 or '66. Martin Carthy reckons he was there, but I can't remember him. Jansch had been marketed as the English Dylan, so naturally there were loads of people there who just wanted to hear the songs off that blue album. Poor old Fred, he got about two songs in and these kids started giving him the bird. They were horrible. i'd read Dallas's review of fred ('a voice like cold water falling onto a stone') and I was quite into him. Similarly there was this brilliant young American guitarist/banjo player called Marc Sullivan. Pete Quin is the only other person who seems to remember Marc's existence. Anyway he spent the summer down along the south coast of England. the traddies had many a voluble discussion drowning out Marc's efforts. purist....well i knew which side I was on. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Folkiedave Date: 18 Feb 11 - 03:03 AM There really weren't many melodeon players around Al. I know I was there. There are now half a dozen good ones in my home town and I don't have to struggle to think of them. I know about the Irish fiddlers but I do find your remark about their relevance strange. Sounds you wee being a bit f a purist there! There were a dozen top class fiddlers last weekend in the session last Sunday and none of them were playing Irish music. My home town has another dozen. As for looking to the future - it has arrived. I am lucky I live in Sheffield with a great folk scene. But it isn't that unusual. I doubt people walk on eggshells around me Al. I don't have that many listeners! |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Alan Whittle Date: 17 Feb 11 - 08:54 PM Look I've been thinking. I seriously apologise if I've hurt anyone's feelings. But this conversation is going nowhere. we don't agree. I don't want to end up like that bloke Keith endlessly arguing about sod all. If I come on like that I am sorry. I do feel maybe when musicians get together - the war stories start coming out. Perhaps as a dj and a festival organiser, they walk on eggshells round you maybe. or maybe they have endless admiration for you both - how would I know. Lets hope that is the case. Your names have never come up, as far as I know. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Alan Whittle Date: 17 Feb 11 - 06:50 PM Melodeon players - sorry i forgot that one. Well there was Bob Cann (he had a sort of folk evening over near Okehampton, where my sister lived) and i figure there was melodeon playing going on in the places The Yetties knew about. I went to the Jolly porter in Exeter in those days - where The journeymen and the young Tony Rose played. Quite a traddy venue. The trad singing was mainly unaccompanied. I went to Sidmouth a couple of times back then - I suppose there must have been melodeon players. There were accordion players - Johnny Handle. I think Pete Wood was around not long after that - he was concertina of course. I dunno, I'm not sure I would have known what a melodeon was even. I was a dumb kid. I thought Mike Cooper had made his National Dobro with a meccanno set, or in metalwork class. But I think really we viewed folk music as something of the future , rather than digging up stuff from the past. people like Dylan and Joni Mitchell had done something for songwriting like Picasso had done for painting. And that's what people were in the mainstream folkclubs(which far outnumbered the trad ones) to hear. Anyway... all gone |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Alan Whittle Date: 17 Feb 11 - 05:55 PM Actually a lot of gigging musicians share my opinions - however unlike me they've not retired with a dickie heart. So they keep schtum, for fear of offending the heavy mob. That's why despite your yelps of protest Dave and oft repeated insistence that I name names, I never reveal name and pack and packdrill. But never think that acts of unkindness and rejection go unnoticed and unremarked. Any place with irish people had fiddlers - 1968 and before. We didn't see its rellevance to us, and they didn't really see their relevance to us. Ian Campbell was something of visionary - recording a Bob Dylan song and having a fiddle player. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Folkiedave Date: 17 Feb 11 - 05:16 PM I suspect I am regarded as a purist too. I publish a playlist of my radio programme each week under the heading Thank Goodness It's Folk on Mudcat and Facebook. You can work out how pure I am from that. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Ruth Archer Date: 17 Feb 11 - 04:57 PM I'm trying to figure out what defines me as a "purist". In addition to all the stuff I mentioned earlier, we have singer-songwriters like Dougie MacLean, Alasdair Roberts, Steve Knightley, Roy Bailey, Belinda O'Hooley and Karine Polwart. We have songwriters' workshops, and a whole series of songwriters' interviews. I've booked Ralph McTell in the past, too. So this "purist" label is a complete red herring. "I don't really know where the purist get off(apart from being ingratiating with folk legends) but they've said no to a hell of a lot of ordiary English folk, people who thought they had something to express." Well, a lot of people think they have something to express. A LOT. I get about a dozen approaches every day. Even with 600 events to fill I could not accommodate them all if I wanted to. So I have to make a judgement about what I think is interesting, exciting, and that will excite and interest our audiences. That's my job. It's not to give a platform to every single aspiring singer-songwriter in Britain - it's to put on the best music I can find. If I don't think something is good enough, I don't book it. It's really that simple. I can only assume I am a purist because I have never booked Al Whittle and a few of his mates. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,folkiedave Date: 17 Feb 11 - 04:34 PM And clearly - in case of doubt that last guest was me. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST Date: 17 Feb 11 - 04:33 PM Yes I do attend folk events several times most weeks, I must admit I find this a bit of a surprise. Judging by the influences you have cited, Ralph McTell, Alex Campbell, Derek Brimstone etc etc. then I thought you had stopped once the 1968 definition had been established. So where does the folk scene that you go to several times a week differ from the one I go to several times a week? You really haven't said anything about the current scene that you see Al. It has occurred to me that perhaps there are two parallel folk scenes, one that stopped developing in 1968 (once it had been defined) and the one I and loads of young people go to. Come up with any fiddlers or melodeon players from the 60's yet Al? |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Spleen Cringe Date: 17 Feb 11 - 04:28 PM Who are these purists you keep banging on about, Al? And what are they being pure about? When I googled I found this. Is this what you mean? Melodeonboy, I reckon something like this should do it... |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Alan Whittle Date: 17 Feb 11 - 04:19 PM I used to have this folkmusic encyclopaedia. In it was a fan letter from Peggy and Mike seeger when they were little kids to Earl Scruggs. They were requesting Scruggs to play Fod, which is a bluegrass version of the old folksong Springfield mountain. A few years later the purists were getting hot under the collar saying that Scruggs in particular, but bluegrass in general wasn't folk. As the man on the door at The Grey Cock Folk Club said to me many years back - we've got to draw the line somewhere - meaning me as I'd said my main influence was Ralph McTell. I don't really know where the purist get off(apart from being ingratiating with folk legends) but they've said no to a hell of a lot of ordiary English folk, people who thought they had something to express. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Chris Murray Date: 17 Feb 11 - 04:10 PM Horse alert?? |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Date: 17 Feb 11 - 04:00 PM If you're standing on your head, you probably could, but I'd not advise it...Elf and Safetea and all that.. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: melodeonboy Date: 17 Feb 11 - 03:50 PM Blimey! I hope there's not going to be this much fuss every time a pop band uses a banjo (or other instrument seen by the media as "folky")! And I still say you can't pee "up" your leg! |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Ruth Archer Date: 17 Feb 11 - 03:30 PM Bless. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Alan Whittle Date: 17 Feb 11 - 03:18 PM Yeh. Okay folk music is safe in your hands. Its not trendy with humanity in general, just purists like your self. Nobody else's experience counts for anything. Yes I do attend folk events several times most weeks, Ruth. I would put my knowledge of the folk music business and its characters as not exhaustive, but large enough to be obsessive. You know you guys remind me of that famous surrealist painting. A lounge full of nice middle class people and an express train hurtling through the fireplace. No one in the room, even tuns in surprise. Purporting to be the folkmusic of a great nation when the vast majority of the population of that country find the sound of your music completely alien, is an absurdity. Like an express train smoking through the drawing room. i'd say wake up to the disaster all around you. but such sweet slumber affords you such great contentment. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,folkiedave Date: 17 Feb 11 - 03:12 PM @ Sugarfoot jack - yes of course you are a folkie and keep going is my advice. A lot of young people with little money do volunteering at festivals. And beg/share lifts. Lizzie you are talking absolute twaddle as usual. The shame is some people fall for it. The idea that people wanted England's biggest festival to fail is ludicrous. Totally barmy and exists only in your illogical and frankly warped imagination. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,folkiedave Date: 17 Feb 11 - 02:53 PM Al, I just don't recognise the folk scene you talk about. I go to most major festivals, some smaller festivals each year and couple of sessions most weeks, and lots of gigs. I was at Cheltenham last weekend, a session Monday night in a pub. And last night I was at a gig with two amazingly talented young musicians with harmonica and banjo. They got a standing ovation from an audience with a wide age range, after playing traditional morris tunes, self-penned tunes and songs, and some American stuff. On Saturday night I am going to hear some Icelandic harmonies and a three-part all female acapella group. Clearly no sense of adventure there then. In my home city there is so much music there is a monthly session devoted just to the tunes of 'O'Carolan". And a monthly folk train which is packed each month. Various Sunday and mid-week sessions. Singing and tune sessions. The festivals I go to are packed with young people many of them outstanding musicians - not interested in being professional because they have jobs - but playing two or three times a week just the same for the love of music. Now in the 60's and 70's I lived in two hotbeds of folk music Manchester and Hull. There wasn't anything like the participation there is now. Name a couple of good melodeon players from the 60's/70's? There were about six top-class melodeon players in a session in the hotel on Saturday night. Name four good fiddle players from the 60's from England? Can't move from them now. There were four in Jon Boden's band last Friday night. I first got interested in folk music in the early 60's. There are far more people playing and involved in folk music than ever. You know for people who supposedly destroyed a really great scene by their attitudes - those you describe made a really bad job of it. Except apparently with you. And one small point of information - the Melody Maker has never sold 5 million copies. The generally agreed figure is around 200/300,000 at its height. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Ruth Archer Date: 17 Feb 11 - 01:51 PM "Similar sorts of things happen nowadays to winners of the BBC folk competitions, I am told." Really? Have you been to many gigs of folk award winners? That Bellowhead - they sure know how to clear a room. If folk is no longer a mainstream pursuit because of British "purists", then why didn't it remain more popular and fashionable in America? The truth is, it was a trend, and the problem with trends is that they become un-trendy. Folk became briefly faddish in the time you speak of, and it may well do again in the wake of Marling-Mumford mania - but it will most likely be another brief hiccup. The current revival amongst the "purists" you despise - which includes a substantial number of young people - may not become a mainstay of popular culture (which is notoriously fickle anyway), but it certainly looks a lot more sustainable. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Alan Whittle Date: 17 Feb 11 - 01:37 PM that was me |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST Date: 17 Feb 11 - 01:36 PM Okay this is my second go at this - my computer ate the last effort. What went wrong big time was the cult of authenticity. I think most of the guys who got the folk movement going were working in the tradition of the minstrels who had put together a sophisticated performance craft in the nightclubs and colleges of the USA - guys like Broonzy, Josh White and the Clancys. They influenced the likes of gerry Lockran, Derek, Alex campbell, the spinners, the ian Campbell folk group, a young Noel Murphy. MacColl's style was very histrionic but it was so damn clever - even to this day you will get people swearing he was just being totally natural. Somehow people got the idea that to express your seriousness about folksong - you were copping out if you had any presentational skills - going showbiz. Enter the Melody Maker into the fray. In 1968, it came out every Thursday and sold nearly five million copies every week. Karl dallas its folk correspondent was dead in favour of the new seriousness. I remember talking to a pro singer around 1972, and he said, its bloody terrible - people read how wonderful these singers are in MM, they get bookings and the next week a club thats been going strong for seven or eight years is dead - completely empty. Similar sorts of things happen nowadays to winners of the BBC folk competitions, I am told. Anyway you say nowts wrong and folkmusic has always been a minority interest I remember a time when it wasn't. But if you are content with the present situation and it suits the majority. then I must be content also. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker Date: 17 Feb 11 - 01:28 PM .. now the Mumfs would certainly shoot up in my estimation if they showed enough bottle to cover "ERNIE (THE FASTEST MILKMAN IN THE WEST" .. so are they now high profile celeb enough for Comic Relief ??? |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Dave the Gnome Date: 17 Feb 11 - 01:20 PM If this is British humour then I wish to dissaccoiated with it! Unless it is meant to be like Benny Hill of course. Lightweight, often crude and mainly meaningless... :D (Sorry Jeri - I agree so I know I shouldn't really) |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Ruth Archer Date: 17 Feb 11 - 01:10 PM Sugarfoot Jack, I asked because it seems relevant if Al has criticisms to make about the current folk scene, its health, and the ratio of young people who are taking part in specific events. I would think that one needs some experience of the events in question in order to comment on the current situation. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Stu Date: 17 Feb 11 - 01:02 PM "Out of interest, which events/festivals have you attended in the last year or so?" Is this relevant? Do you have to attend festivals and 'events' to be a folkie? I have been to precisely zero folk festivals ever and no gigs in the past year (not enough money). I have, however, been practicing my instrument daily, attending sessions at pubs and mate's houses playing the tunes (and occasionally singing the songs). Am I a folkie? |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Tootler Date: 17 Feb 11 - 12:25 PM I can understand why in the big wide world beyond Mudcat, people describe them as "folk" I can equally understand why here on Mudcat many feel they are folk. However, do you have to be such miserable grumpy b****rs about it. Whether you like them or not is a matter of personal taste, but please don't be so grudging about their success. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Ruth Archer Date: 17 Feb 11 - 12:19 PM While it's true he was born there to English parents, they re-patriated when he was a baby. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Alex Date: 17 Feb 11 - 12:05 PM In answer to your question about which part of America Mumford & Sons are from - the singer and main songwriter Marcus Mumford is from California. Why do you ask? |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Every mothers son Date: 17 Feb 11 - 11:55 AM Having checkedout all the videos I can only say...FOLK? are they FU*@ |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Every mothers son Date: 17 Feb 11 - 11:42 AM So.....What part of America do they come from ????? |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker Date: 17 Feb 11 - 11:17 AM Maybe there's fewer instances of spontaneous gratuitous hippy nudity since the summer of 1968...???? |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Folkiedave Date: 17 Feb 11 - 11:10 AM All I want to know is what you feel is wrong with the state of folk music in this country at the moment, since your remarks are clearly intended to give that impression. "It's a fair cop" is hardly an answer. Of course to answer isn't compulsory but otherwise you really do come over as an embittered old man. I am delighted your song is requested where ever you go. I am delighted that others have recorded it. I am delighted it has appeared in a book by John Mortimer and that Derek Brimstone found it hard to play. Clearly a great series of recommendations for that song. So go on Al tell us what has gone wrong since 1968. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: TheSnail Date: 17 Feb 11 - 10:23 AM GUEST,Alan Whittle On second thoughts, why the hell should I apologise for my own music. No reason at all that I can think of. We all make and listen to the sort of music that appeals to us in all its variety and long may it be so. I was merely reiterating the point that you had made, and that Steve Knightley DID say in the interview, that anything like Mumford and Sons is not what people are going to find in folk clubs. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: melodeonboy Date: 17 Feb 11 - 10:04 AM Surely you can only wee "down" your leg? |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Alan Whittle Date: 17 Feb 11 - 09:52 AM On second thoughts, why the hell should I apologise for my own music. okay, so its shot with a cheap camera, in my cheap house on a cheap guitar. The song itself is a terrific performance piece which is inevitably requested whenever I play, and it has been very difficult to record. Punk bands, have recorded it, the late John Mortimer selected for an Oxford Book of Villains Anthology, and my hero derek brimstone had a shot at it - but found he couldn't do the manic bit. Now all you internationally recognised geniuses can go and wee up your incestuous legs. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,LDT Date: 17 Feb 11 - 09:21 AM Wanted to express an opinion as a (just) under 25 year old. 1. Obviously they aren't 'Trad folk'...they are 'Acoustic-folk-pop'. (Same category I'd put some 'folk' from the 60's 70's in.) 2. I do find them a bit dull, not my cup of tea. 3. I have had several friends and siblings friends ask me if they can recommend any 'folk' music as I like 'folk' after hearing bands such as the mumfords. SO can't be all bad. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,Alan Whittle Date: 17 Feb 11 - 08:50 AM Okay its a fair cop! |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: GUEST,folkiedave Date: 17 Feb 11 - 08:48 AM Everything is fine within the state of folkmusic Al, it is clear that some of those who fit the "1968 definition" don't get as many bookings as you and (presumably) they think they deserve. Apart from that - what do you think is wrong with the state of folkmusic for you clearly do seem to think that. Lack of musicians? Lack of singers? Lack of young people coming through? Too many old people, failure of attendances. What is it that you think is wrong? |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: TheSnail Date: 17 Feb 11 - 08:44 AM GUEST,Alan Whittle The only way it affects us is that the young disciples of Mumford will turn up at our clubs. And the question is, do we rise to the challenge. Or do the fiddle and squeezebox boys dig out their 90 minute medley (and then look at each in conspiratorial friendship and post-coital bliss) to keep the kids in their place. Of course they might get lucky and find this. |
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Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons - Brits Performance Live From: Spleen Cringe Date: 17 Feb 11 - 08:37 AM No sure what point you're attempting to make, Al. Are you saying that music is only any good if it can appeal to a wide enough demographic to shift huge numbers of units - and that conversely any music that is of more of a minority interest is by default crap? Surely there's some flaw in that sort of thinking? A flaw that suggests everyone involved with music should give up and go home unless they are specifically creating music engineered to appeal to the lowest common demoninator, most mainstream tastes? There's clearly a place for people who want to do that sort of thing (but not generally in my record collection!) but what a tedious musical world it would be if that was all we had. Give me diversity any day. |
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