Beggars Folk Music Club Gig: Aimed for the Elderly (review, evaluation and problem-solving)

 Beggars Folk Music Club Gig: 14/05/26

Review and Analysis

This is the 2nd gig of my project and this was a smaller set aimed for a much older audience so everything was completely stripped down and acoustic for this gig. I was on the cajon while my friend Mia sung. We made the creative decision to strip down the set to cajon and vocals purely which strongly matched the folky vibe. Other artists had guitars and played protest, country or folk while others also went completely acapella. Going acapella was a really good way to encourage the crowd to join in which worked really well for us. Unfortunately, our bigger set was completely stripped down to 3 songs which still gave me enough to work with for my project and it was enough to get some great crowd engagement and observe how they saw the music.

What I noticed

The venue was very small and homely unlike any other music venue I have played in. The club took place in a village hall in a nearby town and obviously with it being very folky and more aimed towards the older generation, there weren't any people at the front dancing. It was a very casual, informal atmosphere where people sat around tables with teas, coffees, lemonades or beer and enjoyed the music being played and the stories being told. It was a comfortable and casual environment that I felt very welcomed in by the regulars in the crowd. The older audience also seemed to enjoy talking to us and ask what we did and were going to play, something I didn't really get in the Alex. The older people were a lot more social to us with questions, compliments and general chat. 

The night worked like this: each person had a rough set of about 2-3 songs and then there was a special guest artist who would play a full set, longer than the one that we and the other performers had played. We were on second to last of the first half and played 3 songs to the crowd: Clay Pigeons, Freight Train and Livin' In The Woods in The Trees. We were supposed to play in the 2nd half as well, playing Plastic Jesus and The Gambler but unfortunately it was approaching 10pm and we couldn't stay around for that long so had to cut the set even shorter and leave during the interval after the guest artist had finished their first set This was also completely fine with those in the club as previously mentioned, it is a very casual and informal atmosphere where we would tell a story to the crowd, play a few songs and then finish when we wanted to.

Despite only playing 3 songs, the set and atmosphere gave me plenty of answers with how this generation tend to connect to music.

Preparation for the gig: What problems arose? How did I work around them? How did I approach this gig?

Preparation

This set took a lot less preparation than the gig at The Alex with the set already being short then progressively got shorter over time going from 5 songs to 3 songs.

This was our original set of songs, it wasn't necessarily planned to be played in that order but this was our list. We both didn't have much of an idea on how the night would work and how many songs we would need so we went quite safe with 5 songs. After our first rehearsal, we replaced Tulsa Time with Clay Pigeons as it had a bit more of a story to tell and was more well known. Another creative decision we made after the first rehearsal was to completely remove the guitar and make the set acapella; the set being carried by the cajon and hopeful audience participation. Originally we were going to have Mia play the guitar in all the songs besides Freight Train (and only simple chords in Tulsa Time), however, we both agreed to match the atmosphere that we may see in the club, we will remove the guitar. Not only did this allow the audience to connect to the lyrics and story more, but it also unlocked a new unique style for both of us, I have never played with just vocals before, I usually play with other instruments so this was a great test of my timing ability.

We weren't able to rehearse much due to Mia having her own studies, and just feeling like we didn't need to rehearse much with the set being short and easy, but each rehearsal we tried to get at least one video of evidence (both videos are attached in my rehearsal diaries).

By the time the night approached, we were told by the organiser to play half of our set during each half so we split it with 3 songs in our first half then the final 2 in the second half (Plastic Jesus was a long enough song). Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, the night went on for way longer than we had both anticipated so there wasn't a chance to play our full set, having to go home during the interval.

Problems faced: how were they tackled?

This gig went very well with preparation, organisation and how we rehearsed so there weren't many problems that unfolded so this section will be quite short.

Arguably, the only major problem that came from this section as a whole from my fmp was how I would approach playing a gig in front of an older crowd. Initially, my idea was to play a set at a retirement home with another friend, however with her GCSEs happening at the same time, it was nearly impossible for her to balance the rehearsals of the longer setlist (retirement homes would tend to look for an hour of music at least). That was when I decided to not play this set with her and approached Mia in a passing conversation when she had mentioned she had "several songs in [her] back pocket" which not only made rehearsals less stressful for her, but also Mia had great knowledge of the music that she played which allowed a story to be told about each song. She had also brought up the idea of playing at this folk club which I had never even heard of before this, so I swapped out my idea of performing in a retirement home and chose the folk club instead, being a much more appropriate venue to play music to an older crowd who may be a lot more passionate about the music being played in front of them than those at a care home. It would give me a much better conclusion for this project. 

Another smaller problem came up when I was booking myself in to play at this club, being told that they may be fully booked until June, which wasn't ideal as it was way past the deadline. I rang up the organiser and asked about potential days, originally being given a date in June. I had to explain to the guy that I would like an earlier date as this performance will be a huge help to my project. I agreed with him on 14 May, which was a busy day for the club, with a large amount of performers there, however we were able to be squeezed in which was a big relief.

So how did the gig unfold? + Evaluation

This gig went very smoothly unlike the gig at The Alex which had a lot more problems to tackle and even more that appeared on the gig, perhaps because the set was shorter it was a lot easier to manage. The audience seemed to absolutely love it, talking to us after and before our performances and taking in the stories being told by Mia about the music, clapping and singing to the music being played. While the gig went very well, I don't think I enjoyed performing it as much as I enjoyed playing at The Alex despite the multiple problems that came up during rehearsals and the gig itself, this was a perfect gig but that doesn't mean it was a lot of fun to play in. It started quite late and we didn't really know when we would end up playing. The music itself isn't really my style so I had to sit through a couple of songs I didn't really know or enjoy from other people which made me feel a little bit like an anomaly in the venue despite how welcoming everyone was. This difference in enjoyment is most likely due to my personal music preference not matching the music this generation may enjoy.

However, even if I didn't enjoy playing in this gig, it has made me understand the type of atmosphere I like to play in; I am someone who prefers an atmosphere were people can dance and show they are having an amazing time, one were people will dance and show off that they are having a good time such as The Alex and potentially how The Polar Bear will unfold. The difference between this and the Alex is that people came for the music unlike The Alex where some people may have just come for a drink and there being live music at the same time. That made me feel a lot more appreciated as a musician. There isn't much I would do to make this gig better if I were to play again besides attempt songs with guitar as well as the cajon.

Highlights

This gig was so small and our set was so short that I can't really pick out any individual highlights that stood out to me in this gig, our set was fully recorded which I will be able to attach. The only thing that stood out to me completely was the audience participation. Something about the audience participation  did make me feel great, I like a crowd that sing along and they did that, and it was clear to me that they took in the song and the stories a lot more than the drunken audience at The Alex. My favorite part about the audience participation in particular was during Freight Train where the audience sang, clapped and one of the previous performers started playing his guitar along to it. To me, that participation gave the song so much more life to it.

Conclusion

What did I get from this performance? An elderly audience much prefer a laid-back atmosphere where they can take in lyrics and stories being told. An elderly audience seem to feel much more connected to the audience than a crowd at the pub who hear a well-known song like Mr Brightside and belt it from the top of their lungs because they are having more fun than feeling a genuine connection to the song like the older audience here. I even noticed this with the few elderly people who were present at The Alex gig, they felt a little bit more disconnected with Declan's crowd engagement but were singing to the songs that were being played, really taking it in. It is something I really admire in this generation of audience.

Another thing I noticed is that this type of audience like a story being told instead of just music being played and typical crowd engagement ("are you having a good time?", "I want everyone up for this next song, it is [...]"). This audience enjoy a story to be told about the song, for example why it was written, a fact about the song or why it is special or connects to the performer (which I saw a lot of from the performers playing at this event).

Mia presented herself amazingly during this and gave this audience everything and more from this gig.

Overall, this type of crowd differs to The Alex with how connected they are to the music being showed, and how personal to me this gig felt, something felt good about the audience properly listening during each song we played. The gig at The Alex had people talking or often shouting to eachother while we were playing showing they didn't care much about the music as much as this elderly audience. I like to think that they felt a lot more connected due to the context of the music and the period they grew up in being a rough period (women's rights, human rights as a whole, racism and a lack of unity, post-war financial troubles etc). The songs in that period were mostly written to do with those topics mentioned with just a few being about other topics unrelated to the difficult period they had to grow up in. Furthermore, it felt like a very left-wing event which meant that the songs and the topics being mentioned in stories were linked to the modern day seeming to be returning to the period they grew up in which made it feel even more personal to those in the audience who completely disagree with strange political decisions being made in the modern day as they disagreed with how humanity was treated by the higher powers when they were growing up.