Here's a thread on 'Sessions' - Oooo, what an original idea!
Another thing, (says he reaching for his soap box - to cries of "oh no, not again!) - a habit I don't agree with in a session pub is for the musicians to actually shout at the customers, insisting they 'SHUT UP' while someone sings a song!
Can anyone explain to me what is all that about?
Now, before you start, a Folk Club is a different story & folk have paid to see and hear all the performers so are entitled to be able to hear them!
In a session pub, the customers aren't paying to hear the musicians, they may well have just called in for a drink & a chat so why in the world should they be silent for a singer.
I think the bottom line here is, if it's quiet enough then a singer can sing if they want & if they are good & appeal to the listeners then they will naturally be quiet to listen anyway!
I remember seeing Dolores Keane do that in a Bar in Drogheda 20 odd years ago & I'll never forget it.
She was standing at the bar chatting & the place was packed on a Saturday afternoon.
Now someone must have asked her to sing so she started to sing, quietly, no noise no fuss, she just started to sing.
There was nobody screaming & balling for quiet, which, by the way creates a horrible atmosphere, I find, anyway.
As she quietly sang, the silent area around her spread slowly like a wave across the bar until the whole place was silent & awestruck by the beauty of her voice & the song.
Blimey your sense of timing is incredible. I'd just finished posting a comment to the previous post (going on about folk clubs, as it happens) and then read this one.
Folk clubs were great, but accepting that they're gone for ever, the session is the next best thing. I don't mind if people don't sit in silence in a session, it's great if they do when someone starts to sing say, but a pub is a pub, when all said and done. I just don't think it's the ideal place for us all to practice our religion (music). So come over to my place, y'all, and I'll get the Guiness out.
Unless there has been some consensus that there should be hush for a song, the correct resonse, if someone says "Stop talking while I'm singing" is "Stop singing while I'm talking".
the guy who ran the session we used to go to (before it mysteriously and somewhat abruptly ended only to start up 4 months later by invite only) used to stand up and in the most patronising manner imaginable tell a pub full of punters they should really be quiet.
This would make the rest of us squirm with embarassment, particularly as the guy in question would then frequently leave within the next couple of minutes. Fortunately this was quite a studenty pub, so the worst likely to happen was a little heckling.
Most of the former regulars are now attending another session, which by coincidence started up around the same time as the invitation only session began . Much less stressful, and more fun with the control freak factor turned down low. Not to mention much more inclusive and democratic when no-one person tries to dominate the evening.
A session a couple of years ago in Stonehaven during the folk festival - in the Marine, a well-frequented pub anyway, especially on a Friday night, and not especially musical outside the festival.
Bar is basically two rooms - regulars up at the first one near the bar, and musicians used the further bit. But as the crowd deepened around the music, those furthest from the music began to overlap with the regular crowd, and started "shushing" them, because they couldn't hear - as you can imagine, an unholy row broke out, with a group of young women on a night out being particularly vocal. "How dare you come into my pub and tell me to shut up!"
This sort of thing makes me cringe as I know both regulars and musicans and in this case my sympathies were firmly with the regulars, who tend to refer to the Festival as "Invasion of the Soap Dodgers"
The pubs do all right out of the festival, but they do all right on the other 360-odd days of the year too, and if they are forced to chose between regulars and visiting "folkies" then you're on a hiding to nothing.
That's it Matilda, & boy are those magical moments hard to beat!
Halfirish, I hope your wrong about Folk Clubs being gone for ever? I enjoy the more formal atmosphere at F Cs, which is of course completely different to that experienced in sessions. If one was to dissapear I would opt for extinction of the FCs but I'd ghate to see either go for ever!
cw67Q - You describe 2 different sessions at the end of your post: the democratic one & the soaring invitation only one. I know which one I would head for.
Me, I never really did like elitism.
Ah Bren, Stonehaven! I remember attending a Chris Newman Guitar workshop there, many years ago - one of the most memorable ones I ever attended!
The festival situation you describe is a clear cut case of musicians obviously being in the wrong - end of story.
However, it can be more complicated when musicians have frequented a pub for years. OK they only trundle in one night a week, but they feel like it's their pub, forgetting that other regulars are probably in many more nights each week.
I'd like to see the faces of the musicians, if the boot was on the other foot & the regulars shoost the musicians & then turned the TV on, & up, to catch a news story or a report on a football match!
Folk clubs do seem to have dissapeared near us (no doubt someone will now prove me wrong).
Maybe the answer is that all who are interested in sessions should do a little more than just attend pubs where they know something is going on. Perhaps we should search out better pubs and suggest that they take advantage of the free, live music on offer and perhaps they might do more to accomodate both musicians and other punters.
The voice is a wonderful instrument, and the only one that almost everybody loves to hear. A good (and I mean GOOD) singer will invariably wow a crowded bar into respectful silence. A well turned air on an instrument will probably do the same.
Tom at the Herschell tells people to "Shut theF*k up, or go to that nice pub down the road where you can make as much noise as you like!" whenever the punters get rowdy, but he'll do the same for the music as the singing(!)
Ptarmi - I meant the crowd (visiting "folk fans") , not the musos, were telling locals to shush. For sheer effrontery it was hard to beat, and hardly disposed the locals well toward the visitors.
Folk Clubs's still going strong up here as far as I know but I'm not a big fan of those places.
There's a few pubs here where you can just start an impromptu session, usually the best ones, but I appreciate the value of a regular session to both pub (since he hasn't time to cash in on the impromptu one, except for the fortunate fact that musicians up here drink more than the average punter anyway) travelling folk and punters, since they're unlikely to know about the impromptu one (except for the magic of SMS texting, which some Old Luddites on here have decried)
I am. I don't like singing when people are noising about (I don't mind it that much when I'm playing), so I just don't sing in public, unless it's a gig. Sometimes I get asked to sing. If people don't listen, it means I failed to appeal to them - then I stop and don't try it again.
Simple as that
Div I very rarely sing (for which you all can be extremely grateful, but I do sometimes hang out with a singer who absulutely HATES it if anyone shushes for her. She reckons that if people don't quieten down to listen to yo they either don't want to hear you, or you probably aren't really good enough to demand their attention.
The only time I'd tell someone to be quiet is if the vast majority of people are trying to listen (to songs or just music), and a couple of people are disrupting thast, or if a small group of people are making SO much noise that the musicians can't hear each other.
Just click on: 'Scottish Folk Clubs' in the bottom left hand corner.
Ottery, I certainly don't agree with the way your friend Tom treats the listeners!
I think one should give respect to get it, & telling everyone to shut up or F off is hardly respectful, so no wonder he has to resort to shouting, if that's his attitude.
Bren, see what you mean now.
I prefer pub session OK but I've had some brilliant nights in Folk Clubs over the years. I remember going to see Johnny Cunningham on night in the Aberdeen Folk Club & wondering how this one man & his fiddle was going to fill the night out. I needn't have worried - Johnny was one class act!
Ah yes Bren, the famous Cell Phone wind-up! 'Boys a dear' did I enjoy that one! Total wind-up though & boy did it wind some folk up. Most folk I know have their Cell Phones quietly about their person - no probs, but the thread was good craic I thought!
Div, looks like from now on, anyone who gets upset at the established order, or the old fogeys, or barges about here on their initial visit like a bull in a china shop will be - 'blinging'!
Yes Janek, I agree, a song should only be sung in an atmosphere of relative quiet, where the words can be heard clearly & appreciated. I don't see the point in even trying to sing when there's a noisy crowd about. Time & a place for everything eh?
"I sing sometimes." - Showadd, was that a promise - or some kind of threat?
Tom is the landlord of the pub, if he wants to tell his customers to "f off to the other bar if you don't like the music!" I'm not going to try to stop him. They generally take it in good humour If you're ever down this way you must come to the Herschell arms and see ...
Ottery, Tom's got it sussed.
He's got the juke box in the main bar where people can yack 'til their heart's content. I think it's fair enough for him to tell people to shush; they've got somewhere else to scurry off to and he can run his bar whatever way he damn well likes.
It's gonna be a good laugh on Saturday. See you there!
I sing and play and all that and I could care less if people are shutting up and listening. I go to enough classical music concerts to sit through an entire evening of no more than polite applause at the end of a concert all due to the conventions of not making noise during the concert.
Recently, in an effort to promote the local city orchestra one of the members did a commercial playing his violin while riding a unicycle and the director actually had him do it on stage before the start of the evening. He was trying to remind the audience that music is fun. Still, a good majority of the musicians on stage (including this guy's prof) didn't approve of the 'circus act'.
My point behind this is that when we start making people be quiet and just sit and listen and maybe politely clap between songs, but not between sets or songs from the same area or by the same composer, then we take some of the spontaneity out of the music. I was talking with the unicycling violinist a couple of days later and we commented that one of the coolest things about folk music is the relaxed atmosphere at the concerts. You can whistle/clap/holler if someone does a really cool break or something (at least, you can and are expected to here in the States). I worry that asking people to shut-up or just listen would detract from the fun quality of the music. Even for singing.
Musicfan I agree with you for the most part. If you're going to sessions for hush and applause then you're in the wrong game.
Reminds me of the first time I saw an American pool tournament on TV. People were talking and shouting while players were at the table. The players didn't take a blind bit of notice and just got on with it. Compare that to snooker where you get a dirty look if you breathe too loudly.
That's it Ptarmigan; the way the Herschel works is that it's got a small bar for traditional music and a main bar. There's really only enough room in the small bar for a gaggle of musicians and some punters, who are practically all there just to hear the music. In that case, I think it's fine to ask for quiet. This approach could never work in the main bar.
Lutra Canadensis - y, glad to hear you'll be there on Sunday. I'll "buy" you a pint!
Dick, I have to disagree on this one. Sure it's great when everyone goes quiet on their own for a singer, but sometimes punters will be talking and not even realize that any singing is going on at all unless you remind them with a shush. If they aren’t quiet, the people trying to enjoy the song won’t be able to hear it, and the singer will have a hard time singing as well. My opinion is that a session is an experience that the entire pub is having, and if the people there don't like sessions -- they're in the wrong pub.
Having said that, you have to use discretion when shushing punters for a singer. It can't be over done or the punters will feel like they're at a concert and resent the singers and musicians for taking the pub out of their pub experience. If you only do it occasionally it will enhance the session pub experience and everyone will be able to enjoy the song.
Aye Conan, isn't it usually the case that the smaller the room, the better the tune. In my local session bar, the best place of the lot is a tiny snug off to the side which can only accommodate about 4 or 5 musicians, comfortably - a cracking place for a tune!
Best session I ever had in there, was a quiet afternoon session with Ben Lennon & Marcas & Catriona O'Murchu - 2 fiddles & flute plus the best of craic & yarnin from the two boys.
Button, I always think it is best if the thing happens naturally. However, a gentle shush might be acceptable, but for me, only if it is done in a polite manner, apologetically almost. It is really the dictatorial style of shushing that I object to, there's no nead for bad manners, but let's not go down that road - again!
I think it is reasonable to expect that the musicians should respect one another enough to be quiet when one of them is singing or playing something solo. But shushing the paying customers is a bit much--like was said above somehere in the thread--the real magic comes when the musician playing or singing is what quiets the crowd--something you earn, not demand.
The Lark in the Smog!
The Lark in the Smog!
Here's a thread on 'Sessions' - Oooo, what an original idea!
Another thing, (says he reaching for his soap box - to cries of "oh no, not again!) - a habit I don't agree with in a session pub is for the musicians to actually shout at the customers, insisting they 'SHUT UP' while someone sings a song!
Can anyone explain to me what is all that about?
Now, before you start, a Folk Club is a different story & folk have paid to see and hear all the performers so are entitled to be able to hear them!
In a session pub, the customers aren't paying to hear the musicians, they may well have just called in for a drink & a chat so why in the world should they be silent for a singer.
I think the bottom line here is, if it's quiet enough then a singer can sing if they want & if they are good & appeal to the listeners then they will naturally be quiet to listen anyway!
I remember seeing Dolores Keane do that in a Bar in Drogheda 20 odd years ago & I'll never forget it.
She was standing at the bar chatting & the place was packed on a Saturday afternoon.
Now someone must have asked her to sing so she started to sing, quietly, no noise no fuss, she just started to sing.
There was nobody screaming & balling for quiet, which, by the way creates a horrible atmosphere, I find, anyway.
As she quietly sang, the silent area around her spread slowly like a wave across the bar until the whole place was silent & awestruck by the beauty of her voice & the song.
Now that's the way to do it!
Isn't it?
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Yup !
Shushing people really doesn't go down well with either the customers or the other musicians....
When the listening comes of its own accord it truly is a magical moment.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by matildamarmotte
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Ps the lark's in the smog down here in Cornwall too...
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by matildamarmotte
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Ptarmy,
Blimey your sense of timing is incredible. I'd just finished posting a comment to the previous post (going on about folk clubs, as it happens) and then read this one.
Folk clubs were great, but accepting that they're gone for ever, the session is the next best thing. I don't mind if people don't sit in silence in a session, it's great if they do when someone starts to sing say, but a pub is a pub, when all said and done. I just don't think it's the ideal place for us all to practice our religion (music). So come over to my place, y'all, and I'll get the Guiness out.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by halfirish
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Yup.
Unless there has been some consensus that there should be hush for a song, the correct resonse, if someone says "Stop talking while I'm singing" is "Stop singing while I'm talking".
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
the guy who ran the session we used to go to (before it mysteriously and somewhat abruptly ended only to start up 4 months later by invite only) used to stand up and in the most patronising manner imaginable tell a pub full of punters they should really be quiet.
This would make the rest of us squirm with embarassment, particularly as the guy in question would then frequently leave within the next couple of minutes. Fortunately this was quite a studenty pub, so the worst likely to happen was a little heckling.
Most of the former regulars are now attending another session, which by coincidence started up around the same time as the invitation only session began . Much less stressful, and more fun with the control freak factor turned down low. Not to mention much more inclusive and democratic when no-one person tries to dominate the evening.
- Chris
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
A session a couple of years ago in Stonehaven during the folk festival - in the Marine, a well-frequented pub anyway, especially on a Friday night, and not especially musical outside the festival.
Bar is basically two rooms - regulars up at the first one near the bar, and musicians used the further bit. But as the crowd deepened around the music, those furthest from the music began to overlap with the regular crowd, and started "shushing" them, because they couldn't hear - as you can imagine, an unholy row broke out, with a group of young women on a night out being particularly vocal. "How dare you come into my pub and tell me to shut up!"
This sort of thing makes me cringe as I know both regulars and musicans and in this case my sympathies were firmly with the regulars, who tend to refer to the Festival as "Invasion of the Soap Dodgers"
The pubs do all right out of the festival, but they do all right on the other 360-odd days of the year too, and if they are forced to chose between regulars and visiting "folkies" then you're on a hiding to nothing.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Bren
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Yeah Showadd, nice one! - I like that response!
That's it Matilda, & boy are those magical moments hard to beat!
Halfirish, I hope your wrong about Folk Clubs being gone for ever? I enjoy the more formal atmosphere at F Cs, which is of course completely different to that experienced in sessions. If one was to dissapear I would opt for extinction of the FCs but I'd ghate to see either go for ever!
cw67Q - You describe 2 different sessions at the end of your post: the democratic one & the soaring invitation only one. I know which one I would head for.
Me, I never really did like elitism.
Ah Bren, Stonehaven! I remember attending a Chris Newman Guitar workshop there, many years ago - one of the most memorable ones I ever attended!
The festival situation you describe is a clear cut case of musicians obviously being in the wrong - end of story.
However, it can be more complicated when musicians have frequented a pub for years. OK they only trundle in one night a week, but they feel like it's their pub, forgetting that other regulars are probably in many more nights each week.
I'd like to see the faces of the musicians, if the boot was on the other foot & the regulars shoost the musicians & then turned the TV on, & up, to catch a news story or a report on a football match!
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Great debate, don't you think?
Folk clubs do seem to have dissapeared near us (no doubt someone will now prove me wrong).
Maybe the answer is that all who are interested in sessions should do a little more than just attend pubs where they know something is going on. Perhaps we should search out better pubs and suggest that they take advantage of the free, live music on offer and perhaps they might do more to accomodate both musicians and other punters.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by halfirish
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
The voice is a wonderful instrument, and the only one that almost everybody loves to hear. A good (and I mean GOOD) singer will invariably wow a crowded bar into respectful silence. A well turned air on an instrument will probably do the same.
Tom at the Herschell tells people to "Shut theF*k up, or go to that nice pub down the road where you can make as much noise as you like!" whenever the punters get rowdy, but he'll do the same for the music as the singing(!)
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Ottery
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Ptarmi - I meant the crowd (visiting "folk fans") , not the musos, were telling locals to shush. For sheer effrontery it was hard to beat, and hardly disposed the locals well toward the visitors.
Folk Clubs's still going strong up here as far as I know but I'm not a big fan of those places.
There's a few pubs here where you can just start an impromptu session, usually the best ones, but I appreciate the value of a regular session to both pub (since he hasn't time to cash in on the impromptu one, except for the fortunate fact that musicians up here drink more than the average punter anyway) travelling folk and punters, since they're unlikely to know about the impromptu one (except for the magic of SMS texting, which some Old Luddites on here have decried)
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Bren
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Old Folk Clubs never die
they just become Old Boys Clubs.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
I am. I don't like singing when people are noising about (I don't mind it that much when I'm playing), so I just don't sing in public, unless it's a gig. Sometimes I get asked to sing. If people don't listen, it means I failed to appeal to them - then I stop and don't try it again.
Simple as that
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by EastPole
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Div I very rarely sing (for which you all can be extremely grateful, but I do sometimes hang out with a singer who absulutely HATES it if anyone shushes for her. She reckons that if people don't quieten down to listen to yo they either don't want to hear you, or you probably aren't really good enough to demand their attention.
The only time I'd tell someone to be quiet is if the vast majority of people are trying to listen (to songs or just music), and a couple of people are disrupting thast, or if a small group of people are making SO much noise that the musicians can't hear each other.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Ottery
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
I sing sometimes.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Halfirish, here's a wee idea of the Folk Club scene in Scotland:
http://www.gallowayfolk.co.uk/
Just click on: 'Scottish Folk Clubs' in the bottom left hand corner.
Ottery, I certainly don't agree with the way your friend Tom treats the listeners!
I think one should give respect to get it, & telling everyone to shut up or F off is hardly respectful, so no wonder he has to resort to shouting, if that's his attitude.
Bren, see what you mean now.
I prefer pub session OK but I've had some brilliant nights in Folk Clubs over the years. I remember going to see Johnny Cunningham on night in the Aberdeen Folk Club & wondering how this one man & his fiddle was going to fill the night out. I needn't have worried - Johnny was one class act!
Ah yes Bren, the famous Cell Phone wind-up! 'Boys a dear' did I enjoy that one! Total wind-up though & boy did it wind some folk up. Most folk I know have their Cell Phones quietly about their person - no probs, but the thread was good craic I thought!
Div, looks like from now on, anyone who gets upset at the established order, or the old fogeys, or barges about here on their initial visit like a bull in a china shop will be - 'blinging'!
Yes Janek, I agree, a song should only be sung in an atmosphere of relative quiet, where the words can be heard clearly & appreciated. I don't see the point in even trying to sing when there's a noisy crowd about. Time & a place for everything eh?
"I sing sometimes." - Showadd, was that a promise - or some kind of threat?
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Tom is the landlord of the pub, if he wants to tell his customers to "f off to the other bar if you don't like the music!" I'm not going to try to stop him. They generally take it in good humour
If you're ever down this way you must come to the Herschell arms and see ...
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Ottery
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Don't make me come in there Ptarmigan.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Ottery, Tom's got it sussed.
He's got the juke box in the main bar where people can yack 'til their heart's content. I think it's fair enough for him to tell people to shush; they've got somewhere else to scurry off to and he can run his bar whatever way he damn well likes.
It's gonna be a good laugh on Saturday. See you there!
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Conán McDonnell
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
I sing and play and all that and I could care less if people are shutting up and listening. I go to enough classical music concerts to sit through an entire evening of no more than polite applause at the end of a concert all due to the conventions of not making noise during the concert.
Recently, in an effort to promote the local city orchestra one of the members did a commercial playing his violin while riding a unicycle and the director actually had him do it on stage before the start of the evening. He was trying to remind the audience that music is fun. Still, a good majority of the musicians on stage (including this guy's prof) didn't approve of the 'circus act'.
My point behind this is that when we start making people be quiet and just sit and listen and maybe politely clap between songs, but not between sets or songs from the same area or by the same composer, then we take some of the spontaneity out of the music. I was talking with the unicycling violinist a couple of days later and we commented that one of the coolest things about folk music is the relaxed atmosphere at the concerts. You can whistle/clap/holler if someone does a really cool break or something (at least, you can and are expected to here in the States). I worry that asking people to shut-up or just listen would detract from the fun quality of the music. Even for singing.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by musicfan
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Musicfan I agree with you for the most part. If you're going to sessions for hush and applause then you're in the wrong game.
Reminds me of the first time I saw an American pool tournament on TV. People were talking and shouting while players were at the table. The players didn't take a blind bit of notice and just got on with it. Compare that to snooker where you get a dirty look if you breathe too loudly.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Conán McDonnell
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Conan, I won't be there on Saturday
- I will on Sunday though!
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Ottery
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Ottery
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Och Ottery, that's different. Absolutely! If Tom is the Landlord then his word is, of course, law - end of story!
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
That's it Ptarmigan; the way the Herschel works is that it's got a small bar for traditional music and a main bar. There's really only enough room in the small bar for a gaggle of musicians and some punters, who are practically all there just to hear the music. In that case, I think it's fine to ask for quiet. This approach could never work in the main bar.
Lutra Canadensis - y, glad to hear you'll be there on Sunday. I'll "buy" you a pint!
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Conán McDonnell
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Ptarmy
That's it - I'm moving to Scotland! Would my Uilleann pipes be welcome there?
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by halfirish
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Damn, Damn, Damn!!
I'd hoped to keep my Latin Name a secret.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Ottery
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Dick, I have to disagree on this one. Sure it's great when everyone goes quiet on their own for a singer, but sometimes punters will be talking and not even realize that any singing is going on at all unless you remind them with a shush. If they aren’t quiet, the people trying to enjoy the song won’t be able to hear it, and the singer will have a hard time singing as well. My opinion is that a session is an experience that the entire pub is having, and if the people there don't like sessions -- they're in the wrong pub.
Having said that, you have to use discretion when shushing punters for a singer. It can't be over done or the punters will feel like they're at a concert and resent the singers and musicians for taking the pub out of their pub experience. If you only do it occasionally it will enhance the session pub experience and everyone will be able to enjoy the song.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Phantom Button
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Halfirish, anytime your thinking of heading up to Scotland, I'd suggest you give Jim a call:
http://www.uilleann-pipes.com/
Aye Conan, isn't it usually the case that the smaller the room, the better the tune. In my local session bar, the best place of the lot is a tiny snug off to the side which can only accommodate about 4 or 5 musicians, comfortably - a cracking place for a tune!
Best session I ever had in there, was a quiet afternoon session with Ben Lennon & Marcas & Catriona O'Murchu - 2 fiddles & flute plus the best of craic & yarnin from the two boys.
But then I'm sure you know Tom's, very well!
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Button, I always think it is best if the thing happens naturally. However, a gentle shush might be acceptable, but for me, only if it is done in a polite manner, apologetically almost. It is really the dictatorial style of shushing that I object to, there's no nead for bad manners, but let's not go down that road - again!
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Ptarmy
Thanks for that link to Jim's site. There was a time when I used to go up to Glasgow regularly. I'll certainly call him next time.
# Posted on October 26th 2005 by halfirish
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Hi Ptarmy Just back from a session meself - late one; I do know Tom's very well! Many's the night we've left by the alternative exit
# Posted on October 27th 2005 by Conán McDonnell
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
Aye, ye canny beat a Lock In, can ye?
For anyone else, who's curious:
http://www.thesession.org/sessions/display.php/71
# Posted on October 27th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: The Lark in the Smog!
I think it is reasonable to expect that the musicians should respect one another enough to be quiet when one of them is singing or playing something solo. But shushing the paying customers is a bit much--like was said above somehere in the thread--the real magic comes when the musician playing or singing is what quiets the crowd--something you earn, not demand.
# Posted on October 28th 2005 by AlBrown