The family that plays together...
Stop me if you've heard this one before, but every gig I go to now seems to be full of families.
There are dads with girls no more than seven, parents and teenagers, old ladies that really look like old ladies whom you would never imagine would be into REM.
When I was a teenager, I'd rather have died than be seen out in public with my parents, groovy as they were, especially if there were going to be other kids my age around. The shame! But these teens don't seem to mind at all. Do parents and children really like the same music now? I thought it was but a myth.
At OMD on Tuesday, it was families galore. Perhaps it was an outing to see Dad's favourite band, so the kids had no choice. Or perhaps they genuinely all like them. The only gig I remember my parents ever going to was The Carpenters at Bournemouth Winter Gardens. There was no way I was going to that. Now might be a different matter.
I'm not saying there's an age limit for gig-going or that it's not nice that families all go to gigs together and can find a common bond in liking the same music. But it does seem that gigs these days are the modern day equivalent of a trip to Windsor Safari Park. Or perhaps it's just the bands I'm seeing. I doubt mums and sons would be going to The Hold Steady together.
Or am I wrong?
- More from Five-Centres.
- Login or register to post comments
I'm taking my 15 year old
I'm taking my 15 year old son to see Hot Chip in Brighton in November and he's coming along with my brother and I to see Magazine in February. I used to go to Jazz gigs occaisonally with my dad, but as he thought that rock music was literally the work of the devil (I'm not kidding) and banned me from buying records for a while, it was unlikely that were going to bond at a Damned gig.
You're Wrong
Unless it's just me.
I'm 49 and regularly go gigging with my 19 year old son.
Last night we went to see Oasis and we did Glastonbury and Latitude together this year.
In the next few weeks we are going to see Elbow, the Hold Steady and Amsterdam. Next year I'm taking him to see the re-formed Magazine in Manchester.
Now obviously some stuff appeals more to him than me (and vice versa) and he's more likely to be off down the front while I hang back towards the side - but it's pretty much a "partnership of equals".
He is keen to learn more about music he was too young to appreciate - for instance he knows nothing about Magazine, but knows where they fit into the Manchester 'scene' of the last 30 years and wants to know more. And he keeps me up to date with newer stuff - what to hear and what to avoid amidst the indie landfill.
But sometimes it cuts the other way - I'm the one who 'discovered' The Hold Steady, not him, for instance.
As far as my old dad is concerned - you are right - I'd have been mortified if he'd suggested we both went to see The Who or The Floyd back in the day. But it's different now I think.
Tricky one, this....
I agree it is all wrong, but that hasn't prevented me attempting to indoctrinate my children and step-children into the intricate wisdoms of good music (i.e. my choices). Needless to say, by and large, I have failed. Is a useful rule of thumb that if the on stage artists are closer the parental age than the sprog, and if the sprog is greater than the age of consent, then it is mostly ok. When it is old codgers at the concerts of and for the young, it is as appetising as seeing camels kiss.
Folk, blues, country, jazz and world somehow seem invalid to this general rule, strangely, but, if HMV have their evil way, none of these will further exist. I now see that the admittedly small areas devoted to those are now are squeezed into one: "specialist", and the space given is equivalent to that offered each before.
Q: I miss the old fashioned buzz of browsing. Is there anywhere left where it can be done?
Browsing
You are spot on about this. Which is why I buy the physical product if I can. Because my oldest lad is 7 and maybe in about 3 years or so he'll start to get into his music, (or maybe he won't) but if he does and he wants to revert to where it all came from he'll have one room and an attic of stuff that he can browse through. Then he can fight with his brother to see who ends up in ownership of the lot when Springer Sr sails west over the Sea to the Undying Lands, (to look for Frodo, Bilbo and Gandalf) never to return.
Browsing
is still available as a wallet-emptying pastime if you're lucky enough to be local to an Oxfam Music & Books shop, FOPP or Leicester Market - lots of CDs and vinyl to be browsed through there and occasionally some real gems to be found.
Fopp.....
I eventually found my local Fopp, 2 days after it closed down.
I still haven't found one that is stil open.......
Manchester
Just off Market Street, conveniently between 2 HMVs on Market Street. Yes 2! On the same street. Both selling the same stock.
Mad for it.