From: S.S.B.Glover@bradford.ac.uk (SSB GLOVER)
Newsgroups: alt.music.filk
Subject: Re: New Filk
Date: 5 Nov 92 11:27:17 GMT
Organization: University of Bradford, UK
Originator: 92909131@ccw313
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Chris Croughton (chris@keris.demon.co.uk) wrote:
: 
: In article <1992Nov3.214854.5107@radian.uucp> markbr%radian@natinst.com writes:
: 
: >in the *true* faanish key of "off".
: 
: Well, personally I resent the idea (yes, I know its traditional) that
: filkers sing off-key, and badly.  Certainly I wouldn't slam anyone who
: wanted to sing (or play) and wasn't very good, but most of the British
: filkers at least are of a reasonable quality, and many are very good.
: Also, they are improving - several have been inspired by filk to have
: music lessons, and many of us have recieved help in playing from the
: more experienced (thanks, Mike!) musicians.
 
It depends how you #def british_filkers: there are folks who enjoy the stuff
but have already been scared off. I'm afraid I can see parallels forming
outside the filk world with the KTF school of fanzine reviewing in the late
seventies -- and if filk ever does decline in britain, some fugghead is
going to maintain that it was because of this perceived elitism (It's wrong
to blame ktf for the decline of fanzines, so it's probably also going to be
wrong to blame certain FoN's (or the "FoN system") for a decline in filk
that hasn't happen yet -- I'm speculating and making a conditional prediction
here, not casting blame!)

Singing off-key and badly in a large group is probably the filk equivalent
of being in an apa rather than doing a zine of one's own... it's less
difficult, and it gives you most of the fun, plus there's the sense of
particip... ...ation that comes from when the noise of a chorus is better
than any of the participants can make alone. 

: I agree - the ovewhelming tendency here is for individual performance in
: the circle.  Often I feel uncomfortable joining in, as it's 'their
: turn'.  There are, of course, exceptions, but generally only with people
: I know well, and in a smaller group.  In large groups, either those with
: a lot of confidence 'hog' the group (they may not mean to, but since
: they have songs ready, and often newly written, they jump in faster than
: those who are afraid that an old song will be boring), or it's done
: strictly with the result that no-one gets more than a couple of turns in
: the evening.

This trend was beginning when I last had time to spare for filking at a con:
I'm assuming the concert format at the beginning of Scone was a one-off,
'cos the tail end of the filk I did catch (Hi, Chris) was good fun, and
quite similar to the old style.

If only con bars closed earlier... (so that room parties would start earlier
and one could carry out whatever transactions one had to before 2am and
finding a dead filkroom...)
 
: One thing that we have in Britain now is a couple of filk bands.  No
: offense to the people concerned, but I feel very left-out.  The feeling
: I get is that I'm excluded from that activity.  I'm not in an area where
: I can easily get to other people to form my own band (at least, not
: carrying equipment) but I want to perform with other people.  Playing
: bass guitar on your own is not very satisfying...

This is again quite a common feeling. I was "volunteered" to set up a Northern
filk group back in '89 (Thanks, Brewis -- he posted my address and details
without checking with me :-( ), but yes, a lot of people DO feel excluded, and
if you are not a London fan, or otherwise on the circuit, you've had it!

: I must admit that I have found it frustrating enough at times that I've
: thought about gafiating...

Yup, me too...

Steve (I'm MUCH too busy to have time to gafiate, really...)