Just how wild are we?

[lownote]

I am in a gigging 5 piece rock (n roll) band aged 67 to 78. I suspect we all secretly think we're still amazing super-doods, and despite the odd wrinkle, creak and groan we are no less spearheading the revolution than we were 60 years ago, and with music that was and is the mutts if only young people would wake up to it. An alternative view is that we're just relics of our era, no more or less, just as music hall and early ragtime were for us when we were young (it's about the about the same time gap).  If you're a younger BCer, maybe in your twenties, how do you view us ageing rockers?   

[lownote]

I now have feedback from Beth, a 20 something barmaid at one of our gigs:  "If I like the music I don't care how old the band is".  So that's that answered. 

[Barking Spiders]

I happened to overhear my stepdaughter referencing a Soundgarden track playing on the radio (Jesus Christ Pose as it happens, on Planet Rock) as 'old people's music'.  Make of that what you will 🙂

[AndyTravis]

My daughter referred to Green Day as “the original punk band”.

 

I’m still crying a bit inside.

[Bunion]

 

 

[JottoSW1]

32 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

My daughter referred to Green Day as “the original punk band”.

 

I’m still crying a bit inside.

Pretty Tragic, doesn't she realise how much they owed to Plastique Bertrand ?

[nilorius]

When I was 20 and it was 20 years ago, i tried to learn all the best from just like You.

[Happy Jack]

Wild? I was absolutely livid.

[AndyTravis]

1 hour ago, JottoSW1 said:

Pretty Tragic, doesn't she realise how much they owed to Plastique Bertrand ?

I just said to her “go and research it all…there’s about 35 years you missed before green day…”

[Lozz196]

1 minute ago, Happy Jack said:

Wild? I was absolutely livid.

Indeed, Gerald

[Vin Venal]

38 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

I just said to her “go and research it all…there’s about 35 years you missed before green day…”

Just out of curiosity, because I'm interested in what people think of as the origin of punk rock, where are you counting from?

 

Because by my reckoning 35 years pre green day puts you before even the proto-punk bands of 69ish like the stooges and mc5.

 

In reality, about twice as much time has passed between green day and now as had passed between the beginning of punk, and green day. Or in other words, green day are much closer to the origins of punk than they are to the present scene.

[Bunion]

Los Saicos a band from Peru were the earliest recorded punk band in 1964 

I watched a documentary about them a few months ago strangely enough 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by Bunion
Adding a link

[Bassfinger]

I am actually using a walking stick at the moment.  I wanted a sword stick, but Mrs Bassfinger will only allow me a cane.

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by Bassfinger

[Bunion]

3 minutes ago, Bassfinger said:

 

I am actually using a walking stick at the moment.  I wanted a sword stick, but Mrs Bassfinger will only allow me a cane.

 

Sharpen the end and rub it in cow sh!t you could do quite a bit of damage with that 😝

[Richard R]

3 minutes ago, Bassfinger said:

I am actually using a walking stick at the moment.  I wanted a sword stick, but Mrs Bassfinger will only allow me a cane.

 

 

 

Her Majesty's Constabulary would have something to say about a sword stick too. 

[Dan Dare]

A pal does gigs in care homes. He gloomily told me recently that he's now playing much of the stuff he grew up listening to (50s and 60s), because that's what the residents grew up listening to, too. Ah well, getting old is still better than the alternative...

[PaulThePlug]

@Bassfinger... how about a Tippling Cane? Or a Shot Gun Cartridge Cane Gun!

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by PaulThePlug

[Crusoe]

21 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

My daughter referred to Green Day as “the original punk band”.

 

I’m still crying a bit inside.

 

[thodrik]

Honestly, with so many young people these days being socially aware, not drinking and very health conscious, rock bands are very tame in 'wildness levels' compared to the bands of the 60s-90s. 

I say this as someone who turned 36 today...

Edited May 16, 2022 by thodrik

[ubit]

A good few years ago when we were playing I over heard a couple of girls who had been at school. with us muttering "would you look at them, what age do they think they are?" I laughed as we were in our early forties and were going down a treat. I thought I would rather be up here doing this than getting old before my time and going out slagging off others.

[Lozz196]

Like him or loathe him Noel Gallagher said something about this, along the lines of anywhere else in the world a musician in advancing years shall we say is respected as they will most likely have been playing for a long time. Whereas in GB (and probably England more) it’s a case of “well he ain’t gonna be able to play is he, look at how old he is”. 

[gjones]

22 hours ago, JottoSW1 said:

Pretty Tragic, doesn't she realise how much they owed to Plastique Bertrand ?

'Pretty Tragic' is a great name for my new Engelbert Humpeldink band!

 

Thanks!

[gjones]

19 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

A pal does gigs in care homes. He gloomily told me recently that he's now playing much of the stuff he grew up listening to (50s and 60s), because that's what the residents grew up listening to, too. Ah well, getting old is still better than the alternative...

I keep on telling the rest of the band that 'Care Homes' are a golden opportunity for a band like ours, whose target audience are 'Grey hairs & nae hairs'.

 

 

They're not convinced.

[chris_b]

20 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

A pal does gigs in care homes. He gloomily told me recently that he's now playing much of the stuff he grew up listening to (50s and 60s), because that's what the residents grew up listening to, too. Ah well, getting old is still better than the alternative...

 

Ah yes, the care home and day care circuit. That's where the gigs are these days.

[Muzz]

I've mentioned this before but my (now ex) singist/geetard BL was doing care home gigs to fill in his earnings a good few years ago. When I asked him how he managed with all those songs from yesteryear, he said 'Nope, it's all Beatles and Stones these days...'

 

Even though I'm looking for a new band/gig/deps, I'm steering away from the Classic/Dad Rock stuff, as the market for it is dwindling...which is as it should be; the pubs (and clubs, to an extent, tho I'm meaning social clubs rather than night clubs, obv) aren't full of sixty-somethings, and even though they're not exactly full of teenagers and twenty-somethings, it's a new audience.

 

My 17-year old, though he doesn't mind some older stuff (he has a very, ummm, eclectic playlist) has no interest in going away and doing a history lesson on 40+ year old bands and music unless he's very interested in it. The nature of the music biz these days means kids have so much more music to pick from (and easily, too), that the phrase 'I like them, I've got all their albums' is pretty much redundant...