Fans are a Giddy Thing - Mumford and Sons

From Wha'ppen - Flickr Creative Commons

Finally wrote my family’s concert experience up – we love Mumford and Sons!

Mumford and Sons, Kuranda Ampitheatre, October 28th, 2012

My family wait with the early birds.

We’re in the verdant rainforest at the gates of the Kuranda amphitheatre.

We can’t believe Mumford and Sons will be here soon.

The queue looks small. We thought more people would’ve arrived early. We’re shocked, but it won’t be long until it’s a long winding snake out onto the highway.

We’re making small talk and finding out that a woman camped in queues for Robbie William concerts. She tells us, ‘it was worth it, to be up the front.’

A mother in the early birders met one of the band and his girlfriend in the supermarket. She’s keen to meet them back stage if she can but knows it’s not possible. She tells us they’re off seeing the reef today. She is proud to be in on band’s holiday story.

She’s upset when told she can’t take any open bottles, including those of water in. ‘What, not even water?’ She’s itching for an uprising. ‘We want water, we want water. ’ No-one else is willing to risk early ejection from the concert.

Come to think of it water for a waiting line, when water is not allowed to be carted in might have been a good idea. Then it’s back to excitement for the concert and she’s calming down.

We wait for the gates to open. We are perched on cushions I’ve bought for us to sit on at the front (at the suggestion of the ticket people). People think they see them arriving. Excitement ripples in the ground. People crane to see, no it’s not them.

Gates open and quickly we are down the front with the early birds, and it’ not looking that crowded yet. We head for the fence line. Two of us fit there, and three behind.

The ampitheatre fills slowly as the support acts, Willy Mason and Sarah Blasko, placate the crowd.

Willy reminds me of Johnny Cash. His song writing in intricate and well received. What a great opener. I’ll join his facebook page for sure.

Blasko is in a world of her own. Almost not aware we are there? She has her own cheer squad in the crowd. She’s ethereal, melding into the rainforest, floating like a butterfly.

But most of the crowd want Mumford and Sons. When Blasko leaves the stage you can sense the anticipation is at breaking point. We are a bubble that has floated, waiting to explode.

As if in a twinkling of an eye we are surrounded by a huge surge in the sea of people. We are not going to be able to move from the front again, with any chance of returning to our prime spot again.

Our cushions are under our feet, and later the crowd’s feet, as people squeeze in tighter and tighter.

The band is on stage and the bubble bursts, only for another one to blown as each song is played!

Rhythmic crowd jumps up and down in the beat of The Lion Man.

Arm to arm, shoulder to shoulder, we can barely move. Finger tips and arms sway slightly, an ocean of phones and cameras click and record. Our phone too, but then its batteries and memories run low, and so we must rely on memory and the youtube uploads after the event of the sea of phones around us.

Everyone seems to know every word of every song, even better than Mumford himself, who momentarily forgets the lyrics to one and says the F word quite naturally.
I’m enjoying the magic of the concert, but the crowd is too close for comfort. The security guards are being very sweet and safety conscious, and keep checking on my kids in front of me to make sure they are not being crushed.

A drunken man who is annoying everyone but himself is ejected from the front and taken to the back of the concert. Someone recording the band has their elbow stuck in the groove of my back. I hope this isn’t going to continue for a whole hour and the music will be enough for me to put up with the irritation. It’s almost unbearable. Then I turn around and thankfully whoever it was seems to move in the surging wave around me and my back is free.

My feet are aching. The dust on the ground below me is covering my ankles. I keep an eye on the surge around my children to make sure they’re safe. Even standing on the cushions we bought in gives no comfort. They are slippery and threaten to have me slip under the wave of the crowd.

A short African lady wants to see and the crowd is so tall, some of us part to make a space for her to be where she can see more. She is appreciative and thankful for the kindness and then proceeds to also keep watch on my children, like the security guards at the front.

Groupies are yelling out their wish to have children of members of the band, but many of us are here for the love of the music and find their over clingy calls a bit cloying, but hey we’re all fans, live and let live.

Mumford and Sons are not background lounge music. They demand to be heard, with their banjos and guitar, drums and sometimes additional trumpets, as well as Marcus’s spectacular resonant and impassioned vocals.

I observe the camera man at the front. With two cameras all set up and ready to go, one slung over his shoulder. He has a front seat ride that only official photographers can have. He is not there the whole concert, but he captures much of what will be up on line later. His performance entrances me, an ever learning photographer, as much as the band of the concert.

Then I am re-enchanted and reengaged by the songs. I don’t know them all, as my children and hubby and this crowd are the bigger fans, but each of them rings through me.

‘man is a giddy thing’

We are the people of the rainforest, united in fandom and in song.

I will say I was here, in the rainforest, with my kids, hubby, the early birds, a few thousand people, all swaying in time toMumford and Sons.

As we are leaving we see many people from our hometown pouring out to their cars.
People are waving, hugging, and saying in ecstatic wonderment, still on a concert high, ‘You were here too!’

(c) Article, June Perkins - and below is my storify collection.

Song Trails Review

I've been busy over at my Pearlz Dreaming Blog.  Recently I've had two documenting jobs, one of a Dance for Recovery Project and another for Song Trails.  I covered both photographically and have just about finished editing a video documentary for Dance for Recovery.   In the mean time here is my Song Trails blog.

Michelle Walker and Bob Elliston, Singing a Song they wrote after meeting in Last years Song Trails – June Perkins

This year Tully Song Trails  gathered the musical experience of nineteen people from the ages of fifteen to seventy-eight years.

All ages worked together and came from the genres of  bubble gum punk,  folk, country, rhythm and blues, and rock.  We had harp,  saxophones,  bass, flutes, guitar, trumpet and voices – high and low – all of us were motivated to do what we all love- make music.

Peter Farnan was again one of the tutors, this time joined by Morganics a hip hop artist from Sydney.  Both had considerable talent in producing songs, which was  important on the last day of the workshop when two songs were recorded.

The Song Trails Weekend  reminded me of what most of us like in songs and what composers and writers search for to make a memorable song.
1-  A groove in the music.
2- A contrasting chorus and verse – with a stable chorus and unstable verse (reverse this for an unusual effect).
3- Writing with a sense of the history of the genre you are writing in whether it is Blues, Hip, Hop or Jazz.
4- A texture of instruments and voices that fits the groove of the song.
5- Music is collaborative.
6- Instrumental solos can build of be scattered through a song for great emotion and can have a certain feel to them coloured by the song.
7- Writing songs means tapping into creativity through many means, from drawing on the subconscious, the feeling our piece of music gives to us (ie you can begin with the music and then add the words that fit that piece).
8- It’s important to search for the unpredictable rhyme.
9- Having a hook in a song makes it extremely memorable.
10- It is possible to write a song in just over an hour, but it might take more time for it to settle.

Songtrailers posing hip hop style -taken by Giuliana Bonel

As for the new format of Song Trails, it’s a ripper, from a participant’s point of view you learn a lot more about song making than the original three-hour workshop.  You have a great chance to form connections with other artists, and you see much more of the song producing process if you have never witnessed this before.  We learnt concert protocol and added to our performance experience.

The concert at the end of the three days featured local talent who had participated in the workshops extensively, with Peter and Morganics supporting on instruments and doing just a few of their own works.    The feedback I’ve received from people who headed to the Tully concert was that is was great quality.  They audience were amazed by the newly composed songs and impressed by the local artists – they also enjoyed what Morganics and Peter shared.  Especially Morganics rap/ode to Tully.

The three day workshop format is a ripper, the only challenge I can forsee is that if you have over twenty participants you’re going to need another tutor, to assist in mentoring the groups and recording songs.  Another singer, musician might come in handy throughout the weekend just to have another genre, person with different life experience there.  Although a lot of this can come from participants as well.   It really depends on who turns up to the workshop.

I was delighted QMF employed me to photo document song trails this year.   It might be possible with more of a budget to regularly make a montage  photo video as part of the three-day workshop.  Yes, I know I’m shamlessly plugging for another documentary gig and an extension of this role to possible music video maker, what can I say – I absolutely loved documenting Song Trails as a participant and it was energising wearing the two hats. I threw a photo montage together on the spur of the moment on the Sunday morning, and Morganics did some rhythmic editing to time it to the music.  Hence a small music video was possible!  I went home after the workshop and mixed a montage for another song as well.  Loved doing that but wasn’t really part of my original time budget for the project, just felt moved to do it for participants.

Those attending the concert enjoyed the behind the scenes photographs, especially the family and close friends of the participants.  The parents of the youth participants said their kids came home every day raving about what they had learnt, who they had met, and other local youth are rearing up to do it next year on the recommendation of their mates.  Morganics was a hit with them!

Importantly this workshop worked as everyone was deliberately mixed by the tutors and collaborated with people they did not know, all ages and genres mixed.  This was extremely good for ensuring everyone learnt something new.  So a big thankyou to Peter Farnan and Morganics,  you both did a great job.

In breaks many people were trying out playing the harp of one of the participants, and so many youth want to work with the harpist next time.  I think she felt like quite a celebrity.  Peter was extremely delighted to record a live harp, which he said he had never done before.  So perhaps people will be lining up  for the  facilitator’s experience at  Song Trails remixed and have an experience like Peter’s, although everybody would love to see Peter again as he has such a subtle way of helping you improve a song.

Another highlight for me was extremely talented songwriters turning up to support emerging songwriters by attending the workshops.  Their willingness to attend the workshop really made it for the other less experienced participants, I refer especially to  Michelle Walker, Sue Day and Shirley Lyn, who added to the positive dynamic of the weekend.  More experienced song writers and singers should not discount participating in Song Trails, for the opportunity to meet up and coming artists and form collaborations and friendships.  Who knows maybe some more song trailers will present co-written songs, just like Michelle and Bob did on the first evening.

A big thankyou to Queensland Music Festival, APRA, Cassowary Coast Regional Council, Queensland Government, and Kareeya Hydro for bringing this workshop to Tully and making it so accessible, as the workshop was free.  The support crew of Song Trails were great as well, thankyou so much for all you did whilst in Tully.

Taking a Bow at the Final Concert – David Perkins