Anthems for Doomed Generations

Struggling to get dressed lying on an airbed...
It’s a mini festival experience. All the things I love about a festival with none of the worst! I climb the steep hill from the train station to Ally Pally in the midst of a long line of unknown people and reflect that it is just like the long walk from far-flung camping fields to the main stage. Thankfully we have not camped, nor got ready for the gig by struggling to get dressed lying on an airbed choosing the least damp set of clothes that work the best with wellies! There is no mud, just well drained walkways and our hearts are glad.

 
Entering the main site we are greeted with a plethora of food stalls offering festival fast food favourites at fanciful prices, and production line bars the length of a small residential street.

Just like a festival its hard to find the friends who I am meeting and the phone signal is dreadful, but somehow after leaving answer machine messages I gravitate to the same point in the immense food hall. ‘Hellos’ are exchanged to the soundtrack of the first support act: Will Varley, a Frank Turner in the making!  Catch up over - it is time to trek to the main stage and claim our space.

The second support act is in full swing and Skinny Lister are what every self respecting festival needs - a raucous rocking riotous folk band. The crowd loves it almost as much as the band! The festival vibe is taking hold as the bass player (complete with double bass) crowd surfs!

 
Extravagant emotion in the toxic self-loathing...

All is set for the headline act at this one night festival. This is not T in the Park but T in the Pally – Frank Turner. A couple of nights earlier I had been at the Union Chapel for Billy Bragg and he had talked about playing the festivals in the summer and how he needs a different set compared to a tour gig. He explained how, at a festival,  he needs big, anthemic, songs that drag people in and keep them interested. At a festival he aims the songs at the passers-by. At his own gig he can choose a different set of songs which can be much more varied and subtle. Now Frank Turner is the master of the anthem, but however much the festival vibe is overflowing tonight this is not a festival and I get to the point where I have heard just one too many anthem after another!

 
There is much to be admired at a Frank Turner gig. Each time I have seen him I have been amazed at how everyone knows every word of every line of every one of his songs. At how there are teenagers, students, young professionals and old folkies in one audience and all of them sing along! For some, it is a family outing!

It is also quite amusing seeing loving couples singing his skeptical love songs to each other with mocking meaningful emotion! Less amusing is how others extrovertly pour out their extravagant emotion in the toxic self-loathing of the more introvert tracks. The group of people in front of us, 200 feet from stardom, sing, like backing singers, round a mic on a mobile, leaving a white noise answer machine message for the unlucky person left behind tonight.

 
Most artists joke about the embarrassment of that moment when they ask for audience participation and nothing happens!  Turner, on the other hand, has 10,000 people excitedly waiting for the chance to sit down and spring up like a primary school class participating in an Harvest Assembly! Lines learnt and perfected for the Photosynthesis anthem…

And I won't sit down (jump up)
And I won't shut up (sing your heart out)
And most of all I will not grow up (cheer like a banshee and vow always to go to festivals…)

All this is great and brilliant to see, and I confess to joining in but I still find the anthemic nature of the set too much. It is not that I am glad that the set comes to an end, just a little relieved that I won’t be roused and uplifted once again this evening!

 
The mundane, the silence, and the conformity...

And just like all festivals after the final headline act we troop back en masse in the dark. This time down the hill to the train station. Everyone talking about the gig as we are herded on to the London bound platform. Then once on the train suddenly the crowd fall silent. During the gig we had been one - singing in unison and leaping up together - but on the train we are silent commuter-strangers as London culture dictates, and there is no evidence of our shared uplifting experience. Rather, it is more like an Anthem for Doomed Youth… 

And I won't sit down (only if there are no seats)
And I won't shut up (except when everyone else does)
And most of all I will not grow up (but I’ll do a very good impression of it)

There is a silence that is only broken by the awkward and stumbling conversation of a young couple as they dance around the parameters of their relationship… 

Heathcliff: I’d like to see the Book of Morman…

Cathy: You could stay longer…
Heathcliff: I’d have to buy some new underwear…
Cathy: You could sleep on the floor…
Heathcliff: I only brought one pair of pants and socks…
Cathy: We could go to a show and you could sleep on the floor…
Heathcliff: I didn’t think I’d need to bring more than one pair…
Cathy: We’ll see if we can get tickets tomorrow…
Heathcliff: And then I’ll buy some more underpants...

Meanwhile in the minds of those of us silent on the train Turner sings.. 
Oh maturity's a wrapped up package deal so it seems
And ditching teenage fantasy means ditching all your dreams
All your friends and peers and family solemnly tell you you will
Have to grow up be an adult yeah be bored and unfulfilled 

And together we sing…

And I won't sit down (until I have a ticket)
And I won't shut up (about my underwear)
And most of all I will not grow up (until one day I realise I have wasted my youth!)

And perhaps this is why the bombardment of anthems began to leave me so cold at the gig because despite all the clenched fists and loud singing, all too soon, and all to readily, we slink back into the mundane, the silence, and the conformity!

Gig: 38 of 50

Date of Gig: Thurs. 26th November 2015


Venue
Alexandra Palace

Artists 
Will Varley

Skinny Lister

Frank Turner

Running total of artists seen 81