Things Of Interest Blog

A month or so ago - 18 July - I headed back up to the ancestral home to see my brother perform at Oxjam, which is a sort of Oxfam charity concert thing. The idea is that lots of people around the UK organise independent separate events, and charge entry, and anybody who performs performs for free, and the entry cash goes to Oxfam. Gaz has set up two of these before, and this was the third (or possibly the fourth - I have missed at least one of them). They've all been held at the family church, with an attendance numbering in the dozens rather than the hundreds, consisting mostly of church members and friends of the performers.

Gaz is a great musician and I like hearing him (and, in this case, the band he's accumulated at university) perform. As for the standard for the other acts - well, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of quality screening, so this is always pretty variable. There's always one or two people who somehow manage to drain the life from otherwise perfectly enjoyable anthems. That's okay. It's for charity. This time around we hit a nadir. I don't want to name names, because that's just rude and nobody reading this would know who they are anyway. But they couldn't play. It wasn't music. Three of them took turns on the drums and none of the three could keep time, which is pretty much the core concept of drumming. Entire songs were performed with instruments accidentally turned off. Another member of my family was heard to remark afterwards, "I found them very difficult to enjoy."

So here is my question. Should I be trying to enjoy lousy music? This is a charity gig, to be sure. But I've already paid money to get into the auditorium. My charitable transaction for the day is completed. Now, I am here to receive music in return. Should I be extending my charity to the performers, too? Does the fact that one's audience is largely made up of forgiving and benevolent Christians make it okay to not actually be very good at what one does?

The church was refurbished a year or two ago, but unfortunately it seems that the main wire carrying sound from the musical instruments at the front of the auditorium to the sound desk at the rear is running alongside a power cable. This results in a continuous high-pitched whine coming through the speaker system, which only people of roughly my age or younger can detect. I am neither a sound engineer nor an electrical engineer but even I know that you shouldn't run power and signal alongside each other. Apparently it can't be fixed. It is a matter for regret.

Still, I enjoyed the event - there was more good than bad, the audience was larger than ever, a lot of good money was raised, which I guess is what counts. And the next day there was barbecue and time to catch up with the family - always good.

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