The Monkees - Sunday 6 September, Moseley Park, Birmingham
The final day of the tenth
Moseley Folk Festival saw glorious, late summer weather and a spectacle of
equally dazzling music - some of it definitely folk, some stretching the
definition to the limit. On the unarguably folk end of the spectrum, we had veteran
performers Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick.
With a more contemporary
feel, but still very much in the English folk tradition, The Unthanks had
reinvented themselves once again, this time with the big, fulsome sounds of
their new Mount the Air album.
Trumpets and strings augmented the haunting vocals of the Unthank sisters ... with
the occasional burst of clog-dancing, of course.
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| Angels from the realms of glory? No, it's just The Polyphonic Spree |
At the less folky end of things was
that jubilant troupe of pop rockers from Dallas, The Polyphonic Spree, whose
numerous members filled the stage in their white choir robes to share with us their
joyous symphonic rock. This helped the sun-drenched, well-chilled crowds prepare
their ears for the headlining act ... The Monkees.
Now, I suppose you could argue that
the Monkees' music is so much a part of popular culture that it has become a
kind of folk music. Hits like Last Train
to Clarkesville, Steppin' Stone, Pleasant Valley Sunday, A Little Bit Me, A
Little Bit You and I'm a Believer
had the enraptured audience joining in. Footage from the original Monkees TV series
was projected at the back of the stage while Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork
impressed us with their exuberance (not bad for a couple of septuagenarians)
and their musicianship (not bad for artists who were famously said not to have
played their own instruments.) Micky
sang in his distinctive and still powerful voice and played some rhythm guitar,
his drumming duties taken care of by Peter's son, while Peter sang and switched
between guitar and keyboards. A kettledrum was provided for Micky to
play on his Randy Scouse Git (Alternate
Title) while Peter's songwriting and guitar skills were showcased on
several numbers including his For Pete's
Sake (which some will remember as the old end credits music from the TV
show) with its message of love, peace and freedom.
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| The Monkees about to be railroaded by the last train to Clarkesville |
Perhaps the Monkees' songbook has
passed into folk memory. A rerun of the series in the 1980s might account for
some of it, as not everyone enjoying the performance in Moseley was old enough
to remember the original airings but, regardless of age, everyone seemed to
know all the lyrics. Micky joked, "You may know this one, but please don't
join in ... it puts me off," before launching into Daydream Believer. Of course, everybody joined in.
In an unexpected climax to the evening
the numerous members of The Polyphonic Spree were invited back on stage to join
in a rendition of the theme from The Monkees' 1968 film musical Head, The Porpoise Song, with its
fitting if bizarre refrain: "but the porpoise is laughing, goodbye,
goodbye, goodbye ..."
If you had suggested in the late
sixties, as my big brother Phil and I watched The Monkees monkeying around on black
and white TV, that one summer's evening five decades later we'd be standing in
a park in Birmingham singing along with Micky and Peter well ... we would have called
you a daydream believer. But now you know how happy we can be.
