English Chanson concerts at the Drill Hall Theatre.

Some reflections.

In March 2003 I organised a season of English Chanson concerts at The Drill Hall Theatre in London. I think this is the first time there has been such an event. Previously the only place where you were likely to find artists performing “English Chanson” was at Des De Moor’s groundbreaking monthly club “Pirate Jenny’s” at The Vortex. The Radio 4 series “Singing In The Wilderness: Les Chansons Anglaises” was perhaps the first acknowledgement that there was this strand of contemporary songwriting that didn’t fit into existing pigeonholes, & we followed that up with a series of gigs in Clapham, entitled the Magnificent Seven, using many of the artists featured in the about English Chanson. But the Drill Hall concerts represent a real step forward, in effect establishing this sort of songwriting & performance as a distinctive & vibrant musical genre.

& personally, I had great time; I got to see most of the leading contemporary songwriters over a period of a couple of weeks, & in an excellent venue that’s the perfect setting for this sort of music, too.. We had established names – Leon Rosselson, Pete Atkin, Barb Jungr, Attila, - & new faces – Adeola, Kirsty McGee, Sebastien Michael - & a fine tribute to Jake Thackray from Phil McGinity who came all the way from Liverpool.  I think my favourite evening may have been Des De Moor & Peter Sarstedt. Peter Sarstedt was magnificent, an object lesson in intelligent, engaging songwriting & performance. But then there was also a brilliant performance by Lorraine Bowen, relishing the opportunity to be in chanson mode, & complete with tasteful trio of musicians….

It was interesting that many performers at some point in their evening had a go at defining what English Chanson is. The Drill Hall publicity team had also had problems with the idea, & I had had to explain it several times to various people, trying to avoid defining it by what it isn’t. It’s urban, contemporary, I’d say, more for listening to than for dancing to. “Ah, so it’s like Tracey Chapman,” said Barry, the Drill Hall press officer, so I had to add, no, it has more in common with the traditions & musical languages of Europe than America.

Ah, so it’s world music without the exotic beads & feathers then?

No, more like the ghost of Music Hall, I said, before it became sanitised & turned into “light entertainment” & “variety”, & I made sure the music for the intervals contained the songs my grandfather whistled, “Two Lovely Black Eyes” & “Ain’t It Grand To Be Blooming Well Dead”, & Marie Lloyd’s marvellous “A Coster Girl In Paris”, as well as Jake’s “Jake Thackray’s Last Will & Testament”.

  Robb Johnson

 (from “Roadworks”,  Folk On Tap, May 2003)

What, therefore, is the common denominator? At its most basic, “chanson” means “song”. On that basis, the contents of Pop Idol Will Young’s From Now On are like those of Nine Times Two (the Irregular Records compilation album of contemporary English Chanson) just as Mrs Mills & Thelonius Monk were both pianists. The difference, according to Robb Johnson’s haiku-like sleeve notes, is that Nine Times Two is “grown-up songs for grown-up people”.

“English chanson is concerned with a knowledge & understanding of mainland Europe songwriting culture,” opines Attila The Stockbroker, “& its application in an English context. In this country, few have been prepared to step outside the traditional ‘folk’ or ‘rock’ genres & use what can best be described as the ‘European cabaret’ style – because we have no tradition of this.”

“For me, the parents of English chansons are the music hall & the simple popular song of the post-war period, “ reflects Barb Jungr, “which sort of comes into its own in the 1960s & beyond. Think ‘Pictures Of Lily’ by Pete Townsend” Think too of Ian Dury spitting out in cockney his perspectives on London’s seedy-flash low-life & Jarvis Cocker’s gauche après-punk romanticism. Both have a shadowy link with Stanley Holloway, Max Miller & other singing comedians of the British music hall. Sur le continent, however, ‘music hall’ was closer to formal concerts than Drury Lane singalong, with less emphasis on backchat with the audience.

“There’s also the German satirical cabaret tradition,” says Des De Moor, “& the Brecht repertoire, & lesser known genres like the kleinkunst & cabaret of the Low Countries. All of this makes English chanson seem like a slavish imitation of European models, but it’s more about a particular attitude to songwriting & a particular kind of mood or feeling – which is to be brave, intelligent, challenging, emotionally sophisticated. Don’t be afraid of being poetic & expressive, exploring language & form & of tackling a wide range of big subjects, but keep your work direct & accessible with a dose of wit: the polar opposite of the typically puerile, banal, repetitive & derivative modern chart hit written by committee.”

By contrast to most Anglo-Saxon pop, words dominate the chanson, although Brel, in alliance with Aznavour, insisted that “We must not forget it is the music – that everyone hears but nobody listens to – that will get a song onto the radio & get it performed in music halls between a tightrope walker & a juggler.”

“There’s something in the way the sub-text is used,” adds Barb Jungr, “the greater emotion, the reaching within for something. There is a musical simplicity that is not naive or dull, but that allows the word, the emotion to lead.”

Alan Clayson

(from “Le Chanson Anglais: Can the Anglo-Saxons sing the Gauls?”)