What is it with 50 year old men who, after years of mild decadence and staying up late still pursue the elusive Rock & Roll dream. Hauling themselves around the bars and village halls of the UK for the price of a set of fancy guitar strings and, if they are lucky - petrol money. An army of middle aged rockers rehearse diligently week in week out for a remuneration that can be earnt by most in the time it takes to deal with the morning's emails. Disposable cash is always useful combined with the blurred distinction between men and boys, and the, thankfully, musical egalitarian age in which we live.

I confess here and now to being party to this phenomenon and along with my fellow compadres in ‘The Tupelos’ I gig two or three times a month and thoroughly enjoy myself despite the sleep deprivation of post show euphoria and the muscular spasms brought on from forcing bulky PA Cabs up vertiginous pub stair cases. All of us in the band own high quality instruments and amplification that were only a fantasy when playing back in the early 60’s and 70’s and advancements in audio engineering have given bands like ours a sound the Beatles would have died for. John Lennon always cited the poor quality of the then available amplification when they played live for the reason the Beatles stopped touring; most of the time they just couldn’t hear each other.)

We however in the 21st century have ‘In Ear Monitoring’ at our disposal, 400 Watt floor monitors with Hi Fi sound and PAs that re-produce bass frequencies that are capable of re-distributing your internal organs. Unfortunately we never have the problem of screaming women to compete with and if there is any it subsides quickly as they flee after first encountering us.

The main reason why groups like ours have the platform to strut our stuff and get a buzz from playing is because of the egalitarian musical age I mentioned earlier. Baby Boomers have bestowed on the younger generation the legacy of their record collections . Yes! - 20 year olds have Radio 1, and hard core night clubs playing car alarm anthems until the wee hours of the morning, but we get kids who come up and tell us how cool it is we play tunes from the likes of Little Feat, Ry Cooder, Steely Dan and Tom Waits These guys remember have grown up with this stuff at home, unlike the majority of us Boomers, whose exposure to our parents’ music was of the; Val Doonican, Jim Reeves and Des O’Connor variety. Hardly the stuff of inspiration to pick up a guitar and change the world.

So if you see a poster for a local band in your town, remember they may actually be playing some music you might really enjoy.

Paul Kennedy

www.thetupelos.com [1]