Back in 1957, Richard Hoggart highlighted ‘sing-songs and concerts in the pubs and clubs’ as the most indicative of working-class music tastes. Yet, apart from some studies of pub rock, the everyday music scenes of familiar songs and/or communal singalongs have been conspicuously absent from the worlds of musicology, ethnomusicology and popular music studies. This RMA study day intends to stimulate challenging conversations about this research gap and explore rich avenues for the study of music in pubs, clubs and similar spaces of everyday, communal music experiences.
Working men’s clubs and institutes were established from the mid-19th century as alcohol-free, educational alternatives to pubs, but eventually morphed into democratic centres of live entertainment. Over the following century and a half, the differences between pubs, clubs and institutes have fluctuated, including their uses of music for bringing in customers/members, stimulating drinking or creating community. They now face rising costs, competition from music-free chains, aging membership and changes in British leisure. Do music researchers have a responsibility to contribute to knowledge of these historical and contemporary spaces of commonplace music experience – or, even, to advocate for them?
A portion of the study day will take place in a club in Newcastle which is currently reviving its music programming, with the opportunity to see the space and ask questions to management. It also includes an optional evening visit to ‘the oldest folk club in Britain running in its original venue’ at a restored Victorian pub to watch or perform, socialise with study day participants and talk with its members.
