Van Der Filk

For those not "in the know", into which category I suspect many of my regular readers will fall, the Van Der Filk convention was the 22nd (vingt-deux, geddit!!??) UK Filk Convention in which dozens of musicians with interests in the SF/Fantasy/technology/cats range gathered at some hotel where we're welcome to sing at each other and generally have a good time.

The cost to me was roughly 1/12th of yearly income from jobseeker's allowance, so I was only really able to do this because I had a stroke of good financial fortune in the summer and was able to save some money to one side in order to pay for the weekend away.

Going on any kind of holiday is a big thing for me, involving a huge amount of careful planning that will inevitably go wrong somewhere. This event, being a musical one, involved even more than usual, since I had to work out how many instruments and of what kind, I could reliably transport via public transport from point A to point B, as well as working out what other things I wanted with me. An added complication to these calculations was the fact that my foot was still painful and it wasn't clear whether I would need a walking stick to get from A to B either.

I also had my newly-put together CD of filk, tunes and a couple of other things, that I hoped to sell (this did not work out as well as I had hoped - I suspect I could do better if I had the chance over again, but anyway). The CD is still available if anyone reading this wants it - including P&P I will be asking £6 in the UK and US$15 for USA - not sure yet what the costs would be to Europe but I'm sure some satisfactory arrangements can be made if I'm contacted.

I was rather impressed when I got to the hotel and found that the only thing I had forgotten to bring in the end was my blank A4 writing paper for writing songs, and a guitar capo.

After the adventure of getting through London and out the other side okay, I arrived at the hotel around 3pm on Friday, which was more or less what I had planned when I set out. I wasn't quite sure what to do - plans don't normally run that smoothly!

After dumping luggage in my room, I joined the other early-ish arrivals in the lounge for conversation until food and the opening ceremony.

All the time, my main concern was that I wasn't sure if I was ready for my set or not. It was at this point, and no sooner, that I realised that I had forgotten my capo, and that four out of nine songs I ended up performing would need a capo. Fortunately, it being a gathering of folk-y style musicians, there were a number of capos available to be borrowed!

Before it was my turn, though, there was Heather Borean's set. Details are hazy in my memory because a lot happened in between then and now, but I definitely liked it.

Details of my set are also hazy, but as near as I can figure it ran something like this:

Life Of A Sun (song by me)
Bonny Boys of Bedlam (traditional song)
Roads (cover of song by Artisan)
Who Will Blow The Candle Out? (cover of song performed by Coope, Boyes & Simpson)
Different Kinds Of Sun (song by me, ttto Home, Lads, Home)
Faith In You (cover of song by Show of Hands)
The Bottom Line (cover of song by Lynn Watts)
Do They Still Sing Songs of the Great Tribble Hunt? (song by me)
Here Before We Came (song by me)

I noticed some people apologised for putting in several covers in their sets. I didn't, because I like singing these songs, think I do them well, and so why wouldn't I want to entertain others with them?

I was painfully aware of all the mistakes I made in the various songs (if I do Life of a Sun live again, I'm changing the backing track to give me clearer cues - I was getting it spot on when practising at home, but of course adrenaline and excitement threw my timing right off on the night).

After hobbling off the stage again, I settled down to rest my painful leg and enjoy the remainder of the evening.

After enjoying Nat's set and Mike's set of many guitars, it was time for a circle. I don't know if it's strictly speaking filking to take one song and put it in a different style, but it is fun - I tried out my guitar-picking ballad style versions of New Found Glory's "My Friends Over You" and Alice Cooper's "Poison" (a full arrangement of which I will post to youtube as soon as I work out how I want to do the video - the NFG song is already available - link includes gratuitous male semi-nudity).

Saturday was big, although the efforts of the day before had without doubt strained my foot so walking was difficult again. As much as possible I just stayed put and listened to the many wonderful performers who took the stage.

By dinner time, my foot was feeling better and I was ready for a walk to find some cheaper food than that available at the hotel, and tagged along with a group of others with the same idea. This was going to hurt later, of course, but I thought it would be worth it. Unfortunately, the destination turned out to have a 45min waiting time before we could be seated, which would mean missing the first couple of acts of the evening. Since these were sets by the UK and US Guests of Honour, this was not acceptable - we trudged back to the hotel and made the best we could of what they had there.

More resting of the foot, and more fabulous music and singing to hear while doing so, especially the GoH concerts. Especially amusing was when Vixy said the tech crew had a suck knob. For those unaware (as Vixy was), "knob" in English slang is "penis"... Vixy and Tony were amazingly good, and I would have to say unfairly so considering they were suffering from colds at the time!

Two stand-out pieces of improvisation from the Saturday night circle: without a doubt the duelling pipes (recorder and tin whistle) was an absolute highlight of the weekend as Christo's ability to produce overblow effect on the recorder led to a contest between him and Tim (it was even nominated for "best performance at con"!). But also, the instafilk of "Wild Rover" to tell the story of the Spirit Mars rover ("And it's no, nay, never (beepbeepbeepbeepbeep) no nay never no more/ will I be a Mars rover - no never, no more") initiated by Bill Sutton with two whole verses, and then developed further by other members of the circle.

Sunday came and I joined the ecumenifilk for songs of spiritual or religious uplifting. I attempted to sing "Lay Me Low", but may not have hit all the right notes. I think everyone there sang/led at least one song and much spiritual uplifting was had.

The "One-shot" concerts (performers doing a single song or routine each) included two spectacular performances: Phil and Marilisa's performance of "Afraid of the Shark" (for my non-filker friends, this was ostensibly the story of "Jaws" told almost entirely through puns based on well-known filk songs) and the Crooklets singing "Where's Your Schoolbag?" to the tune of Hallelujah. The latter won the "best performance" award, and deservedly so. And Phil won "best silly song" for "Afraid of the Shark". That shows you how good the one-shots were!

There was a filk version of the panel show genre - based on "I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue", "Whose Line is it Anyway", "Have I got News for You?" etc. Typically silly, and absolutely NO hint of foul play from EITHER team...!

Apart from the near-miss of Talis accidentally making off with my banjo (she had mistaken it for one of her guitars, which shows how tired and in need of escape she was!) everything was fine.

After a couple of turns around the eventually rather large circle that formed in the spare programming room after the official closing ceremony, I went and joined Bill, Mike and Lawrence to watch the Superbowl. Bill's preference for the Colts made the group allegiance mandatory, which may explain why the Saints were able to win it (any team I support automatically fails, it's been shown in scientific experiment!) - however, I missed that bit. I was sadly feeling the consequences of a lack of sleep and decided discretion was the better part of valour - I arrived in bed just in time!

Monday morning involved hugging people goodbye, noodling on my banjo in a corner out the way, and then heading homewards. My usual route through London involves the Northern Line from King's Cross to London Bridge. After about 15 minutes on the tube platform, it was announced that services were no longer running due to some kind of major electrical fault further down the line. Making my way instead to Charing Cross, I was able to get the same train as I would have done anyway, but it involved a lot more legwork changing tube trains.

Was it worth the money and effort? Of course! I had a terrific time, and if people now buy my cd it might even not have cost me quite as much and that would make it more likely to be possible to attend something next year (hint, hint!) I have a handy paypal button on the right-hand column there, if you donate the appropriate amount, and let me know it's for a cd and where you want me to send it, all will be good.