Hastings Sussex
March 4th 2012
There are some things better understood outside their original context, the incongruous surroundings defining them more sharply, and the English country music scene may be one of them. It is Saturday night in Hastings, Sussex and the guys and gals are whooping it up at a Country & Western dance, headlined by a Dolly Parton tribute act. The local Dolly Parton, aka Sarah Jayne of Kent, is billed as “The UK and Europe’s leading and number one Dolly Parton tribute performer” and a winner at the British Country Music Awards. But when Dolly is no where to be seen this evening organisers are forced to explain that Ms Jayne has been indisposed by a “broken jaw”. This rather poetic explanation seems about as true to country music’s rough and tumble roots as you can get.
But no matter, all the Bettys and Bobs have still gathered, most of them in Country & Western gear. There are blonde women in suede skirts and blue check blouses, narrow leg jeans, head scarfs and cowboy boots. The men are mostly in black, “outlaw style” some in full length dark coats, cowboy hats and the odd sheriff’s badge. Others have rolled cuff jeans, greased back hair, square toe boots and embroidered cowboy shirts, making them part of the cross-over crowd, meaning that they like “two kinds of music”: Country and Rock-a-Billy. The men in black generally bleed to the other side musically, admitting that they double as metal fans, with Motor Head being the band of choice. One of the latter is Kenny, short, bearded and sporting two pistols in hip holsters under his jacket and with a black bandana around his neck.
“There isn’t much of a scene for us here in Hastings, it’s more easy to dress for Metal. If you want to do Country & Western you have to go to London or to the West Country, Devon and Cornwall, or up north, but it hasn’t been the same since they shut down Silver City”.
In its day Silver City was apparently the top American Wild West theme park town in the UK and hosted sleep-over weekends with Country music concerts, dress up, role play and rodeos. But no matter, there is still a big country scene in the UK and across the channel in continental Europe, as indicated by the flyers on display tonight for country music concerts and themed weekends from the Netherlands to Norway.
Any interest or pursuit, no matter how obscure, will have a sub-culture, often a large and elaborate one, with its own leading lights involving performers, retail business and a fan base. Such is country music in the UK, a lonely outpost of the genre far from its North American roots.
Country music is intertwined
with the iconic images of American cowboy culture, an enduring global brand that attracts fascination and fans around the world. Combined with its proto Rock-and-Roll back beat, danceable rhythm, dress code and identifiable stereotypes inspired by the freedom of the Frontier, there is in Country music an easy, ready-to-wear genre. And so, for this one night at least, the group of Brits gathered here can rise above their settled lives and imagine, even live out, the excitement of the Wild West. The genre definitely has a capacity for folksy down home fun. Glancing at the packed dance floor I can’t think of a comparable group of people having half the enjoyment from, say, French Dance Hall or by listening to Japanese Rōkyoku, Greek Sirtaki or the folk music of any other country that rhythm forgot. There is a reason why global music brands spread and endure—they have to speak to someone’s feet and make them want to get up and dance.
Basically white soul music, Country is undeniably working class, its themes involving the frustrations and failures of the little guy. Looking around the room tonight there are no bankers or captains of industry here. It is an older and not particularly prosperous crowd with most people in their 40s and 50s, but with a sprinkling of 20 somethings with leather jackets, tattoos and bouffant Rock-a-Billy hair. It is a scene played out in a few bars, pubs and music halls across the UK every weekend, from Dover to Dundee.
As incongruous, out of place or just plain ridiculous as the music inspired by the land of the tumble weed appears on a rainy night on the English south coast, it obviously speaks something to these people. What could be more natural than that?