A faded Britannia rolls back the centuries and dips once more into her plentiful reserves of nostalgia for this month’s jaunt down musical memory lane.
Most cherished musical memory…
Every year at the Last Night of the Proms when everyone waves their small (but mighty) flags and sings ‘Rule Me’.
First live performance you attended…
Likely it was some maypole folk affair in the rurals of deep England, now lost to the mists of time. The first one I remember though was going to the music hall in London (this was back in the 1850s, when music was still good). We drank gin and sang along to our favourite tunes and booed the bad ones offstage. It was a jolly time.
A song I wish I’d wrote…
All the good ones are about me – so in a way, I rather did write them.
A song that changed your perspective…
My perspective is panoptic and omniscient, thus the notion of it being changed in any way is laughable. However, I did hear Shivering by that prolific young gentleman Edward Sheerhands recently on the wireless – and it made me think.
A song that takes you back in time…
I spend all my time in the past – every song is a foxtrot down memory lane for me.
The first record I ever bought…
I am an anthropomorphised ideal of a perfect golden age that never existed, so technically I have never ‘bought’ anything. However, an admirer once courted me with a particularly fine rendering of the Pomp and Circumstance March No.4, played at double speed across a separate recording of cannon fire recreated from the Battle of Waterloo, while a bulldog barked the most quotable lines of Churchill’s Top 10 war speeches in morse code. My suitor was ultimately unsuccessful in his quest – but I still have the record, and play it often.
Songs that make you smile…
There’ll Always be an England – Vera Lynn.
Greensleeves.
Crocodile Rock – Elton John.
The first song I performed…
I believe it was a tune of my own devising. An ode to ruined hope and despair (I was so carefree in my youth). Perhaps I will sing it for you, if you can make it to our little show.
‘Gone to the Dogs’, the artist’s show joining songs and theatre in a wonderful summation of her lockdown creativity, heads to Yellow Arch Studios on Saturday 7th May. Tickets are available here and you can get a 20% discount using the code BRITEXPOSED at checkout.
