As a gigging (usually) guitarist, vocalist, tutor and songwriter and someone who facilitates several singing groups/community choirs including two groups for those living with dementia, I recently did my first actual live gig – well a pop up gig really – in a car park.
A care home that I have been into many times in the past, asked if I could come and play/sing in their car park for their residents and staff. The home has had seven of its residents die from Covid 19 over the past seven weeks. I was told that they wanted me back, as the staff and residents needed cheering up.
I knew that I was going to be in the open air, but with the British weather being what it usually is, unpredictable, I decided that I would take a small but powerful amp (rather than my p.a. system) that I could sing through and use my electro acoustic guitar rather than an electric.
An opportunity to do more for the community
One of the challenges that I personally faced, was how could I be upbeat and happy, when so many had faced such a difficult and prolonged period of anguish, stress and strain.
I wanted to fulfil my remit of trying to cheer everyone up, because they certainly needed it and it felt, to me, one of the most important gigs I had ever done in my life. I resolved to be myself, which is usually to encourage people to have fun, by being a bit silly myself (I am quite the extrovert once I have a guitar and a microphone).
This was my opportunity to do more than clap for the NHS and care workers and other key workers on a Thursday night. This was a chance to 'put something back in' by bringing fun, releasing tension and laughter to so many who needed and deserved it.
Bringing people together
Whilst I am a soul/jazz/funk musician (primarily when it comes to genres when I play clubs and festivals), I tend to use songs, in a community context that are more likely, in my experience, to connect with a particular demographic/age group.
So I chose a mixture of early 1960s songs, a few 1950s plus some wartime favourites as they were celebrating VE day a week late, some jazz standards, and a couple of soul classics.
One of the funniest things that happened was when I introduced the song 'And then he kissed me'. I told the audience that as I had no backing band, wasn't using backing tracks, that they needed to provide the instrumental introduction and I suggested they sang the word 'Banana' which has now resulted in the care home asking me to record the song with said introduction so that they can 'relive' the experience!
What happened next
Later on, the care home posted the following on their Facebook page:
"Well .... today was a happy day ....after a number of difficult, sad dark weeks which have been unprecedented and has led to a very different and subdued Madison court .... Today ... the sun came out ... Vernon Fuller came to sing and a lovely afternoon tea and cake and alcohol was served .... there was laughter AGAIN ..... the residents played instruments and laughed. The staff laughed too.”
As a result of the care home car park gig, I have already been invited by another care home in the town, to come and play for them too.
Lessons for the future
Pop up gigs may be one of the few, non-online opportunities to actually perform for real people live in the short to mid-term future, and I will be exploring how I might best capitalise on and create opportunities to do more.
This experience taught me to overcome any health concerns that I had about going to a care home, even though I knew it was going to be in the open air. When I arrived, the care home had positioned me so that residents could see and hear me, and I was very safely physically and socially distanced from the staff.
I had agreed to do a set of one hour – but with set up and set down my total time on site was about two and a quarter hours. I would encourage anyone thinking of doing pop up gigs to take their own drinks or refreshments, just in case, because of social distancing and hygiene guidelines, it isn't possible to be given refreshments by the organisers/fixers of the gig.
The facilities that are usually available at most venues cannot be guaranteed to be accessible at and for pop up gigs, so asking questions in advance of the gig date will make for a better experience for you the musician and for your audience.
The most important thing is to be yourself
I learned that just being myself, whilst being sensitive to the staff and residents, means that I am relaxed, thus helping the audience to relax and we all have a better experience as a result. It was so rewarding to be a small part of brightening up so many people's day. Have fun and the audience are likely to have fun too.
Interesting in learning more about what work for musicians might look like during the Government’s Covid-19 recovery phases? Read our blog from MU Deputy General Secretary Naomi Pohl for a “broad-brush idea of what might be possible as we emerge from this crisis.”