... I Enjoy Karaoke

News has just come over that the new landlord of the Bridge in Rotherham is planning to have Karaoke nights. This is a bit of a shocker, as many of us have come to love the Bridge as a centre for live music and performance, including rock, jazz, folk, acoustic, poetry and even drama.

Karaoke doesn’t seem to fit in with the image that the bridge has developed. Karaoke isn’t “live music” and shouldn’t be featured at a live music venue. And maybe I owe a bit to karaoke. So perhaps I should put the case for the defence. Here goes:

Karaoke is performance. It might not be live music, but it is definitely performance. A good karaoke artist can be as engaging and entertaining as any other good performer. On the other hand, a poor karaoke artist can be as dreadful and offputting as any other poor performer as well, but that’s not the point.

Karaoke is accessible to everyone. You don’t have to be able to play a musical instrument and you don’t even have to be able to read. (It helps if you know a few songs though). You don’t have to join a band and then fall out with them over what material to do, how to do it and how to dress whilst you are doing it.  Even though I enjoy being in a band, it is only at Karaoke that I can indulge myself in a full blown “All the Young Dudes” “Cum on Feel the Noize” or “Anarchy in the UK” (I don’t want to be in a covers band –I just want to enjoy singing songs like them every now and again with a decent backing – in front of an audience - for the thrill of it!)

Because it is accessible to everyone, and everyone has a go, over the period of a karaoke night, you get the feeling of having made new friends, knowing something about them because they have chosen songs that they enjoy, and songs that have personal meaning for them. This isn’t far removed from the atmosphere at a good poetry night. Is it?

And another analogy with a poetry night is that karaoke helps people to appreciate the lyrics. I love the karaoke nights where the lyrics are visible to the audience as well as the singer. You notice lyrics that you hadn’t noticed before in songs that you thought you knew, but had never listened to properly. And sometimes you hear songs that you have never heard before. And some of them are quite good... honest. 

I also feel that for some people karaoke is a first step to “try out” live performance. It sort of was for me. I hadn’t done any performing for about 20 years when I started having a crack at karaoke, and remembered what i was missing. It definitely gave me the impetus to take up singing again, and I’m sure that it has given others the incentive to get out and form a band or make music. 

Me, I moved from karaoke, to singing with backing tracks in working men’s clubs, to advertising for a band and getting Pocketful O’Nowt off the ground. I would never have got to the Pocketful O’Nowt bit, without the pretending to be Noddy Holder bit.  

And the other week  in Scarborough, I went to a Karaoke night and saw Justin, the Chief of Bongos, who I have bumped into in the Karaoke pubs of North Yorkshire before. He is a doctor in the local hospital, but clearly has a musical pedigree and is a great entertainer. He now not only sings at karaoke nights, but takes his bongos along and supports others efforts too. He really brought something extra to my performance of Ian Dury’s “Clever Trevor”

So I rest my case. There’s nowt wrong with Karaoke. And if it comes to the bridge, people ought to take their bongos, tambourines and stuff along, participate, sing some songs and have a good time. You never know, it might open the door to new performers to join in with the Rotherham Open Arts Renaissance!