What’s wrong with Lord Berkeley’s question about singing
UncategorizedMichael Berkeley has posted this question in the House of Lords to the Culture Secretary:
My Lords, Why is there such a disconnect between the Government rules for football and those for culture? Quite apart from the terrible problems facing travelling artists, seeing on TV happy revellers at matches, inside bars and pubs over the weekend, the points that that Barbara Keeley MP and I made in our APPG Classical Music letter to Oliver Dowden last week are all the more germane – Is it not utterly ridiculous that shouting, chanting and drinking fans can congregate and hug each other but a small amateur, vaccinated and socially distanced choir cannot meet to rehearse?
What’s wrong is the disparagement of football fans, not all of whom are ‘shouting, chanting and drinking’.
This question loses more supporters than it gains.
I forcefully object to the use of my precorona photo taken from my facebook page.
Sally
Nice to see that SOME viola players did have a social life, pre-pandemic times.
I don’t see it as disparaging. He talks of “happy revellers”, “congregate and hug”. He’s asking why choirs are prevented from benefiting from the same level of enjoyment.
From what I saw at Wembley during the Scotland v England match they were shouting and chanting (and there were plenty of pissed up scotsmen in Leicester Square later on) so Berkeley’s point still stands
Has Lord Berkeley ever been to a viola masterclass, festival?
What opera is that photo from?
Why, it’s from Calixto Bieito’s legendary rethinking of [“fill in the blank”].
It’s a Regietheater production of Götterdämmerung, showing Brünhilde on the rock waiting for Siegfried who is, as always, on the late side because the music takes so long to unfold.
Could be Taming of the Shrew. Or maybe Frau ohne Schatten?
Bellini’s La Sonnambula.
Se fosse ambulante.
Q: What’s wrong with Slipped Disc’s reporting of Lord Berkeley’s question about singing?
A: Nowhere does Lord Berkeley say that all football fans shout, chant and drink or disparage them in any way. He merely says that (some) fans can currently be seen shouting, chanting and drinking, which they can. Nor does he find the need to accompany his question by a photo which, whether it is intended to typify football fans or choral singers, is insulting to one group or the other.
My Lord!
In the US that opening is usually followed by some indignant remark about the dishes in the sink or the odor of the cat box.
And yet in the UK it’s like something formal. Huh.
But… as far as supporters… what are the chances any football supporters are following remarks in the House of Lords?
The remarks are not addressed to football supporters.
And?
Football supporters are all that would be offended.
Not sure that’s true. And as NL does not sit in the House of Lords, nor, I suspect, subscribe to Hansard, I imagine these remarks are in the public presses somewhere.
I suspect at least a little offence was intended, given the choice of verbs, as they hearken back to the dark days of football hooliganism, still a spectre in the sport even if it has not been too much in evidence lately.
Football fans are entitled to respect as long as they behave in a civilised fashion. But the main point — that they are getting freedoms not being offered to arts fans — is well taken.
“what are the chances any football supporters are following remarks in the House of Lords?”
You might be surprised.
Cultural snobbery is obviously alive and well in the US!
So… surprise me.
List me the times they have cared about the goings-on in the completely vestigial House of Lords.
Well – this is no place for a treatise on the parliamentary system in the UK, or on the place of football in national culture, but …
At Westminster there is an All Party Group for Football Supporters: https://thefsa.org.uk/our-work/appg-for-football-supporters/
There are about 50 members, including some women and at least five Lords.
I have a very respectable, classical-music-loving relative in her 80s who is a passionate fan of her local premier-league team and (until Covid) went to as many matches as she could. There are distinguished university professors who enjoy nothing more (over a pint or so of beer) than heated arguments about football and the teams they support.
I may have misunderstood the tone of your comment, but it suggested to me that you think all UK football fans are uneducated louts. This is not the case.
I fail to understand the point made by NL. Michael Berkeley’s point is completely valid : there is no logic behind permitting thousands of football attenders to shout, sing etc, whilst prohibiting choirs from singing. Shooting from the hip again, I’m afraid, and not even shooting at the right target
Not usual to see football fans at prayer.
How does prayer come into the story?