[Dixielandjazz] Pub jazz

[pj.ladd]

 Will young musicians be able to find ther outlets to hone their skills?>>

Hi Marek,
certainly pubs are closing down. There are 6 for sale in my nearest town. 
There do seem to be places for yougsters to play. Some pubs who wouldn`t 
have employed my band have groups of kids hammering out all sorts of noise..
Pubs are closing because of the drink drive laws, which limits the amount 
which can be drunk. My mob used to regularly drink 8 to 12 pints in an 
evening. No one drinks that amount anymore.This has driven publicans to 
serve food, usually pretty good, and the pub has become more of a 
restaurant.. Some of them have `cool` music or solo performers. maybe a 
guitar/singer or piano player.
The clubs seem to have music to which  there is no need to listen. There is 
just a beat and a limited and repeated chord sequence. Everyone jumps up and 
down on the beat,(roughly) and shouts at each other.

The kids don`t drink as we did. Although we got through a fair bit of wallop 
it took all evening and being drunk was a by product of a good evening, not 
the object. Now they seem to get drunk on Bacardi Breezers or vodka BEFORE 
they go out on the town and trhe object is to become paralytic as quickly as 
possible.  There is no `listening ` to music for the musics sake any more. 
When we used to play in pubs and believe you me we played in some pretty 
rough ones (accompanied by that strange sweet smelling smoke  in the air) 
there was always someone to applaud a good break or just at the end of a 
set.
Speaking of the that sweet smell, two of my band, the bass player and a sax 
player went to jail  for selling the stuff.

Oh the fun we had!

I miss it

Pat