The John Griff Column: ‘I Don’t Need This Pressure On…’

I grew up musically in the 80s. My 70s childhood was filled with the music of ELO, ABBA, Sweet, Gary Glitter (who performed at the Wantage Road home of Northamptonshire County Cricket Club long before being held to account for his actions, as he was) and, fabulously, the Wombles. But it was the likes of Spandau, Duran Duran, OMD, The Police, The Clash and others who set my musical horizons. By 1982 I was heading for my A levels – and the pressure was definitely on, albeit not in any way connected to fashion. Getting into further education was firmly a question of star performances in the exam room and although I passed most of what I sat, I was far from being an A star pupil. My aspirations of a university degree ended with the opening of the results envelope.

For some ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ by Pink Floyd is one of, if not the greatest album of all time. Many years later, on the national station Planet Rock, I played the whole of side one of the album non-stop – it got written about in the national press. For me personally though ‘The Wall’ by the same band introduced me to a more mature form of music than what I’d previously been used to – and I could lose myself in it. I played that album almost constantly, almost vanishing from view as I did. It accompanied my woeful attempts at revision study and without it I suspect I would have done a lot worse in my exams than I actually did. But if the doors to academia were about to close on me, the doors of musical appreciation were being flung wide open. What’s more, with them open came an invitation to the career that I have enjoyed to date – and continue to. Maybe my studies had prepared me for a different and unanticipated path.

Perhaps strangely, I don’t generally listen to music for pleasure. More often than not it is a stock in trade, an instrument of work and a commodity or tool with which to give pleasure to a listening audience. It doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate it though. Over the weekend Lois and I were part of a crowd of thousands who converged on Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire for its annual ‘Nocturne’ festival. Over the past decade more than a quarter of a million like minded people have done the same and on Sunday we partook of offerings from Shalamar, En Vogue and Nile Rogers with Chic. Rogers is perhaps one of the most influential men ever to have picked up a guitar, not only for the riffs he discovered, but the songwriting and production that he has delivered to countless other musicians both famous and breaking. Revered across the globe by fellow artists and audiences alike, he knows that when ‘the groove’ is right, it’s very right – and very profitable. Now 72 and a survivor of drink, drugs and cancer he appeared on stage as an athlete of the beat – and with the energy of a teenager. A millionaire many times over, he gave off the kind of affable ‘let’s have some fun’ aura which puts bottoms on seats (before getting them up again to dance) and the tills ringing. By the end of the day, we were exhausted not only from getting up, dancing and screaming out the lyrics of songs we knew so well, but also from re-engaging with our younger selves and the music which transported us back to more carefree, life-shaping, less world-weary times. And as we did so, the pressure came off.

On Tuesday morning this week I received an email from the Nocturne organisers, saying that after ten years of repeated success, that particular train was nearing the station. Far from over, though, I was promised that a new venue would be announced in the coming months and a whole new journey would begin. I hope it will – Blenheim is an astonishing place in which to rock and will take some replacing.

All of which got me thinking – after the success of the ‘Alive at Delapre’ concerts from some years ago, why shouldn’t this county host something similar again? There’s definitely a market for the right programming and promotion and we could surely find the right venue. In a pressured and weary world, we need some positivity, some distraction from the negative and a decent helping of escape – maybe back to those formative years. Who’s up for it?

I bet Mr Rogers and his colleagues would be – so bring on the Good Times…