Interview – Dirty Old Folkers
Christmas is just not the same without Dirty Old Folkers’ annual Christmas shindig. This year it’s Babes In The Wood.
Lambasting bonus bloated City bankers with their Agit-Billy Cow Punk aesthetic is all in a day’s below minimum rage work for Birmingham’s blunderbuss barnstorm in a D cup DOFs. Come Christmas time, however, they yet again set aside their Blue grass slash ‘n burn abandon in the pursuit of an altogether alt-Panto tableau. A Mystery Play, if you will, where the Magi journey to homage the mythical manger Man bearing gifts wrapped by zero-eyed Elves chained in Amazon dungeons.
The DOF’s essential Thespian thrust is to scurrilously subvert the Panto paradigm whilst drawing on Classical drama’s Tragic milieu — imagine Trojans stepping in wooden horse-shit hubris or Brutus’ realising that the bloody corpse of Caesar actually is ET! This being their now seventh Yule tide yeehah the pedigree of their opus is plain to see. Subtly woven narratives are informed by trad/Panto convention juxtaposed with nuanced contemporaneous socio-political contexts – as with, ‘Look out! He’s behind you!’ ‘Who?’ the Plebs cry out. ‘A lying Politician/Tory donor/revolving-door CEO/crocodile-teared bastard banker about to stab you (yet again) in the back.’ That’s who.
The DOF’s Christmas aesthetic is a timely antidote to saccharine commercialisation. Theirs is a vision of a Violent Night/Wholly Shite on the Western Front where Tommy & Jerry footballers p-p-pick up that nauseous fucking penguin, give it a timely knee in the chestnuts and kick it in to a minefield. The play’s the thing – where in they make us conscious of da Bling.
A mole in the Brum Live camp learns that the latest Dirty Old Folkers’ panto, Babes in the Wood, (without spoiling the plot — they’ll manage that by themselves as ever) covers, amongst other issues ‘…the closure of good drinking establishments, giving away Music for free & dodgy babysitters.’ Drawn by the enigmatic charisma that is the DOF oeuvre and in anticipation of the smell of the crowd and the roar of the grease paint — we tracked them down during a brief break from rehearsing getting caned on the after-show riders. Last one standing, Frontman, Stuart Caley, does some words.
BL. Hi there, Stuart. The seventh DOF Panto is nearly upon us and this time you’re really pushing the boat out and setting fire to it with flaming arrows of Political Correct distain — Babes In The Wood, BABES!? Isn’t that a provocative slap across the Sisters’ tits with a phallocentric sexist fish?
SC. If you think that will help us sell tickets, then yes. Otherwise no. For any feminists reading this we reject the infantilising and patriarchal use of the word ‘babe’ to describe Women. Chicks apparently don’t like it (either?).
BL. Sourced from a C17th ballad and latterly a Fairy Tale, the original narrative is pretty grimm (see what we did there?) with no redeeming denouement. Given that the DOF’s past canon always adhered rigorously to dramatic accuracy will your interpretation be truthful to this dystopian ethos – i.e. not many laughs and a dig at pushy parents?
SC. Yes, we always set out to write our panto with the aim of including no jokes. The original story is pretty grim (two orphaned children are murdered by their inheritance stealing guardian…the end), but the panto version is traditionally mixed with the Robin Hood legend and given a happy ending. We just add in some nob gags and Bob’s your Monkhouse.
BL. Ah! BoB! The thief of Bad-Gag….
BL. Explain just how important the annual Panto is as part of the Anarcho Folk/Punk aesthetic that has bewitched and bewildered your avid fan-base for so long.
SC. It’s an important outlet for giving band members an excuse to cross-dress
BL. Elaborate in as many words as it takes before we get bored just why your live gigs are default fixated with the on-stage tableau of Death and a dancing Panda.
SC. We’re just surprised more bands don’t include mythical beings and endangered animals in their stage shows.
BL. Picture Stuart, if you will, those 30’/40’s cinematic narrative transitions where the days on the desk calendar rip away in flurry of wind and newspaper headlines spin in to focus. Then, using your imagination find some way of using this to contrive a retrospective of how 2014 has been for The Dirty Old Folkers and what 2015 might promise.
SC. 2014 – Dirty Old Folkers still flogging their old material about the Coalition Government. 2015 – Coalition Government gone, Dirty Old Folkers need new material.
So there we have it – essential truths straight from the Panto-Horses’ mouth – or maybe from the other end…
Babes In the Wood will be performed at the following venues:
Kitchen Garden Caf̩ Р19th December 2014
The Prince of Wales – 21st December 2014