{"id":6644,"date":"2016-01-31T07:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T07:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6644"},"modified":"2020-12-30T15:44:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T15:44:55","slug":"metal-moshing-in-pink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6644","title":{"rendered":"Metal moshing in pink"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"It's<\/a>
It’s not the Royal Festival Hall – but without the small venues, there would be no music to fill the large ones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve just done something I have never done before \u2013 and probably never thought I would do\u2026 I have joined the mosh pit at a metal gig.<\/p>\n

Ok \u2013 let set a few things straight. Regular readers of the blog will know I am a big fan of live music \u2013 and it\u2019s a rare month that passes without some live music somewhere on my schedule.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s usually folk. Or blues or pop. Maybe some good old fashioned rock and roll. But heavy metal? Not likely. Not this romantic novelist!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say I am totally without \u2018form\u2019 in the world of heavy metal gigs. I\u2019ve jumped up and down to Alice Cooper, Foo Fighters (are they metal?) \u2013 even Queens of the Stone Age once. But mostly those have been festival gigs when I have accidentally walked\u00a0past the metal stage and\u00a0been drawn in.<\/p>\n

This week I went to a small underground venue to see a friend\u2019s band in their first headline spot. The room was small and dark, the roof low and the sound system cobbled together from bits and pieces they\u2019d hired at the last minute. I joined the mosh because it was the only place to be.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The mosh pit – not as scary as it sounds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was definitely the only person there wearing pale pink mohair. I\u00a0was a little afraid I would feel\u00a0out of place. But the band and the venue and the people in it welcomed me with open arms.<\/p>\n

I had the best time.<\/p>\n

Atorc <\/a>were great. They describe their music as progressive folk-metal. I had no idea what to expect. It was all original\u00a0\u00a0– but at times I detected more than a hint of Uriah Heep – my closest brush with metal fandom when I was a university student.\u00a0 The mosh was small but enthusiastic and totally good natured.<\/p>\n

\"Atorc<\/a>
Atorc in action – or rather, some of them. I discovered it’s hard to get good photos from the mosh.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was grass roots music at its very best\u2026 when it is all about the music and has not yet been weighted down with contracts, and conditions and publicity machines and all the things that go with corporate success.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure some of the metal legends looking down at us from the posters on the wall would have recognised the gig\u2026 because they no doubt played similar venues when they were starting out.<\/p>\n

\"Without<\/a>
Without a ‘green room’ – all the band made use of the only make-up mirror in the venue – in the Ladies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Without the small gigs,\u00a0we would never have had Lemmy, or Alice or Bowie .. or all the others. So everyone \u2013 go find a live music venue near you. You may just find yourself drawn into something unexpected and great.<\/p>\n

And one day you might be watching the Grammy Awards and saying \u2013 I saw that band way back when\u2026<\/p>\n

So \u2013 thanks Atorc for a really fun night out \u2013 I\u2019ll be back \u2013 although next time I\u2019ll leave the pink mohair at home. I might be able to borrow a Metallica T-shirt from webmaster John.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve just done something I have never done before \u2013 and probably never thought I would do\u2026 I have joined the mosh pit at a metal gig. Ok \u2013 let set a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-1Ja","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9013,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6644\/revisions\/9013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}