Elaine
1. QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MUSIC PROJECT
Q1.1
Isn't
this music project really about making you
rich & famous ?
Q1.2 What
do you really think this music project will
achieve ?
Q1.3 You
talk about changes being necessary to society.
What sort of changes do you mean ?
Q2.1.a How
did you start teaching yourself to play
the guitar ?
Q2.1.b How did you go from
teaching yourself to play the guitar to
performing in a Folk Club ?
Q2.2.a How did you find being
a female engineer & what was it like going
on the firing trial ?
Q2.3.a What
does it feel like to have ME ?
Q2.4.a What
exactly was involved in doing the race,
what was it like doing all that exercise
& were there any memorable moments?
Q2.6.a You say that performing
solo in pubs was quite a shock; what do
you mean by that ?
Q2.6.b Why didn't you take
up a career as a singer / songwriter earlier
on in your life ?
Q2.7.a What has been your
most enjoyable performance as Kindred Spirit
?
Q2.8.a What effect did your
marriage break up have on your music ?
Q2.10.a What effect has your re-marriage
had on your music ?
Q1.1 Isn't this music project really about making you rich & famous ?
A1.1 I wouldn't mind having some more money; so that we could spend more leisure time together as a family, but really I am happy where I am; expensive things are not important to me. I value love, family, friendship, health, being my true self & doing something worthwhile with my life. As far as being famous goes I would like to be a little bit more well known; just so that I could find it easier to get the kind of gigs where I and my musicians could perform to an audience of people who like our kind of music. I would definitely not like to be mega famous because I enjoy being with my family & bringing up my son and fame would probably require me to tour & be away a lot more. Truly, this project has simply grown from the seed of the initial idea & the more difficult it has proved to get it off the ground, the more determined I have become. I am aware that by taking the project on it could have beneficial exposure factors for myself & my musicians but I think that that would be a reasonable side effect to allow me, considering the amount of time & effort I am putting in. I think the main drive behind the project now is that the song & what it stands for have become, in my mind, a "force for good" & I feel I am on an almost spiritual mission to fight the "evil forces" and help it to grow & achieve it's purpose. I see the "force for good" being that of helping to change the attitudes of society away from a "throw away" life to something more wholesome & caring as well as helping people to feel they can make a positive difference as individuals by the way they live their lives. I see the "evil forces" being our "junk culture" lifestyle; overproducing and not replenishing the planet. Another part of it is the way we are controlled, used & suffocated by those who benefit financially from this "junk culture" through the media.
Q1.2 What do you really think this music project will achieve ?
A1.2 I hope that firstly, by trying to make it into a pop song, young people will get to hear it and the meaning might affect their attitudes to life; help them to focus more on things that really matter instead of perhaps mobile phones & designer clothes. I believe that the next benefit will be that the act of buying the CD, to help raise funds, will encourage people to feel that they can do something positive. It is difficult as an individual to see how you can stop the express train of human greed from hitting the brick wall of global destruction. I hope that people will gradually see that if we all call for changes to society & all make changes to the way we live; we will be able to make a positive difference. The great advantage we have as citizens is the weight of numbers and the power of purchasing. I hope that this project will also inspire frustrated artists and musicians, who have not achieved recognition by main stream bodies, to carry on creating what they feel is important and keep trying. Lastly, I hope that I can help to reinvigorate the music industry with the sort of real live musicians and singer / songwriters who have something special to say; instead of the sort of short lived sex symbols & electronic junk music invented by much of todays music industry, used & then dumped; just to make a fast buck.
Q1.3 You talk about changes being necessary to society. What sort of changes do you mean ?
A1.3 We have to create a society which can live in harmony with nature; otherwise nature will change to compensate for our actions & the results could destroy our society as well as life as we know it. If you look at biology & science, naturally occuring substances which are vital to life have cycles, which allow them to be replenished; for example the water cycle, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle. We need to adjust society to create our own cycles. We have made a start by recycling some of our waste. To go further, we would first need our top scientists from around the world to get together & devise ways of creating the sort of cycles society would need plus some measures to redress the damage which has already occurred to the planet. I am talking about something like motor cars powered with photosynthetic energy, which would remove some of the excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere & release oxygen. It would be a big improvement to get rid of plastic packaging as we know it and invent something which would do the same job, but be biodegradable as well as putting something useful back into the soil. Businesses have to compete with each other globally these days & be economic; so we would require a set of global environmental rules, which would have to be adhered to by law.
2. QUESTIONS PROMPTED BY HER BACKGROUND
2.1. School Years
Q2.1.a How did you start teaching yourself to play the guitar ?
A2.1.a My father had bought himself a guitar & "Teach Yourself" book, when I was about 11 years old. He used to sit down with it and try to play things like "Old Mac Donald Had A Farm" strumming loudly with a one finger "G" chord while the rest of us were trying to watch the television. After much verbal abuse from the rest of the family, he gave up & left it lying temptingly in a forgotten corner. I just picked it up one day & had a go.
Q2.1.b How did you go from teaching yourself to play the guitar to performing in a Folk Club ? Many people never take their guitars out of their bedrooms; weren't you scared ?
A2.1.b I was looking around the local music shop in Ashford with my mum and she spotted a poster about Staines Folk Club and offered to drive my friend, Tracy, and I there, after we had finished our homework on a Monday night. We all started going & just carried on. I remember being very scared before performing at the club. Being scared affects your voice and makes your fingers tremble - not a good combination for singing & playing the guitar ! We were encouraged, however, because Maggie Holland from the then "Hot Vultures" group was performing as a guest on our first ever floor spot. She was so impressed with us that she told the local paper, who came & interviewed us. I suppose it helped to keep us trying. Another reason we carried on going was because everyone was so welcoming & friendly and we enjoyed sharing other people's music too. At a folk club everyone can participate towards the overall sound with harmonies and the effect can be really wonderful.
2.2. Young Woman
Q2.2.a How did you find being a female engineer and what was it like going on the firing trial ?
A2.2.a I enjoyed working with the male engineers. Most of them just treated me as a valued member of their team. I think they were quite proud to have a woman working in their group, and they were certainly very helpful - in fact I think it was an advantage being female. Some of them tried to wind me up with sexist comments - but I knew they were just having a joke & wanted to see if they'd get a reaction from me - they didn't. Sometimes, they would forget I was a woman, which was really nice - I enjoyed the comradeship of being "one of the lads". There were a few people I came into contact with, however, who would hush their voices if I came near, when they were having a conversation. I realised it was because they were embarrassed about something they thought I might have overheard - so I remembered who they were & made a point of telling them one of a number of dirty jokes; I gradually built up a little repertoire of them. After being subjected to one or two of my jokes, the individuals in question were fine & relieved that they could treat me just the same as anyone else on the team.
Going on the firing trial was great fun. The soldiers had adapted one of the range's toilet blocks to be "female" by putting a little cut-out woman shape on the door. There seemed to be quite an air of anticipation about me. I did find the soldiers extremely over worried that they would offend me, however, and they seemed to always apologising for something, which I hadn't even been aware of. I could see they were suffering with a huge dose of "she's a woman so I can't be myself"; so in a quiet moment, when we were delayed by some problem or other & waiting about with them I revealed my dirty joke repertoire - much to their relief. I did have an embarrassing moment, however, while I was working on the tank one day. Back at the company, my colleagues had persuaded me to get a pair of red overalls along with my steel toe-capped boots. Not knowing that everyone else wore dull coloured overalls I just accepted they were the ones to have. Once up on the firing range, while I was clambering about on a tank, I was mistaken by the soldiers in the control tower for a red flag. When a tank is about to fire out to sea, permission has to be obtained from the control tower, to ensure that no shipping is in the line of fire. If the way is clear, permission is given & a red flag erected on the tank. A Major came screaming down in his landrover demanding to know why a red flag had been erected without permission, only to be told, "Thats not a red flag Sir, thats Mrs Samuels". I was told I had to wear different coloured ones; so I ended up with a pair of proper tank corps black overalls (which I still wear if I'm washing the car or decorating).
2.3. Elaine Gets ME
Q2.3.a What does it feel like to have ME ?
A2.3.a I have suffered with one or two illnesses & broken bones in my life, but having ME has to be one of the worst - even though I did not experience pain. It is the sheer not knowing whether you will ever feel better. I sometimes used to find that simply getting washed & dressed was so tiring that I needed to lie down. It can be so prolonged and you look so normal that friends & family begin to doubt you. It isn't a normal sort of tiredness; it's a sicker tiredness - the sort which you feel just before you come down with flu - only, in this case, the full outward symptoms never appear & the tiredness never really goes away.
2.4. The Devizes To Westminster Canoe Race
Q2.4.a What exactly was involved in doing the race, what was it like doing all that exercise & were there any memorable moments?
A2.4.a The race involved paddling and running 125 miles of waterway (about 50 miles of the Kennet & Avon Canal, from Devizes to Reading & 75 miles of the river Thames the rest of the way to Westminster). There were many locks to be encountered along the way, which you had to run around carrying the canoe on your shoulders (fairly heavy because you had to carry emergency equipment in it as part of the rules). There were also bridges - some extremely low, which you had to bend right forward onto the deck to pass beneath - and the very long tunnel at Savenake along the canal. You really had to know where you were going; as there were many branches on the canal, which were not on the correct route. It was also essential to know which side the weirs were on along the river, because many of these were encountered in the pitch black of night & going the wrong way could spell disaster & possibly even death. Before we did the race, we had no idea if we would manage it. The most we ever did in one go was fifty miles on a training exercise with police teams. Other than that we would paddle different stretches of the canal & river of around 12miles in length. I remember heading out to Wiltshire for one particular training run & encountering a Shire horse called "Queenie". She came over to see me & trod on my toe - we had to head straight back home & give up for a while until my toe recovered (luckily it was the very tip of the toe - boy was she heavy; her hooves were the size of dinner plates !) On the actual race, you do get an extra buzz from all the people who are cheering you on and this, along with the constant food & liquid supplies from your support crew help to keep you going. The worst time is probably during the dead of night, where not so much is going on to keep you awake. By the time we got onto the final stretch I could hardly move my shoulder anymore & one of my wrists had swollen up hours earlier & was getting progressively worse. Once we had finished my arms & shoulders were completely useless - I couldn't lift my arms up to take off my wet gear ! It took me several days to recover !
2.6. The Arrival Of Peter Samuels
Q2.6.a You say that performing solo in pubs was quite a shock; what do you mean by that ?
A2.6.a Performing in pubs is an incredible challenge. It is much much harder than performing at a music club. The first thing I noticed was how distracting it is. You can't expect to have peoples' attention all of the time (a proportion of them - sometimes most of them - will have come in for reasons other than to listen to live music). This can result in lots of activity going on all around you whilst you are playing. Another factor here is that you don't know what kind of music your audience is into. This probably means that whatever you play is going to upset somebody. In a pub situation I usually try to get a balance between popular numbers, which will hopefully be known & liked & numbers which I want to perform. I have found it is a good idea to start off with a few popular numbers to get the audience on your side (not always possible) after which you feel you have their permission to be a bit more daring. Not only do you have to worry about knowing your material, giving a good performance, and encouraging people to stay; you also have to deal with setting up your own PA and coping with any technical problems as well as trying to protect it & deal with crowd control. You are very vulnerable in a pub situation; people often feel they can walk right up to you while you are performing & I have often been engaged in conversation by someone, while I am singing. Also, if the crowd don't like something - they let you know; either verbally or with their body language - it can be very depressing. There are times, though, when playing in a pub is the best experience ever. I have sometimes had the whole pub singing along with me & people coming up afterwards, thanking you & shaking your hand. It can sometimes be hard to win people's interest and the reaction appears non-existant, while at other times it can be difficult to stop people from getting too involved. Probably my most awkward moment was when I invited a member of the audience to play tambourine with me on "American Pie" and when the volunteer couldn't bash away right from the start (because of the slow beginning) he ended up doing a striptease right next to me. I was totally on my own. I didn't know anyone in the pub. My husband was back at home baby-sitting and I knew that if I stopped singing & playing the whole thing would collapse; so I decided to keep cool, carry on playing without looking at him (of course) and hope that the management might drag him away (they didn't - they even blamed me afterwards for his behaviour) !
Q2.6.b Why didn't you take up a career as a singer / songwriter earlier on in your life ?
A2.6.b When I was deciding what to do as a career, I was encouraged, quite rightly, to try & choose something which would provide me with a stable, well paid career with good prospects. It is very hard to make choices when you are young & inexperienced; you don't really know what a job is going to be like until you have been out there doing it for a while. I have discovered that I prefer to work for myself rather than be employed - even though it is financially riskier. Also, I now know what it is I am not missing - the kind of day job I had. The design aspects (which unfortunately formed only about 5% of the job) were enjoyable (a bit like doing a crossword puzzle) although not the right kind of creativeness for me personally. It had a certain stability (when company "restructurings" were not going on) but working in an office could also be extremely monotonous; you know that tomorrow will be more or less the same. At least now I can decide what to go for and what to create. Also, I can't be sure what might be around the corner; which makes life much more exciting. Another reason I did not take up a career as a singer / songwriter earlier was that I didn't realise I could do it. Writing songs isn't something you usually come across being taught at school & it wasn't until I really had a go that I knew it was the most natural and wonderful thing on earth for me; that's why I'm still doing it.
7. "Kindred Spirit" Is Born
Q2.7.a What has been your most enjoyable performance as Kindred Spirit ?
A2.7.a Performing at the Guildford Folk and Blues Festival was probably the nicest experience I've had so far; the weather was gorgeous, Jane & I were on a huge stage in front of a massive & appreciative audience and, when we finished our set, there was a crowd of people wanting to buy albums & know where else we would be performing. Having said that, though, it has been great to work with such wonderful musicians wherever we have played and I wish we could share our music at more venues, where people would appreciate us.
8. The Break Up Of Her Marriage
Q2.8.a What effect did your marriage break up have on your music ?
A2.8.a When I decided to go and live with my parents, I immediately cut myself off from the support of a stable joint income. My husband had always been very active with supporting my career too; being practical, talented at teaching himself technical things like recording and working on the computer and keen to get me noticed. He set up my first website & recorded most of my early material himself; so I was also turning my back on lots of practical help by leaving. I began paying for everything myself, which at the time, while scary, I felt was important; I needed to prove to myself that I could manage on my own and that any future decisions I made would be through choice & not necessity. Luckily, my parents, as well as Clive, enabled me to carry on gigging because they often babysat for me. Unfortunately, I only just about managed to break even each month and non-essentials like regular mail - shots of newsletters as well as publicity to folk clubs & festivals (from which the financial return had always been minimal) had to go. This meant that I lost touch with the folk circuit a bit.
10. Elaine Remarries
Q2.10.a What effect has your re-marriage had on your music ?
A2.10.a I have a tremendous stability now; financially, emotionally and practically. I feel very blessed to be married to Clive; it is wonderful to be sharing my life with the right person; we understand each other totally & we can talk to each other about everything. Clive loves the person I am and loves the music; he has always been my most loyal fan. Luckily, Clive has a good stable job; he designs software & supports IT, which is really handy when I get stuck on the computer. Also, having a partner with a steady income means I don't have to worry about the main financial burdens. Clive designed my current website and helps to keep it up-to-date and interesting; with audio & video clips and photos, which he often takes at various gigs. It is wonderful to live in a house too; we have the space to have an office / music studio room & I am able to compose, record and work in peace.