We don't all remember the war

[seashaken]

I've just been for a walk and passed a pub with a notice up about a lunch with entertainment for the over 60s. The entertainment is a crooner singing a selection of wartime favourites. Now I'm 66 and the cultural movements that informed my youth were hippies, glam rock and punk. For people 10-20 years older than me it would've been Elvis, mods and rockers, the Beatles and there can't be many people in the target age group with clear memories of the war, many wouldn't have been born. Obviously I realise the audience will be self-selecting and anyone who prefers Led Zeppelin will give it a swerve, but I did find it depressing that this is still considered appropriate entertainment for people my age. I don't want to find myself in a care home in 20 years time being forced to listen to Vera Lynn.

I agree. My local Community Centre puts on a Christmas party aimed at (according to the posters/facebook etc) any over 60s in the area. Every year it has a theme for music/entertainment that seems to be from the 30s-50s (Sinatra tribute and tea dance/War time Christmas dance, 50s rock and roll night etc). It seems to have escaped whoever organises it that someone who is 70 now would have been born in 1952 and someone who is 80 would have been born in 1942 so their teenage years would have been in the 60s/70s/80s.

I'm early 50s and when I went for my first covid vaccine, the volunteer told me they were playing 80s music as that's what most of the people there would have been listening to when they were young.
I was masked up, social distanced and hadn't been to an "event" in ages, it felt a bit like a music festival.

My husband is over 60 and his favourite type of music is heavy metal.

We used to sing a lot of the WWII songs at school, and I'm in my 40s. I went to a play which used a lot of the old songs a couple of years ago and the audience was singing along-none of whom would have been born before the war. There were no words provided so people did know them.

But you're making an assumption. It's a lunch with a 40s crooner. Who's to say that next month they don't have a different band with something totally different.

Dh plays the piano and he's been asked to play for that sort of thing before now. He tends to do things like G&S, but he'll be asked perhaps once every couple of years for a monthly event. They'll have plenty of other entertainers with a huge range of talents.

There must be a market for it or else they wouldn't book him?
Our local pub does something similar once a month, they have a selection of different acts, one being a war time singer and it always seems to be enjoyed by a crowd just as big as the rest of the live singers they book.

Me & DH absolutely love Northern Soul, we go to tribute nights and NS weekend breaks whenever we get a chance, we're early 30's so don't personally remember the era but I'd hate to think that in years to come it'll just disappear because everyone who was alive at the time won't be around anymore.

I'm late 50s and the entertainment on our holiday this year was all Motown and 60s hits and Abba etc and I just want the 80s or 90s or even some hits from today.
When he did play the Killers one night , everyone got up and jumped about , it was great! I wished they would realize that not everyone likes very old music.

It's stupid ageist assumptions.

And it will fall flat. No one will go and they will wonder why.

My town has a 1940s day every year and it is well attended by people of all ages. It is mainly the younger ones and 'middle aged' who are dressed up not the very few people who can remember it. This event (and the one OP mentioned in the pub) are fine but shouldn't be advertised as being specifically for the over 60s. People can choose whether they go or not unlike the captive audience in a care home.

Could they be favorites from the Falklands War?

Whatever they might have been!

My parents would enjoy that at late 80s.

Personally I'm approaching 60 and hoping for Human League, ABC and Duran Duran for my care home singalong.

It's so odd, I agree. Shortly before the first lockdown was announced, I was in a cafe and some older ladies, late 70s or 80s maybe, were taking a dim view of the possibility of being stuck at home.

'Well, what a fuss,' said the cafe owner. 'I mean, you lived through the war.'

None of them remembered the war, they were all babies at the time...

I'm not far off 60.
It would be my hell stick in a bar listening to tunes made famous by Benny Goodman, George Formby or Arthur Askey.
My music past is motorhead, iron Maiden, Saxon, Black Sabbath et al.
My music current is The Chats, North East party House, Early Adopted and the Hilltop Hoods.
I cant imagine music worse than war hits!!( except anything from Post modern juke box!)

There's a huge difference between 60+, 70+, 80+ and 90+. I've noticed that the care home where my mum lives plays music from across the decades - mainly 50s - 70s with the really old stuff ie war time mainly for specific occasions or if chosen for singalongs.

I remember the first time I heard them playing 70s music I was a bit taken aback but realised that whilst it was the music of my childhood, there would be quite a few people in their 70s who had listened to this in their 20s-30s.

Back to the OP's pub lunch entertainment - 60+ could be two generations with someone in their 60s taking their parents out. I imagine most people in their 60s going out with their own age group probably wouldn't chose to go to an event specifically aimed at 60+

1 "Physical" Olivia Newton-John
2 "Eye of the Tiger" Survivor
3 "I Love Rock 'n Roll" Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
4 "Ebony and Ivory" Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
5 "Centerfold" The J. Geils Band
6 "Don't You Want Me" The Human League
7 "Jack & Diane" John Cougar
8 "Hurts So Good" John Cougar
9 "Abracadabra" Steve Miller Band
10 "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" Chicago
11 "Tainted Love" Soft Cell
12 "Chariots of Fire" Vangelis
13 "Harden My Heart" Quarterflash
14 "Rosanna" Toto
15 "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" Hall & Oates
16 "867-5309/Jenny" Tommy Tutone
17 "Key Largo" Bertie Higgins
18 "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" Melissa Manchester
19 "Waiting for a Girl Like You" Foreigner
20 "Don't Talk to Strangers" Rick Springfield

They use Alexa in mum's home - "Alexa - play 60s music ".

Back to the OP's pub lunch entertainment - 60+ could be two generations with someone in their 60s taking their parents out. I imagine most people in their 60s going out with their own age group probably wouldn't chose to go to an event specifically aimed at 60+
But the war ti.e tunes are still too old for the parents of the 60 year old ( speaking as someone who is nearly 60) my mum at 80 is still listening to sStatus Quo, still loves Billy Joel and Neil Diamond , my dad is still loving Johnny Cash's music. They are the artists I grew up listening to from them.

Maybe someone in their 60s going out with their grandparents would be nearer the mark but that would put the average grandparent at around 100.

My mum is 80 and her favourite music is 1980s electronica - Human League, Gary Numan and so on.

I think it would be so fascinating to come back in 100 years time, to compare it with today and see just how much we're all still living in a post-war society and culture without really realising it.

My Dad would be 97 now and he liked that kind of music - Glenn Miller, Bix Beiderbecke etc. He was 13 in 1939.

N

Oh my god, if Abba and U2 are on the care home playlist send me to Dignitas 😆

@notacooldad - of course - I was just meaning that over 60s can easily mean two generations and possibly the older one might enjoy the entertainment. I've already said that my experience with somewhere which regularly plays music for older adults plays music from 50s - 70s decades .

Maybe it was Wartime Classics from the Falklands War.

Eddy Grant.
Captain Sensible.
Haircut 100.

All rounded off with a rousing chorus of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" around the piano.

Me too. That's the trouble - music from the same era can be very divisive. E.g. Queen v Sex Pistols.

Just what I was thinking.