Karaoke : Marmite. Simple, either hate it or you hate it.
Then you get drunk.
The greatest description of it I ever heard was “It’s like Sex for the first time for an English Woman. Oh no I’m not doing that. No way never. OH MY GOD I HAVE TO DO IT AGAIN NOW.”
So,
Lover or Hater?
Where was your first song? What is YOUR song you have done or would do?
How bad are karaoke nights in your local?
Ever have a "Once in a Lifetime moment or two?
First up I have a Brother & a Niece who are amazingly talented musicians. I am not. I have a wife who was a professional singer. I sing OWTS out of tune. Carslberg don’t do Karaoke, but if they did then they’d be the gigs we are lucky enough to have down here (but more of that later).
I am a sh1t singer in the key of flat and with the vocal range of a potato. Yet I see my mission in life is to keep alive classic Britpop songs.
More on that later. My 3rd greatest karaoke claim to fame was beating John Burridge in a Competition down here!
Who else has dipped their vocal chords in the water? Or are you a wimp?
I used to run a karaoke night in my mid to late 20s. It was largely excellent fun. I believe some of our Sotonians may even have been in attendance. And yeah, when you’re the host, you sing quite a bit. My favourite number, and the one we always got the most applause for, was Paradise By The Dashboard Light, although there are loads of go-to songs I can do in a pinch.
I am not going to pretend that some people just can’t sing. No shame in that. There are a fuckload of songs I don’t have the range for, but if someone is hell-bent on doing Greatest Love of All at a christening without the capacity to do it, you’re fucked.
Most people can be repaired on the go, and a decent DJ will do his or her best to make people sound as good as possible and have them clapped off the stage. I’ve been to a few places where the DJ didn’t do that, and all the amateurs sound crap. That’s no fun for anyone, participant or spectator, and somewhat misses the point. Karaoke is supposed to be about going up, having a laugh and doing something that you wouldn’t normally get to do.
I simply cannot sing and I also dislike performing in public so karaoke is not something that appeals to me; although, apparently, one New Year’s Eve when extremely pissed I did participate in an excruciatingly painful rendition of the Mamas and Papas California Dreaming.
However, in Japan I visited a karaoke parlour with my family and we all had a right old wheeze in the privacy of our own booth, murdering songs and ringing for more beers!
Without going into the me stuff yet, about 5 months ago a client had a delegation of VP’s over from a big US Co he was a partner for. So we went along to our “Awesome Night” for a dinner then (cheap) beer. I explained to the guys it was not about the singing but about the performance. Imagine you are giving a Powerpoint - just sell it. To their credit all 4 of them got up for the 1st time and sang (now in our place we are talking 300+ people and someting like 40+ semi professional quality singers (and me) on a quiet night. They were awful but they got everyone singing along and they came off the stage bouncing. Loved it and went again later on.
The TRICK if (like me) you are sh1t is to understand you are sh1t so do songs the crowd love
The worse ‘performance’ I ever sat through was when Mrs Stickman, her sister and my sister did Madonna’s version of American Pie - they turned what originally was quite a nice song into even more of a fucking dirge than Madonna managed to.
I am not generally a confident person, but I will not shy away from a bit of karaoke, I think it comes down to love of music. I feel that by listen to music you can get lost and shut out the world for a bit. I find it the same when I get up and ‘sing’ on stage. I get lost, it is not me up there and it is fun!
Lover
Crete - oasis or the beetles mainly, but love the Ace of Spades, but prefer to know the words, as you can loosen up a bit.
you get a mix, some awful, most you can listen to, but I think the worse ones are the most entertaining, as you are not suppose to be a pro!
Me and a best friend of my girlfriend at the time in the early 90’s did a duet, I’ve got you babe at a club in Nequay and we pretty much nailed it and got a great reaction.
I do love a bit of drunken Karaoke, despite my utterly awful (that’s being kind) voice.
My go to is usually Common People, I can almost do a passable Jarvis (more talking than singing really). Once also had a crack at ‘bandaoke’, a friend and I got up and slurred our way through Don’t Look Back Into The Sun. It didn’t go down to well.
In Japanese style Karaoke booths only. Hate the in the pub style crap with 50 strangers either just waiting their turn or wishing they were somewhere else.
I have done karaoke once. It was also the libertines, but what became of the likely lads. At a club in Newquay on my first holiday without parents. They turned my mic off, then I threw up in a urinal, got my hair set on fire then got kicked out.
I have never done Karaoke. I consider that one of my many good deeds to humanity. Come to think of it, I should get the Nobel peace price for all the things I have not done in public!
