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ventaA rapper team which is really going places probably wants a Tommy. The Tommy's job is to get the pub into order, drum up attention, entertain, and, as a last resort, cover up mistakes. Ideally, the Tommy can also slot in to replace any of the five dancers should one expire, and must be able to whip out a spare sword and get it into the dance should one break.
The observant will note that that means the Tommy ought logically to be the best dancer - able to fill any of the five slots. In practise, that's usually not true. Boojum's Tommy (who's called Ian) is actually able to dance all five positions but it's not common. On the one occasion we managed to shatter a sword, he'd palmed the spare he carries into the set and removed the debris so effectively that most of the audience didn't notice. He's great.
Anyway, a Tommy will often begin the performance with a song. The traditional one goes something like this:
Good people give ear to my story,
It happens we've come here by chance.
Five heroes I've brought, blythe and bonny,
Intending to give you a dance.
Newcastle is our habitation,
It's where we were all born and bred.
There are no finer lads in the nation,
And none are more gallantly led.
Nearly everyone uses that song, or some variation thereon. Boojum's Tommy sings ... we haven't just come here by chance, we planned it in order to party.... Newcastle is swapped for your locale of preference, and lads becomes lasses where appropriate. Replacing 'gallantly' with 'easily' is pretty common.
Stone Monkey, the host team of 2010's rapper competition, introduced a scandalous new rule this year: no one was allowed to use that song. I think they felt that forcing judges to listen to 27 renditions of it was cruel and unusual. Not to mention that it's basically an unwritten rule that the Tommy will not be able to sing. Accordingly, they offered a prize for the best alternative calling-on song.
One of my favourites teams to watch is Gaorsach, from Aberdeen. I believe "gaorsach" is the Gaelic word for "a woman your mother should have warned you about". They adopted the grand folk-song tradition of using repellently twee euphemisms while being quite filthy. It seems there's a video of them on YouTube; it's disappointingly dark, but the song can be heard pretty well. You might also note that their singer (actually one of the musicians, they don't have a Tommy) has a distinctly unsporting ability to sing.
As I said yesterday, we were paired with the Newcastle Kingsmen for the competition. The first time I heard their calling-on song, I laughed out loud and, unlike most jokes, it actually didn't pall throughout the day. Here's a fairly low-budget video I uploaded earlier (thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eviltwinemma) of them singing it in one of the competition pubs. You may note their Tommy's singing is sportingly awful.
The terminally keen can find quite a bit of rapper footage from this year's competition by searching youtube for "dert 2010".
The observant will note that that means the Tommy ought logically to be the best dancer - able to fill any of the five slots. In practise, that's usually not true. Boojum's Tommy (who's called Ian) is actually able to dance all five positions but it's not common. On the one occasion we managed to shatter a sword, he'd palmed the spare he carries into the set and removed the debris so effectively that most of the audience didn't notice. He's great.
Anyway, a Tommy will often begin the performance with a song. The traditional one goes something like this:
Good people give ear to my story,
It happens we've come here by chance.
Five heroes I've brought, blythe and bonny,
Intending to give you a dance.
Newcastle is our habitation,
It's where we were all born and bred.
There are no finer lads in the nation,
And none are more gallantly led.
Nearly everyone uses that song, or some variation thereon. Boojum's Tommy sings ... we haven't just come here by chance, we planned it in order to party.... Newcastle is swapped for your locale of preference, and lads becomes lasses where appropriate. Replacing 'gallantly' with 'easily' is pretty common.
Stone Monkey, the host team of 2010's rapper competition, introduced a scandalous new rule this year: no one was allowed to use that song. I think they felt that forcing judges to listen to 27 renditions of it was cruel and unusual. Not to mention that it's basically an unwritten rule that the Tommy will not be able to sing. Accordingly, they offered a prize for the best alternative calling-on song.
One of my favourites teams to watch is Gaorsach, from Aberdeen. I believe "gaorsach" is the Gaelic word for "a woman your mother should have warned you about". They adopted the grand folk-song tradition of using repellently twee euphemisms while being quite filthy. It seems there's a video of them on YouTube; it's disappointingly dark, but the song can be heard pretty well. You might also note that their singer (actually one of the musicians, they don't have a Tommy) has a distinctly unsporting ability to sing.
As I said yesterday, we were paired with the Newcastle Kingsmen for the competition. The first time I heard their calling-on song, I laughed out loud and, unlike most jokes, it actually didn't pall throughout the day. Here's a fairly low-budget video I uploaded earlier (thanks to
eviltwinemma) of them singing it in one of the competition pubs. You may note their Tommy's singing is sportingly awful.The terminally keen can find quite a bit of rapper footage from this year's competition by searching youtube for "dert 2010".
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Date: 2010-04-13 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-13 03:21 pm (UTC)In more normal circumstances, their Tommy sings ... Newcastle is our habitation, it's where we were ed-u-ca-ted..., though I'm not sure if it's strictly true at present.
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Date: 2010-04-13 03:27 pm (UTC)[Error: unknown template video]