Lockdown lates in a Prowsey paradise

Dickie Felton

9 April 2021

Middle of March 2020, Covid chaos and a Liverpool singer decides to cheer people up with a handful of Facebook gigs.

Three lockdowns, 13 months and 37 shows later, Ian Prowse is still singing songs of hope, love and defiance live from his living room.

Shakespeare’s famous “All the world’s a stage…” speech was recited by melancholic traveller Jaques in As You Like It (1599).

The Bard of Avon was onto something with those lyrics: People enter into this world through different routes and exit on a different path…

In February 2020 Ian Prowse was riding high with the release of a career-spanning retrospective of his music and was on the road supporting Elvis Costello.

But then life and landscape suddenly changed.

The pandemic was set to rage havoc and destruction, lockdowns imposed, live music silenced, and whatever plans we had cancelled.

With no live gigs, the Pele/Amsterdam man set about playing to an audience he couldn’t even see, performing a set from his apartment each Friday night live on Facebook.

Since that first show Prowsey has played more than 550 songs over 100 hours during three national lockdowns.

What is also remarkable is that these shows have been free to watch with Prowsey only encouraging fans to “throw some shekels into the digital hat – but only if you can afford to.”

As well as his songs he’s filled our homes with stories, uplifting words of wisdom, and a heartwarming insight into family life with Mel and his daughter Rosie. He might not realise it, but the 37 night residency has been a frank, funny and flawless memoir of his life.

Like a Shakespearian play, you can break the last 13 months of shows into distinct acts across the three lockdowns with Prowsey perfectly gauging the state of the nation as people lurched from one crisis to the next.

The were poignant moments in these special nights, from tributes to friends lost, to wishes of recovery and tears whenever he played Here I Lie and Does This Train Stop on Merseyside?

But mostly the sessions have been a rip-roaring singalong with the big questions on everyone’s lips: What song will he play next? and What are you drinking?

The Facebook shows have been a cross between Saturday Superstore and TFI Friday – but with more intelligence and grace.

Engagement is a buzz word these days and Prowsey’s Friday shows have featured fan Q&As, birthday shout-outs and messages of support to anyone who needs it. Prowsey and Mel have become part agony-aunts part motivational-speakers inadvertently offering more clarity than any politician ever could.

The sessions have built not just a fanbase but a support network.

Fan Julie Osman: “Prowse’s livestreamed gigs are the best thing that happened for me in a grim year. At the start of the first lockdown it was great to hear Ian playing live from Liverpool and know that other people were watching too. It felt like a proper event. Over the weeks the ‘Prowsey crew’ started to be a community. I got to know some of the other regulars via Twitter and it became the highlight of my week.

“In the chat during the gigs everyone’s talking away and some of it is big stuff: Grief, being ill with Covid, or losing your job. I love how Ian and the whole group can handle that emotion in such a supportive way” – Julie Osman

For Acts two and three of this great play, Lara Simpson joined the ship with her fiddle of fire. The songs were suddenly propelled to an even higher plateau somewhere north of Saturn.

Ian’s daughter Rosie has been the Star of the Show getting up to sing songs herself. She’s covered everyone from her ole man to Damien Dempsey and The Spice Girls. My personal fave was Backflip by Love Fame Tragedy which was performed so beautifully by Rosie one week, that the set opened with her singing the song again the following Friday.

Fan Matt Murphy has been watching the lockdown shows from his home in California.

Scouser Matt said: “They became the focal point of our week not just for me and my wife but for the kids too.

“We’d try to watch live but often we’d watch at 8pm our time once the kids were in bed. It was our night out/night in, our time to connect to others all going through the same feelings of fear and worry especially during the first six months of lockdown. Typically, we’d watch again with the kids the next day.

“The Friday night lockdown show was like the root that other areas of our lives flourished from. It’s an odd thing for one middle aged man to say about another, but Ian truly inspired both me and my family…

“My daughter has taken up violin because of Ian’s songs (especially Name and Number) and through watching Lara. Ian’s inspired me to challenge myself, I’ve taken up guitar.

“His passion and beliefs have also inspired me to re-invest time in a long held passion around Irish history and my genealogy which has led to some great conversations with my aunties and family about our relatives. In addition, music has become a bigger part of our lives again.

“Prowsey went from being part of our musical rotation to the only music we listened to for most of 2020” – Matt Murphy

For me, these Friday nights will go down as the abiding positive during a year to forget. The Facebook shows were quite simply the best Friday nights I’ve ever had.

As well has his own rich back catalogue spanning three decades, Prowsey has played an eclectic mix of covers on this roadmap to recovery: Bruce Springsteen, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, The Cure, David Gray, Style Council, The Jam, Travis, Buzzcocks to name just a few.

I melted during the times he played The Smiths’ Bigmouth Strikes Again. R.E.M’s Man on the Moon, David Gray’s Babylon or The Beloved’s Sweet Harmony. I didn’t even like the The Waterboys until they got the Prowsey/Lara treatment on these fantastic Friday nights and now I’m hooked. In a sense Prowsey has opened a door on a world of other music as well as his own.

Matt Murphy: “When we look back at the year of lockdown a key part of that will be the hours and days spent listening to Ian. I’m convinced my kids will carry that beautiful memory with them forever – despite all the challenges of lockdown.”

Now there is just one hurrah left and life will never be the same again.

Tonight (Friday 9 April at 8pm) Ian Prowse will play out the final scene with his very last Facebook show.

It will be number 38 of a mesmerising ‘digital box-set’ of live gigs played while the world was in quarantine.

Tonight’s show feels akin to a Champions League Final. There is excitement in the air. Pele teeshirts are being worn, hours counted down and fans across the world are in giddy anticipation for the Facebook finale.

Julie Osman: “I’m hugely looking forward to the last Facebook show tonight and I don’t want it to end. What will we do with ourselves next Friday?”

If music be the food of love, play on Prowsey…

 

Watch the final Ian Prowse Lockdown show at 8pm Friday 9 April 2021 HERE

Ian Prowse will return to real stages in real venues from June. Details HERE