On a recent visit to London I dodged into Liberty in Regent Street to escape the chilly and incessant rain. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I imagine the Liberty store I dream of wafts of lavender water, a faint rustling of Tana Lawn cotton, William Morris stage-left extolling the virtues of the Arts and Crafts Movement and all accompanied by the strains of a fine but discrete string quartet; comfortably twee and reassuringly old fashioned. 

But stop, stop that day dreaming! As I moved through the departments I was accosted by a loud nasally shriek urging me to .”get to the beat, c’mon,c’mon, to the beat, to the beat, beat, beat (you don’t realise it is so bad until it stops..), beat, beat…”. I hurriedly sought refuge in the haberdashery department. Surely in the world of ribbons, buttons and lovely sparkly things there would only be the sounds of perhaps a tinkling piano? But no. The beat had been forgotten but now the thing that shrieked from the sound system wanted me to be “’er baby, yeh ‘er baby, baby, yeh baby….” Would it have been wrong of me to have grabbed a couple of 50 gram balls of salmon pink angora, punched my arms into the air and shimmied over the floor shouting “yeh, yeh, yeh”? If not why else this music?

Back in Farnham if I want to go somewhere calm to have a drink and read a book accompanied by Molly the dog or perhaps chat with my husband with the certainty that we will be able to hear each other, I go to the Hop Blossom. There is a lovely feeling of calm when the doors are first opened, a gentle clinking of glasses and, before the crowds arrive, low murmuring of voices plus in the winter the sound of the real fire gently crackling. 

I would like to make a plea regarding music in Farnham pubs and it is this - if there has to be music played on a continuous loop could it at least be locally produced? I know that many of the pubs have Live music nights which is great but why not extend it to the piped music? There are plenty of excellent local bands gigging in the area and this would be another way of being heard. Perhaps the name of the bands and the CDs being played could be written on a board somewhere? Elvis, Elton, Springsteen and even the-thing-that-shrieked are all good in the right place but perhaps it is the turn of some home-grown talent? 

Eleanor Thomas aka KnitNell is a resident of Farnham. For more of her musings and illustrations do pop over to her regular blog at www.knitnell.com.