Bookstock: libraries rock

Photo: Sardinista

Self-confessed library geek (just don’t ask about the kebab) Johanna Derry attends Read and Shout, a music festival with a difference

I love librarians. My first librarian looked like Rumpelstiltskin with a huge long ginger beard. The librarian of my university library was gorgeous and looked like Kurt Cobain. The librarian in Terry Pratchett’s books is an orangutan. I’m yet to meet one who’s pale and prim with a string of pearls round their neck. Librarians are, truth be told, a little bit rock and roll.

Matt Stead, the librarian at West Norwood Library, certainly is. He’s upset about the impending cuts to his library and so, in true librarian fashion, he organised a day-long readathon music festival – Read and Shout – in his library to highlight the cause,  headlined by Swedish indie-pop songster, Jens Lekman.

Now, I feel I ought to confess at this point, I’m a library geek. I got a prize at sixth form college for my contributions to the smooth running of the library. When I was a student I was misrepresented in the student newspaper for my behaviour in an all-night library (apparently I commited some misdemeanor involving a kebab. I have no memory of this…). I’ve slept in libraries, tried to pull in libraries, studied in libraries, borrowed books from libraries and paid endless fines to libraries. In my purse I have three library cards.

So call me a nerd, but a music festival in a library is my idea of a great day out. And clearly, I’m not the only bookworm in south London, because this event sold out in less than five minutes.

You can imagine the kind of crowd – bearded, jumpered, geek-chic guys with skinny jeans and thick-framed glasses. Girls with fringes and studious looks. With a properly indie-pop theme, the line-up included The Sweet Nothings, a Little Orchestra, The Leaf Library and ex-Hefner frontman Darren Hayman, who played in full tweed suit complete with elbow patches, especially for the occasion.

‘People ask, “Well, when was the last time you used a library, eh?” at polite dinner parties,’ Hayman said, ‘And I say, “When was the last time you used a hospital?” There are some things that just should exist. It’s not a matter of supply and demand.” And then he launched himself into singing as many of his songs that mention libraries as he could.

When Stead’s own band, A Fine Day For Sailing, came on stage, their excitement about the success of the day was palpable, and the crowd were up on their feet and dancing. He made his speech to thank the artists for agreeing to play and for waiving their fees, getting tearful when he talked about the impact of  the cuts. ‘I love the library,’ he sang ‘All the books and the children and the OAPs…’.

When Lekman finally took to the stage, he had the attention of a fully adoring crowd, indignant at government policy, but otherwise in fine form and ready to wave their cans of Carlsberg in the air along to well-loved tracks from his 2007 album Night Falls Over Kortedala.

And he more than delivered, playing for an hour, and sharing an anecdote about how he stalked Kirsten Dunst around Gothenburg because she’d mentioned him in a magazine interview, before singing the story.

At half eleven, way past library closing time, and after curfew, he came out for two encores and we all danced, making the most of this amazing public facility while we still can.

If the library lives on, this could become an annual event in the music calendar. So, sign the petition and declare: Let the libraries remain silent no longer. Let books be shared – lent and borrowed, and the margins scribbled in with useful notes and comments. Let the spines of the books be broken and the page corners turned and let the broadband flow at high speed. Let the mums and toddlers enjoy their weekly storytimes and let the large-print and audio sections flourish for the elderly. And in the evenings, let the music play long and loud and late.

Jens Lekman – Waiting for Kirsten (Live at Nettlefold Hall) from The Line Of Best Fit on Vimeo.