Edinburgh Fringe 2025
You’re Not Singing Anymore
Minnie Birch
Genre: Music, Musical Stories
Venue: Greenside
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
“You’re Not Singing Anymore” is a heart-warming and, on occasions, moving show at Edinburgh Fringe 2025 that focuses on the stories and songs of football terraces. It explores football culture and folk music, concentrating on the songs sung together on the terraces, covering themes of identity, family, rivalry, memory, and football chants.
Review
“You’re Not Singing Anymore” feels light and gentle throughout its fifty minutes at Greenside on George Street. Yet it has a purposeful, deeply affecting gravitas. In the company of Minnie Birch.
Minnie Birch is “a folk pop artist from Hertfordshire UK. She was BBC Radio 1’s introducing artist of the week, Buzzfeed’s “one to watch” and received awards and critical acclaim in national press for her original compositions on life, love, loss and fairytale.” (Source). Two performers host a fascinating exploration of the songs the fans sing on the football terraces that have their roots in traditional folk songs, some of which go back centuries. I want to tell you the mechanism used that makes this such a strong, clever and joyful 50 minutes. I want to tell you the touching story that binds the songs together. But I won’t because it will spoil it for you. Instead let’s focus on the elements of the show that make this so excellent. The gentle story, so personal, so real and so relatable. It’s told with economy, sparing use of emotion and you might just cry, and be glad to, because it creates a break from the smiles that have broken out on the faces of just about everyone in the audience as they enjoy the bathos of folk music and gives birth to iconic football terrace chants we know so well.
It’s a little buffet of football music that binds human beings together, that engenders community and some of our warmest memories. The banter on stage provides underpinning to the live music, guitar and banjo based, played with easy skill, but laid back yet assured harmonies. We learn from some copious research, which gives depth and intrigue to the unfolding narrative. This is a bit of drama, edutainment, a dose of gig theatre storytelling, light duo comedy and some emotional storytelling all folding into what, in football terms, would be one of those match of matches. It is special because the love of this music and underpining stories is infenctious because the show comes across as a passion project, realised successfully on stage. It’s laied back and restrained, but do not be fooled. That’s just the mid-fielder’s pause as she looks ahead and loops the ball perfectly to the feet of a forward, 50 yards into the opposing box. Then, boom! it’s 5-nil.
Occasionally the conversation on stage feels a little too scripted and there is scope to be more consistent with script and more improvised banter. It’s a minor quibble in a charming, life-affirming show, laced with a bit of the pain that we face when we go through life as open-hearted human beings.
This is a self-confident, accomplished show that is as excellent as a free kick that curls over the wall into the top right corner of the net.
