Audience lack of respect for bands

[Simon.]

I went to see Wonderstuff and the Neds the other week. Had a pillock stood in front of me for the entire Wonderstuff set constantly checking Twitter,  Facebook and sending thousands of Whatsapp messages. Most of them about how much he wasn't interested in watching the Wonderstuff....

Why be there then? FFS...

[skankdelvar]

For myself, I believe that talking through a band is a matter of context and degree. 

It's one thing if it's a willowy, ethereal lady folk singer singing a mawkish ballad about The Land of The Faerie Queene while tearfully accompanying herself on an un-amplified autoharp in a folk club. Silence is mandatory, lest one be assaulted by some ghastly old hippy in Jesus boots.

Quite another if it's four hairy-4rsed blokes hammering out Sex On Fire at full beans in a boozer. Frankly, they just have to take their chances

 

Edited April 23, 2018 by skankdelvar

[jackers]

1 minute ago, skankdelvar said:

For myself, I believe that talking through a band is a matter of context and degree. 

It's one thing if it's a willowy, ethereal lady folk singer singing a mawkish ballad about The Land of The Faerie Queene while tearfully accompanying herself on an un-amplified autoharp in a folk club. Silence is mandatory, lest one be assaulted by some ghastly old hippy in Jesus boots.

Quite another if it's four hairy-4rsed blokes hammering out Sex On Fire at full beans in a boozer. Frankly, they just have to take their chances

 

To be fair, I wouldn't think anyone would expect your average pub covers band to get the total attention from the audience.

[PaulWarning]

as others have said, if your band is having trouble with audience attention on a regular basis maybe you should look at what sort of show you're putting on, having said that it is difficult to keep the crowds attention all the way through a 2 hour pub gig

[peteb]

12 minutes ago, jackers said:

To be fair, I wouldn't think anyone would expect your average pub covers band to get the total attention from the audience.

Assuming that they are half decent and have a modicum of stage presence, then why not?? 

[skankdelvar]

15 minutes ago, jackers said:

To be fair, I wouldn't think anyone would expect your average pub covers band to get the total attention from the audience.

To be fair, I wouldn't think anyone would expect your average pub covers band to get any attention whatsoever from the audience.

Indeed, the idea of demonstrating one's respect for the band by maintaining a studious silence is a relatively recent thing in popular music. In the old days notionally 'seated' music hall audiences stamped their feet, sang along, interrupted and threw peanuts at the band, much as did the 'groundlings' in Shakespeare's theatre. In dance halls or at balls the participants (and I use the term advisedly) paid scant attention to the musicians, being far more interested in their dance partners than the - by comparison - hideous nicotine stained geriatrics on the bandstand hired to provide a musical back-drop. 

Personally, I find it disturbingly unnatural to have a bunch of beady-eyed punters maintain a hushed, respectful silence during my performances. Good job it's only happened once and lasted about four seconds. And it may have been a silence born of shock or revulsion rather than respect but let's not split hairs.

Edited April 23, 2018 by skankdelvar

[jackers]

Just now, peteb said:

Assuming that they are half decent and have a modicum of stage presence, then why not?? 

Likely depends on the kind of pub etc, I'll grant you. But would it be a fair assumption that not everyone in a pub would necessarily be there specifically to see that band?

[jackers]

1 minute ago, skankdelvar said:

To be fair, I wouldn't think anyone would expect your average pub covers band to get any attention whatsoever from the audience.

Indeed, the idea of demonstrating one's respect for the band by maintaining a studious silence is a relatively recent thing in popular music. In the old days notionally 'seated' music hall audiences stamped their feet, sang along, interrupted and threw peanuts at the band, much as did the 'groundlings' in Shakespeare's theatre. In dance halls or at balls the participants (and I use the term advisedly) paid scant attention to the musicians, being far more interested in their dance partners than the - by comparison - hideous nicotine stained geriatrics on the bandstand hired to provide a musical back-drop. 

Personally, I find it disturbingly unnatural to have a bunch of beady-eyed punters maintain a hushed, respectful silence during my performances. Good job it's only happened once and lasted about four seconds. And it may have been a silence born of shock or revulsion rather than respect but let's not split hairs.

Not sure anyone here is asking for silence or just standing there, staring. Singing along, cheering, clapping, jumping around would all be perfectly good things to do at most gigs, as you are engaging with the band, and showing interest in their efforts. Being stood around with your back to the stage, chatting to your mates, or checking facebook is very obviously not showing an interest.

[neilp]

Are people - particularly people who have actually paid to be entertained - not entitled to expect to be entertained? And if they're not being entertained, surely they should be allowed to have a nice chat? When I play classical concerts, whether orchestral or chamber music, we are generally giving people what they want and have paid for, so they pay attention. If I'm playing in a pub, where the punters may well not have paid, or even be expecting a band, I might well expect that we'd have to do something to earn their attention and/or respect

[billynoband]

Its always been a mystery to me how anyone can understand a conversation with a live band on. Perhaps they are pretending to be popular and have fun or are just rude.  They must have money to burn if they spend more time on their phone than watching the gig. Drugs and alcohol are one cause, worse still at the weekend.  I remember Stevie Howe telling one usa audience to shut up. Imagine paying recent Yes ticket prices then talking through the gig. You could clearly hear them even on Youtube.

[skankdelvar]

9 minutes ago, neilp said:

... if they're not being entertained, surely they should be allowed to have a nice chat? 

Quite so.

Couple years ago, I'm down at an open mic (as a punter) and these three guys plumped themselves down on a sofa (it was that kind of boozer) pulled out their phones and settled down to text their friends and view web-pages and whatnot. For a good quarter hour they exchanged not a word between themselves. To my fascinated disbelief, even their pints remained untouched.

Utterly bizarre behaviour (to me) but actively disrespectful to the performers? Not really; they were just socially-atomised numpties doing what socially-atomised numpties do. They might as well have been walking the dog or sat at home with the missus or halfway up Everest in a blizzard, they wouldn't have known or cared as long as they had their digital pacifiers in their sticky little hands.

On the other hand I have attended any number of gigs where an audience member has chosen a lull in proceedings loudly to observe that the band is f$cking sh1te and they can all f$ck off and die. That's disrespectful though sometimes quite funny if the band in question is f$cking sh1te and don't know it.

[Grangur]

For all we know, if @skankdelvar 's socially-atomised numpties were real socially-atomised numpties they might even have been texting each other!

Regrettably the world is changing and not for the better. Mrs G and I went to the cinema the other day and various folk talked through the film.

I believe the comon view now is, "the band on stage are suppliers of a service. If I chose to talk through your performance that's my prerogative." After all, I might pay a decorator to paint a wall. If I chose to draw over that wall next day, it's my choice."

[BrunoBass]

I’ve seen Frank Turner get annoyed with disrespectful audience members a few times. The last time I saw him there were a couple of girls who were talking and high pitched laughing through out a song when he did an acoustic section. He stopped the song and told them to shut the duck up or get out. 

At the weekend we had a couple of blokes sat at a table at the front of where we were playing, right in front of a PA speaker, having a full on conversation throughout our second set, surrounded by people dancing and jumping around. I didn’t mind because I don’t think they were being disrespectful, they obviously just fancied a chat. I just thought there might be easier places to do it than in front of a rock band at full tilt! 🙂

[skankdelvar]

Just now, Grangur said:

I believe the comon view now is, "the band on stage are suppliers of a service. If I chose to talk through your performance that's my prerogative." After all, I might pay a decorator to paint a wall. If I chose to draw over that wall next day, it's my choice."

I agree, though for some punters it may be less transactional than that. I suspect some of them believe that the most interesting thing about the gig is that they are in attendance, hence the importance of communicating this fact to the world at large. This plays into my nascent theory entitled 'Arrested development and self-aggrandisement in a connected world: the curse of the under-60's' but I shall leave all that old tut for another day.

[BrunoBass]

6 minutes ago, Grangur said:

Regrettably the world is changing and not for the better. Mrs G and I went to the cinema the other day and various folk talked through the film.

I went to the cinema in Hong Kong some years ago. It was packed but hardly anyone was watching the film, it was all teenagers chatting to each other, texting, walking around to talk to friends in other rows. No one seemed to mind. It was annoying but I stuck around for the air con!

[Grangur]

Well @skankdelvar old chap you mean the common view that unless it's posted on Facebook it never happened, and you and I aren't friends because we haven't registered it with the same illustrious organisation? 

Many, I'll love the day FB collapses. Martin Lewis (Moneysavingexpert.com) is suing them tomorrow for defamation because they carried links that connrct him with a Bitcoin scam. 

[gjones]

At the last gig I went to, I got so irritated by a group of morons shouting at one another and ignoring the band (that I, and I assume they, had paid £40 to see) , I told them to shut the F up. This didn't go down well. The main culprit, a speccy wee scrawny guy, bolstered by lager, threatened to thump me.

I can't understand why four people, who between them had spent £160 on a night out to see a band, choose to spend the whole night yabbering sh*t to one another and ignoring the band they came to see?

[Twigman]

2 minutes ago, gjones said:

 

I can't understand why four people, who between them had spent £160 on a night out to see a band, choose to spend the whole night yabbering sh*t to one another and ignoring the band they came to see?

They could've been on the guest list.

I admit that, in the past, I have been guilty of this - only when it's free mind.

[Happy Jack]

2 hours ago, jackers said:

It's far worse for the support acts than the main bands, but it does still happen during the main bands.

In the 70s it was considered dreadfully uncool to actually watch the support act at all. You were supposed to spend their set in the bar, or chatting up the merchandise girls, or having a joint in the toilets, pretty much anything rather than be seen watching a support act.

Being young and naive I didn't understand all this, and therefore saw some great acts who I probably wasn't supposed to see ... Alberto y Los Trios Paranoias, Stray, etc.

 

[casapete]

3 hours ago, gjones said:

At the last gig I went to, I got so irritated by a group of morons shouting at one another and ignoring the band (that I, and I assume they, had paid £40 to see) , I told them to shut the F up. This didn't go down well. The main culprit, a speccy wee scrawny guy, bolstered by lager, threatened to thump me.

I can't understand why four people, who between them had spent £160 on a night out to see a band, choose to spend the whole night yabbering sh*t to one another and ignoring the band they came to see?

This ^^^

Just don't get why they waste their money to be honest. Just like the same people videoing it on their phones, I reckon a lot of people just go to gigs to say (and brag) they've been rather than enjoy the moment / event. There's definitely a new  generation of people who can't concentrate on anything for very long, or stand not using their phones for more than a few minutes. 

Looks like Jack White thought the same too -

. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/jack-white-phone-ban-gigs-shows-concert-white-stripes-experience-mobile-cell-hand-in-a8175986.html

Edited April 23, 2018 by casapete

[PaulWarning]

1 hour ago, casapete said:

, I reckon a lot

of people just go to gigs to say (and brag) they've been rather than enjoy the moment

i think this has always been so?, people go along to gigs because of the media hype surrounding a band, get there can't admit they've wasted their money, pretend to enjoy it, then tell everybody what a great evening they've had, and in this age of social media it's a lot easier to fool yourself and everybody else 

[peteb]

3 hours ago, neilp said:

Are people - particularly people who have actually paid to be entertained - not entitled to expect to be entertained? And if they're not being entertained, surely they should be allowed to have a nice chat? When I play classical concerts, whether orchestral or chamber music, we are generally giving people what they want and have paid for, so they pay attention. If I'm playing in a pub, where the punters may well not have paid, or even be expecting a band, I might well expect that we'd have to do something to earn their attention and/or respect

Surely it's the band's job to engage with the audience and get their attention so that they can then entertain them? 

I think that there is a reason why the 2x45 minute sets has become the norm for covers bands in most music pubs. People generally go out to see a band, but also to meet up with friends. A 45 minute first set is not so long that people will lose attention if the band is half decent, then there is a bit of a break so that people can have a chat and get a few more drinks down them. Hopefully by the time you are ready to come back for round two, punters have had time to loosen up / hang out with mates, etc and are now ready to be entertained for the grande finale. I always think that you are trying to get the audience's attention for the first set to persuade them to stick around for the second, which is where you throw everything you have to make sure that they know that they have been entertained! 

[neilp]

It is the band's job, yes, that was exactly my point

[alyctes]

I liked Low's approach:  turn down the amps.

[DaveFry]

6 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

try doing open mics ,

try playing a street piano .