Entertainment For Lively Minds
Do you take your children to concerts?
Posted by Native on 15 June 2010 - 2:45pm.
And if so, do they usually enjoy them?
I'm taking my 13 year-old daughter and 8 year-old son to the Splendour festival in Nottingham soon and I'm slightly worried they are going to get bored.
I never try and impose on what they listen to and my daughter has seen the X Factor tour and Girls Aloud etc, but I just have a feeling by 9pm they'll have had enough.
I chose Splendour as Calvin Harris is playing (teen-friendly) and Pet Shop Boys, who at least will put on a visual show that will hopefully keep them entertained.
Just wondered if any other parents have experience of taking their kids to gigs - both good and bad?!
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I’ve taken my son to lots
I’ve taken my son to lots of gigs over the last five years, but only ones he’s keen to attend.
He’s 15 now and the last show was the Pixies a few weeks ago, but he’s also seen the Stones and Pistols, among others.
Last year he went to the Hop Farm festival with his mother, and he is going to Reading with his mates.
But I wouldn’t waste my time and money taking him to something he’s not enthusiastic about.
I went to the Stooges a few weeks back and saw some poor girl who had been dragged along by her mother and was bored out of her mind. She spent the night sitting on the floor texting her mates.
my eldest daughter
who is now 8 is attending her third End Of The Road Festival this year. The secret is filling her little rucksack with plenty of distractions for those 'less than interesting' moments. End Of The Road, to its great credit, is very child-friendly
This weekend!
Taking my 12 year old to Macca on Sunday.
He's looking forward to it. He sings along to Hey Jude in the car (good chance we will hear this on Sunday) and also loves Rocky Raccoon (probably less chance of hearing this). It's his first concert.
Will report back!
Reporting back....
He loved it! In retrospect Macca always seemed like an obvious choice anyway. I defy anyone not to be carried along on the wave of enthusiasm with thousands of people singing "Nah Nah Nah Nananah Nah Hey Jooood!" or jigging en masse to Ob La Di Ob La Da. He's a consummate showman, that Sir Paul.
Still, three hours (plus two hour build up) was a tall order, and I'm surprised my son lasted the duration (not as surprised as I am that Sir Paul lasted the duration: was he on steroids or something? Is he really pushing 70 or have they ACTUALLY buried Paul and replaced him with a younger model?).
It was great gig though. I tried to write a "My night out..." entry for it, but I find the formalised nature of that section too difficult to restrain myself to! Let me just say one thing: the quiet bit where he performed "Blackbird" and "Here Today" was absolutely tear-inducingly brilliant. After all these years, it's still THAT voice and that (still underestimated) finger-pickin' guitar style working the old magic.
Pink Impresses
My 11-year-old daughter saw Pink last week at the Sunderland Stadium Of Light (prime candidate, according to my wife, for Venue With The Worst Sound In The Whole World Ever) and was transfixed throughout the show.
Which is admittedly, from what I've seen of the Isle of Wight performance online, as far away as it's possible to get in entertainment terms from one troubled singer/songwriter, an acoustic and a mic.
She was much less impressed - not to say unnerved and perturbed, at least initially - with her first exposure to the cream of North East womanhood, the underclad and extremely noisy sisterhood awash in a sea of bargain booze. It's the first lady with a face tattoo she's ever seen
So I'd say go for it - even if the show gets boring, there's always entertainment to be had watching the crowd.
Took my daughter to see Primal Scream when she was six
She's 23 now and still has the ticket stub in pride of place on her notice board in her flat.
It was at Exeter University Great Hall during the GOBDGU tour and to avoid the moshpit the stewards allowed us to sit upstairs in the balcony (which was otherwise empty) next to the sound desk. Support came from Dust Brothers who I believe transmuted into The Chemical Brothers - but I thought it was just a couple of DJs from the university filling in time.
Set my daughter up for regular gigging and festivals for years afterwards.
Primal Scream?
Is it too late to inform the authorities?
:-)
A friend of mine used to turn up to school wearing...
a Pink Floyd T-shirt from 'The Wall' shows at Earls Court. His dad had taken him... it was his first gig. I was insanely jealous.
Took my Indie loving boys
to The Reading Festival when they were 12. They absolutely loved it, but the point is they loved the bands and were the coolest kids at school after it especially as it was the year Rage Against The Machine were headlining.
And when you told them it was time to go home...
they said "Fuck you we won't do what you tell us!"
We left during
Metallica on the Sunday night so they were ready to go, but I'm sure they have used that immortal line on the odd occasion since.
I was once at a classical concert.
Someone took a baby. It wasn't happy.
I dare say
it wasn't alone in that...
Oh Indeed
Edinburgh Festival , Usher Hall, Beethoven Three, two or three years ago, if you are out there, Mrs Puzzling-Decision.
I wouldn't dream
of taking my youngest (aged 18 months) to a concert.
It's no place for a tiny tot. The frightening noise, the potential damage to sensitive eardrums, and the awful possibility of injury, terror, pain, confusion and mayhem - I just wouldn't inflict that on the poor audience.