Tributes dagnabbit - it's little wonder that people nattered all the way through it. It's like eating with a fork in the right hand. Nobody has any manners left, and 'tribute' acts are just regarded as fodder rather like receiving guests and leaving the TV on and answering the telephone. Or like texting through dinner. But don't get me started! I've said it before and I'll say it again, tribute acts are killing music. I appreciate that the venues might be trying to stay solvent but it is sacrificing art!

Talking, texting, going out for drinks, checking messages, moving about...all of these activites almost ruined Dylan in Sydney for me recently. (It was the real Dylan axevictim)
People have developed the attention span of a gnat.

Lots of problems with this. Worst case was seeing Ron Sexsmith in a small venue at Manchester Students Union. Woman kept talking on and on. Eventually a guy near us told her to shut the fuck up. She stormed out. Oh good, we thought, well done mate. She returned with security who she'd told that the guy had been rude to her. Several of us intervened and sorted the correct story. What a cow.

I note that Wembley Stadium now has "singing sections". Maybe they could do something similar with music venues. As people enter they should be asked "excuse me, are you planning to talk during the performance?" If they answer yes they're conducted to a special area at the back. If they say no, well, they can't complain they haven't been warned.

Why do people go. It's mind bending. People at Aimee Mann spent half the time going out for drinks, toilet breaks. The bar was open the whole time. People are moving from there seats to take a quick picture. The bar is open the whole time. Are people unable to go 90 minutes without having a drink.

The bloke in front of me at the Decemberists spent half the time filimg and his mate spent the other half texting.

I think a lot of it goes back what was said on the last podcast about how it used to be people who slept over night to get tickets etc were the ones who went to the gig and were therefore the people who most wanted to be there and weren't going to talk through it.

but I come over all Arnold bloody Schwarzenegger when people will not shut up at gigs! Just before the '97 election i had to tell a couple to shut the **** up at a Billy Bragg gig. Yes, thats right, I'm at a liberal artists gig and I'm coming on like the Third Reich! THATS how much it annoys me!

I went to see John Martyn earlier this year - supported by the stunning young strummer John Smith http://www.myspace.com/johnacousticsmith

Where an anonymous arse insisted in singing along in an overly loud voice(just naggingly out out of time as well)for most of the gig.

He bailed out just before the end of set, by which time it was like a car alarm being switched off and I could still hear the phantom singers harmonizing in my head long after he'd left the Corn Exchange

It goes against all liberal thinking, but I feel that these people may have the answer.

It is indeed lethal to have a pint or two before a seated concert. I made the mistake before seeing David Knophler at the tiny and intimate Helmsley Art Centre last year. I found myself in Dire Straits the minute I sat down, trapped in a mid row seat despite visiting the toilets just 5 mins previously; with crossed legs,I sat in agony for an hour, praying there would be a break at some point; when I heard the words "there will now be a 15min interval" I truly believed all my Christmas's had come at once.

We saw John Hiatt at the Barbican last night. The show was 2 hours of non-stop bliss and the hall was full of respectful, musically literate people (mostly of a certain age) who were there to listen, learn and love the guy. If only life was always like this. I've stopped going to venues that attract obnoxious shit-heads who talk or sing and come and go during the action. Obviously, I don't get round much anymore.

Know what you mean and agree entirely - it has happened twice to me that its got that bad I've lost it. Both times at Birmingham Ronnie Scotts - first with Notting Hillbillies and second a Nils Lofgren acoustic concert.At the latter I managed to get the offenders thrown out despite their protestations of being 'members'.Why would anyone want to be a member of a club where you possibly dont like half the bands playing and have to pay admission anyway?
Thankfully this venue has now become a lap dancing bar - now there are tits on stage as well as in the audience.

My girlfriend and I went to see the Futureheads at Leeds University not long ago. We were having a little boogie, shaking our stuff, when the static group of scenesters stood around us demanded we 'stop dancing!'. I thought this was going a little far but shrugged it off as the usual Leeds bunch going to gigs to pose rather than for the music, but a couple of weeks later we saw Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Manchester Academy and the same thing happened. Is it really asking too much to be allowed to dance at a gig?

We dance like Sting in Quadrophenia!!! While I agree with the majority of the thread, you shouldn't try to stop someone elses enjoyment of a gig. For me, dancing is so integral to the music that if you're not dancing to the music, you're not connecting with the music. I hate static crowds at a concert. Why are you there?

Every gig we go to, its a problem, and its nothing new. Talking, shouting, mobile phone photos, inability to sit still ... it gets incredibly irriatating. I can't understand why people pay a lot of money for tickets just to talk - isn't it cheaper to go to a bar to do that ? And just why do people have to get drunk before they can enjoy an artist - wouldn't they like them sober ?

Static audiences I do understand. I'm a static person myself. It doesn't mean we don't enjoy ourselves just we don't want to make a spectacle of ourselves when we know dancing isn't our thing (I speak having had the experience of shuffling slightly more enthusiastically than usual at a gig and having had the mick taken out of me by Ian McNabb - who by the way will tell an audience to shut up when he's fed up with it !)

Where do I begin with what hacks me off at a gig!! As an enthusiastic, getting on a bit (41) gig goer I now find drink being thrown around offensive if I am near the back - venture near the front & you get what you deserve however!!!

Most annoying for me are the girls who go to gigs in tottering heels who proceed to stand on your foot as they pass you by,usually looking like they are out on the pull rather than there to watch a band.Or the ones who get their other half to sit them on their shoulders - what about the people behind you? Ok, I'm just a little envious, my fella would collapse if he had the task!

Rant over...........for now!

The Luminaire in Kilburn has put up prominent 'no talking' signs around the place, and respect to them for that.. It's not always guaranteed to be successful, but at least you can point it out to offenders without having to infringe venue policy.

Trapped on the second tier, I was surrounded by people talking & filming at Jarvis Cocker's Shepherds Bush Empire show last night. They shouted to be heard over the music & continued to chat through Cocker's inbetween song banter (surely one of the attractions of his gigs). One bloke filmed large chunks of the show despite having his view restricted by the barrier at the front of the circle. What's he going to do with all that footage? Watch it when he's back at home so he can see what he missed by filming it?

It happens all the time & I'm getting sick of asking people to be quiet & deal with aggressive responses. I think venue staff should deal with people who are unable to be quiet during a performance. If I was to spark up a fag I'd be out on my ear but noise pollution from drunk idiots is OK.

My Bloody Valnetine had the right idea: play so loudly that talking over the music simply isn't an option.