I went to Crowded House at the Albert Hall last week. Because of the shape of the place and the way it's lit you are unusually aware of what the people around you are doing. Most of them were watching and listening. There was a couple directly in front of me. I would guess that roughly three times a song she leaned towards him and whispered something in his ear. You couldn't hear what she said but it was nonetheless distracting and irritating. What could anyone possibly find to say under these circumstances?

that when people have a cough, they don't go to the doctor - they go to the theatre? The same seems to apply to people who want a good chat. Rather than going out to the pub or something, they head straight for the nearest gig. Or cinema. Oh, don't get me started.

I'd have preferred it if they'd ejected Tori Amos.

But what an extraordinary thing to do. What could it have felt like in the audience afterwards? Like being at a party where somebody has just been ejected, I suppose.

What a pillock she is. What was going on then? Someone daring to speak during that turgid twaddle? Probably asking how long to the end I'd guess, and bothering exactly who else but her, if they were in the front row? The film doesn't show any disturbance. If she gave the tickets out, as is inferred, it's her problem - although fair enough, she certainly dealt with it.
If they were paying punters, then Messrs Sue, Grabbit & Runne should be consulted. If you've shelled out your own hard-earned for a seat, then it's a privilege for the artist, not the other way round. And this is from someone who's been told by his wife not to say anything to noisy buggers at gigs or cinemas in case I 'start something'. I just found this clip profoundly annoying... 'get the fuck out of my show' indeed. She'd have had far greater effect with a withering, pithy put down. They'd probably then have slunk out of their own accord. Any gigging stand-up would have dealt with it in a flash. Perhaps she hasn't the wit.
Or was it all just a set-up piece of artist cred-enhancing drama?

it was probably too late in the show for Bob to boot him out. ( While we're on the subject of this infamous gig don't you think that 'I don't believe you' is, frankly, a weak comeback line? You'd have thought a spokesman for a generation could have conjured up a more withering put down? ) Maybe he needed a typewriter.

Until this clip surfaced, I always felt 100% sure that it was Dylan who spat out "play f*cking loud" in response. Whether or not the video's out of synch, I don't know; but when seen in the film it throws a few doubts up. It's probably the sort of thing Robbie Robertson would come out with.

but hadn't he already been heckled for this type of thing at Newport many times by this point? Methinks he had plenty of time to think of something to say. Perhaps the, er, 'herbal tea' had been a tad strong backstage that night....

Is it me, or do people talk more these days? By 'talk' I mean 'open their mouths a lot and make noise' as opposed to 'converse'. It's as if some people (largely young, predominantly female) feel it essential to broadcast their every last thought in AS LOUD A VOICE AS POSSIBLE, asfastaspossible, in a keening accent with maximum facial over-emphasis and irrespective of social setting. I mean, have you been to a library lately? So big ups to Tori Amos for highlighting this. I'd like to think she humiliated these two chattering eejits but somehow I doubt it.

People talking annoy both the artist and the the rest of us in the audience. The great pianist Alfred Brendel has interrupted recitals to ask people to shut up. He's told them he can hear them as clearly as they can hear him.
Earlier this year I went to see Roy Harper at the 100 Club. A woman kept heckling him. He asked her to stop a few times. When she carried on he got off stage and went to remonstrate with her. I've no idea what he said, as we were at the other side, but we heard no more from her.
We need more of this. If all people are going to do is talk through a performance why not save the money spent on tickets, buy a couple of decent bottles of wine and listen to discs at home. Everybody wins.

This is amazing, and I agree with Amos.

It's just incredibly rude and unnecessary, and if the roles were reversed, these people would be entitled to do the same. Who on earth spends good money to talk through someone else's performance?

On the flip side, I once saw All About Eve at the Norwich Waterfront when they were (way) past their sell-by-date. Julianne Regan got all huffy with a guy in the audience for taking pictures of her, and at the time I put it down to the fact that she was, how can I put it delicately, a few years older than her famous TOTP performance. In this instance, I think a performer is in the public spotlight and should expect their image to be captured - am I right, or does the Amos example extend to piccies aswell?

Amos' voice sounds great live.

there are some people who pay for a concert ticket to see a band or artist and enjoy the experience by listening, paying attention and dancing/cheering when appropriate. I count myself amongst this group. Then there are those who, because they have paid money, believe they can act exactly as they like even if this is annoying to the rest of the audience. These people are idiots and I for one wish more artists would kick them out. Go Tori!

..but much as I hate yakking and carrying on at shows, isn't everthing just going back to the way it used to be?
Wasn't the original Globe Theatre a hotbed of heckling, screaming and chucking stuff?
I believe this "respect for the artiste" crap is a recent phenomenon.
If Bory Tory can't command the attention of the punters with her magical music, then she shouldn't spit the dummy.
The very behavior for which the term "Prima Donna" was coined.

is spot on. Anybody watched any Elvis or early Beatles or Stones recently? 'Can you keep quiet please' my arse. If you want to hear the record stay at home.

do you know they weren't voicing their displeasure?

I don't know about anyone else but I go to live shows because a] the performance will NOT be the same as what's on the record and b] the buzz of being in a room full of people who are all [mostly] of a like mind. AND I try to go to more than one show on an tour as sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. I have been told that Bob Dylan is known for widely fluctuating quality from show to show. I saw Crowded House twice and the Manchester show was a bit, in the modern parlance neh. Nottingham however felt like an entirely different band and they [ he says decending into cheap rock cliche] rocked the house.

I have at no point in any of my gig going life been so pissed off with the performer that I felt the need to heckle.
Ok thats a little lie - I did plead with David Ford two nights ago NOT to do a Backstreet Boys cover, even for charadee, but it was between songs and he was taking requests.

Whilst I have been bored out of my gord on many occasions sitting through such rubbish support acts as Aden, Breaks Coop and Natasha Beddingplant, I just shut up n suffered in silence.
I feel it's the price you pay to get to see the headline act. A friend once reported that he saw one chap put on his ipod and read a book during the opener. Both funny and non intrusive to anyone around him.

You've spent a fortune to go to a gig so why can't you just SHUT UP AND LISTEN?

must say this band, The Pain of Salvation have escaped me so far, but I like the way the front man handles a crowd