I like records much more than live shows. Possibly it's because most bands don't give you a radically different musical experience, live, than they do on the record - the sound is likely to be polished and high-quality in most decent-sized venues, the technology available to bands now means that there's almost no studio sound that can't be reliably recreated live, so for me most gigs are just a case of standing in a mass of sweaty drunk people not quite enjoying the music as much as you do through headphones.

I'm not a big fan of big presses of people, so a band has to offer something really special in their live show to tempt me. The Hold Steady, for example: to see them live is to understand them that much better. They are a live band first and foremost. But that's rare.

I've absolutely no wish to go to some stadium or huge outside venue like Glastonbury. I'd much rather go and see someone in a smaller venue than in some enormodome staring at a giant screen, but even better the opportunity just to listen alone without interruption.

Having been to see Nick Lowe recently I must say it was a different experience altogether, the Buxton Opera House being a bijou place to see someone in. Although even that was very much a last minute decision.

As someone who as a young man never felt particularly comfortable in pubs and clubs, I loved and love gigs. Including all the ritual - the set-up, looking at the gear (as recently mentioned on a podcast), the sounds. Don't get out as much now it's still my favourite waste of time [(c) M.Crenshaw]

for whatever reason (I must admit I rarely regret going to a gig) but buying tickets and then not showing up seems like something else not linked to the music or bands.

and I now only go if I really, really want to see that person. Gig going is expensive and it's a bit of an effort too.

I don't like being pushed about by other people, I don't like to stand and I like songs to sound as they do on the record. I'm often disappointed by gigs on the whole (see my Steve Winwood review from last October).

I've never been to a festival and don't think I've missed a thing. I'm happier listening to music rather than seeing it if I'm honest.

Though I might have liked to have been at Woodstock.

and didn't really care about the idiots about me - was probably one of them anyway - but I was probably quite lucky in the late 70's and early 80's because people largely went there to listen to the band, not a chance to catch up with Camilla about how the interior decoration was progressing. I am less tolerant these days and over the past few years just can't tolerate halfwits chattering away and the fact that people have got a lot more aggressive. Enjoy the concert, listen to the band. I stopped going to The Pogues for this very reason - "is it the fairytale song yet ?" - and now only go very occasionally. Now I like to sit down, have nice clean toliets and not have to wait too long for the band to come on. That's why I love the Royal Festival Hall, saw a brilliant Sparks show there a few years back. There's no answer, sometimes you feel up to it, the band are on top form and you come out with a glow. At other times, you just want to get the hell out, have a nice cup of tea and a biscuit.

alien to me now. And I'm not sure if I ever really enjoyed a gig as I am so self conscious about one thing or another.
Being tall I try to be considerate to those behind me but get no consideration in return.
I hate the constant flow of people coming from the back to the front and vice versa.
I have the bladder of a 90 year colonel so I don't drink anymore at gigs otherwise I miss everything. That also leaves all my inhibitions in tact and I become more aware of myself.
I have totally outgrown festivals now and shuddr at the thought of three days in a field.
The only live music I enjoy now is a one day dance festival type thing where I can pop a disco biscuit and lose myself in various tents.
But that is very very rarely.
You would more likely find me on my couch in my comfortable flat playing guitar.

I wholeheartedly sympathise. I very occasionally push myself and my partner through twisted hoops of inconvenience to get to a gig and - invariably - come away horribly underwhelmed and regretful of the entire experience. I'm 50 now, with a lifetime of gig-going behind me, but I'm utterly convinced that the experience ain't what it used to be in most cases, and it's not *just* the fact I'm something of an old giffer nowadays.
In nine out of ten cases, the act just doesn't seem to have their heart and soul in it like they used too; there's an air of vaguely detatched cycnism in evidence, a sense of contracts being obliged. Nothing needs to be proved. It's hard work for them, so it's hard work for you...
That sense comes from experience of small to mid-size gigs and a selection of recent-years festivals, from Glastonbury through Latitude to - latterly - End of the Road.
There are, of course, a few honourable exceptions – the Decemberists four years ago (*not* my recent Bristol outing), CW Stoneking, The Low Anthem, Edwyn Collins, Teddy Thompson, Black Joe Lewis, The Pet Shop Boys, Elbow ...and the Mumfords a couple of years back in a sweaty cellar. I have neither the time nor the inclination to start listing the disappointments.
Aaah, bugger it. I'm staying at home...

an appreciative and responsive audience is one of the best experiences in the world - ever! Or as a footballer might say after scoring a goal "even better than sex", or even as a porn star might say after having sex "even better than scoring a goal."

Unfortunately these experiences, the musical ones I mean, not the sex or scoring goals, are getting more difficult to find.
I don't enjoy many gigs anymore - it's easy to joke about the age thing, and I guess it does have a bearing but I still like seeing small bands in small venues, I don't want to give up on seeing live music just yet.
But I have seen a change in audiences over the years - the old Word bug-bears, talking through gigs, mobile phones, lack of decent venues and proliferation of corporate sponsored souless places.

I don't think it's just me being an old fogey saying "things were better back in the day" - I have been to hundreds of gigs since the early 80's and I honestly can't remember having to put up with the sort of annoying habits and lack of interest in the actual band on stage from a large part of the audience as nmuch as I have over the past 5 or 6 years. OK, I might have had to fight with skinheads or dodge bottles of piss - but give me that over some tosser talking through a beautiful Go-Betweens acoustic number any day!

is also a problem for me.
Although I am not a happy camper in crowds I could probably happily watch a live act in a small venue like Bordeline if they didn't over fill it.
This clamour for takings over comfort means they won't get my pounds again and thus lose out in the long run.
The last time I was there was for William Elliot Whitmore and about ten minutes before he came on the place was busy enough but then they kept on coming and you couldn't move. It was uncomfortable and I couldn't wait for the gig to finish. Shame, as I would go back time and again but for that.

I simply don't like big crowds, long queues, surly service when you eventually get to the expensive bar, hours to get out of the car park and getting home wearied when I should be buzzing.

And manners. Don't get me going but in all the discussion here about "other people" and their behaviour, it's a lack of manners and consideration for others that we're really talking about.

I love music and I'm of a mindset that says watching the concert is my night out. I think a very large proportion of people who go to gigs nowadays go for a night out, with a band thrown in. It's a huge difference.

has really put me off going to gigs. I love smoking most of the time but doubly so when I've had a drink or am getting excited listening to music. In a way I think it's cranked up people's sense of entitlement that each gig should be 'just how they want it' - delicately perfumed, atmosphere of a library, band playing exactly the songs they want to hear.

But I understand, really.
I struggle a lot with the audience at gigs now. The Decemberists were AMAZING, but the crowd were pretty hateful. JoLean and I were in the stalls, and from behind us came this background rumble of chatter, chatter, chatter.

I had a couple next to me loudly crunching their way through a rustling bag of Butterkist. Another two guys were talking loudly through the whole gig - seriously, they didn't stop for anything, a bit of banter is fine but this was continuous. And just as the gig started, 7 foot hairy man came and stood directly in front of us.

I don't think I'm cut out for crowds any more.

So I'm less enthusiastic about gig going than I used to be, and I'm never going to the Hammersmith Apollo again unless it's one of my very favourite bands.

Having said that, audiences still tend to be well behaved at the Royal Festival Hall, so I'm always happy to go there.

One of the reasons that I like to get a ticket in advance is that I know that around 6 o'clock, I won't want to go out, that's especially true if I'm not even home from work then and there's a 60 minute drive into London for the gig. By the time I'm in the car and halfway down the M1, I'm usually looking forward to it again and I'm rarely disappointed. The FPO has a gig tonight which means an hour's drive to Rushden and you can be certain that by 6:30 neither of us will want to go out but by 8:30 with all the equipment set up (and a pint in my hand!) we'll be glad to be there.

These rules are my distillation of my experiences of gig-going as a fiftysomething who is now attending far more gigs than he used to, egged on admittedly by a music-mad son who likes his dad to buy his tickets for him...

1. Choose your venue with care. Preferably small, preferably standing. Standing because...

2. If your neighbours are annoying you, you can move. Taking the moral high ground and standing your ground (and fuming) is counterproductive. Avoid the braying masses by standing elsewhere. Preferably...

3. Stand at the barrier. Not centre stage, but well off to the left or right. This is ideal because:

3a. You will be stood next to the speakers. It will be loud, so you will not be able to hear the fuckwits.

3b. Off to the side, you avoid the jumping, moshing, crowdsurfing fuckwits.

3c. You will have an ace view of the action. And you will have something solid to lean on.

3d. You will be at the front - with the fans. Who are less likely to talk, and more likely to focus on the performers.

4. Don't drink. You WILL need to go to the loo, and you WILL lose your place. And have to stand with the fuckwits.

5. Choose your act with care. As Bob says above, there are some performers who are MADE to be heard live. Focus on them.

6. At festivals - all the above rules apply, especially the 'venue' rules. It is a fact that a small band on a small stage is ALWAYS a better experience than the biggest band in the world on the Pyramid. If you want to see U2 or Beyonce at Glastonbury - set your Sky+ before you go and head off to the Park or the Acoustic tent instead.

Going to gigs has always been an effort for me, and most of the time it hasn't been worth it. The inabilty to drive and the fact that I live in a town that is never on a band's tour diary means I really have to want to go.

When I was at university in Liverpool, it was a lot easier, and arguably better. I could get into town easily, and get back from the city centre after the gig, and I didn't have to worry about getting up for work the following morning. Not every gig was worth it, but at least I didn't have to waste money on travel costs and hotels.

These days though, I feel like I'm past it. Since 2007 I've been to about five gigs, and whilst they were fine, they didn't really warrant £40 being spent on them. One of most recent forays into the gig world was a triple header between the man from Grandaddy, John Grant and Midlake. I missed Grandaddy, caught the last song from John Grant and walked out of Midlake because my friend and I thought they were shit.

And don't get me started on festivals. I've been to one and never want to go again. You know sometimes when you go into HMV there's often a gaggle of teenagers looking through the posters? Imagine going into a field in which thousands of those teenagers are- all off the reigns for the first time since finishing their GCSEs, A-Levels, breakfast etc- and you'll have a good idea about my attitude towards Reading Festival in particular. I'm sure there are friendlier, better festivals out there, but they'd have to ban the poster-teens from them to be so.

I'm lucky enough to live in Utrecht in Holland in which there are three or four decent venues. However, often bands only come to Amsterdam and I used to regularly go through the hour long journey to get up there. However, once my kids were born I pretty much stopped that and have only been to three gigs in Amsterdam since August 2006.

Instead I go to my local venues. I can cycle to all of them and have still been able to see the likes of Elbow, The Phantom Band, The National, The Black Keys, Besnard Lakes, Broken Records etc amongst others. I'm off to see John Grant in a 400 capacity venue in a few weeks.

Admittedly I'm lucky to have an alternative to going up to the big city. I don't know how people do it to be honest.

a triumph of hope over experience. The number of truely great gigs I've been to is but a thin proportion of the total.

In the early days, it was still novel enough for none of the discomforts to matter. These days I tend to pick my gigs based on venues where I think these problems are less likely to occur.

And like Joe, I feel much the same about the cinema.

I'm really quite surprised that there's so little love for the live experience among the massive. I, for one, bloody love it. I'll never forget my first 'proper' gig - the House of Love in a kent sports centre in 1989. That sparked an addiction I still have today. Sure, I'm too old for the mosh now but I'm just as excited to see my favorite acts now as I was then. I don't subscribe to the theory that most acts can't cut it live - those that disappoint are rare in my experience.

For me, live is one of life's great pleasures. Until recently I saw at least a gig a month, often more; and I've attended 1 or 2 festivals every summer for 20 years. Life changed 18 months ago and suddenly baby sitting was an issue; despite that I'm still thrilled to be seeing two of my favourite live acts (Elbow and Tom Mcrae) in the next fortnight. And I'm working on a Latitude plan.

I agree there are idiots at every gig; that's been the case for as long as I've been buying tickets, though I've noticed it more as I've found myself edging ever further from the stage. My favourite spot is somewhere a couple of metres back from the mosh- close enough to the action, freedom to move if required. Of course, these days most of the bands I want to see aren't the sort to provoke a surging moshpit (something else to judge your age by I suspect) but you can still make a rough estimate. I've also developed a taste for the sit-down gig (John Grant at the South Bank was magical last year).

In short, I say give it another go, make it a special event, choose act and venue wisely and go and have fun - I think the joy of the shared musical experience cannot be overstated.

I'd find it very hard to look forward for something for the many, many months it's now commonplace to have to wait between securing a ticket and going to gig in the UK by anyone you're likely to have heard of.

Why do they do that? For the promoter to earn six months' interest on all the cash collected so far in advance or what?

It's completely unnecessary. And it hasn't always been that way. WIWAL tickets even for major acts at major venues went on sale about 4-6 weeks ahead of time, no more.

I went to see Barcelona in Seville last weekend. I had a brilliant seat, because I'd bought the ticket the day they went on sale - only ten days before the match, even though it had been scheduled since the fixture list was released last summer. And on the night the stadium was, obviously, full.

If you asked me today whether I'd fancy seeing Ocean Colour Scene doing Moseley Shouls live at the Brixton Academy, I might. But on Saturday the 11th of December? Not only might I not even be in the mood, I might not even know who I'd want to go with. Tickets in March for a gig in December? Christ, you can discover you'll need a babysitter for a baby you didn't even know you were going to have in that time.

It's the buying in advance. Most of the shows I have seen over the past few years have been in small venues mainly because its possible to get tickets about a month in advance for about a tenner (or at least under twenty).

Can I recommend gigs in the Union Chapel? Audiences generally shut the hell up in there. Maybe because its a church...

yes, it's much better staying at home than witnessing this from 10ft away (ie closer than this cos I don't film on mobiles at gigs)

It has has never occured to me not to go to something I've bought a ticket for. Not once.

buy ticket in initial rush of enthusiasm

gradually lose said enthusiasm as gig date approaches, culminating in deciding not to bother at all

being cajoled into attending on the day and invariably having a great evening and wondering why thought it could ever have ended otherwise!