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Ed Says. . . If you fancy a chat, please do the decent thing and stand at the back.

I've been going to gigs since I was 14, and at the risk of starting a "when I were a lad" diatribe, I've noticed an annoying addition to the live experience: conversation. Now, don't get me wrong - feel free to chat to your friends at a gig. Hell, you can discuss the duality of the mind-body relationship and the problems of a physical entity interacting with a non-physical one for all I care. Just don't stand beside me, at the front of the venue, during the band's set, and shout over the music.

Band's spend hours rehearsing and honing their set to perform it live, and when you bowl up to their gig and talk over their music, in the loudest voice you can muster, you're taking a liberty. It disrespects the crowd who have paid a significant amount of money to see the artists play, and the band, who really don't want to see people at the front discussing this weeks shopping list, or "who slept with who" last weekend.

Call me old fashioned, but gigs are not there for you to be "seen". They're there for people to watch and listen to music.

Just to clarify, I'm not a gig fascist. If you want to chat - fine. Go for it. But, maybe you should stand at the back, quietly, away from the speakers, and out of the band's line of sight.

A month or so ago, at a friends show, I found myself at the front of the crowd, lost in the music. Then it happened: two Hoxton casualties, standing within 2 feet of each other, shouting their conversation at the top of their lungs during the latter half of the band's set. I let it go for one song. Then by the second, when it became clear that they weren't going to stop, I felt every muscle in my body start to tense. By the third I could stand it no longer - I had to say something. What should have been an explosion of incandescent rage manifested itself as a calm, passive aggressive query - "excuse me guys? Are you going to talk all the way through this? It's just that it's becoming quite distracting." Never have I been looked at in such disgust. Still, they stopped talking. Turns out I look a little bit terrifying to people who don't know I'm a a pussycat who couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Who knew?

So, in summary - if you're chatting loudly at a gig - stop it. And if someone is chatting loudly at a gig, and you want them to stop - ask them. Chances are they will.

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