As anyone who knows me will be able to tell you, music is one of my major passions in life. Finding a great new band is like discovering a diamond in amongst a crate of rocks, and listening to bands who have been around for as long as you can remember is like cosying up to your favourite blanket as a kid.
One of the best things about music is going to gigs. Not only do you get to see in person the people whose work floods your ears 24/7, but you get to experience it with hundreds of other people who possess just as much bundled enthusiasm as you. But I don’t want to go and see an artist pre-possessing the knowledge that I’ll have bruises all over me and beer in my hair by the end of the night. If you’re at a festival, you might even have the privilege of being soaked by thrown cups of piss.
Seeing Kasabian on Friday night, I sauntered in and headed straight to the second row. Part of me was excited I was going to be so involved in the action, whilst the other part hurriedly tried to convince me that having a decent view wasn’t worth an hour and a half of being elbowed and jumped by people twice my weight. Nevertheless, I stood my ground and in many ways wish I hadn’t. I didn’t enjoy the night very much at all – not because the band weren’t great musically, quite the contrary. But I had to put so much time and energy in keeping myself from literally being trampled, that I couldn’t enjoy the music.
A lot of bands say that UK audiences are quite unlike any other, and I have to say I agree. If you watch footage of gigs in Japan for example, it’s often very civilised and occasionally audiences will even stay seated throughout the duration (though that’s far from my idea of a fun gig). When I saw the Kooks in America, the crowd were having a great time, but at no point did I see anyone being pushed or throw their drink over someone else. The last Kooks gig I went to over here, I had four beers thrown over me and a thirty year old guy tried to pick a fight.
It seems to be the older men, rather than the kids, that cause the most havoc at gigs nowadays. When you’re younger you can almost get away with getting into a bit of a fight with someone outside the school gates. Getting into a brawl on the pavement aged thirty has far different repercussions. It’s almost as if people act violently at gigs because they don’t have a chance to otherwise. Watching a lot of their faces, you can see them plotting their next ‘accidental’ shove rather than a look of genuine excitement.
It’s only the minority that act like this but ruin the experience for so many more people than themselves. I don’t want to be forced to stand at the back so I don’t get hurt by some drunk arse who has got a bit too much pent up aggression that he needs to get rid of. There’s a time and a place for men throwing punches and that’s at the boxing ring, not in the front row of Brixton Academy.
