What I'm talking about is the compulsive, repeated checking of e-mails or Facebook and exchanging of texts throughout the evening.

Jack: I'm not talking about being "on stage". I'm talking about a group of musicians and singers sitting around in a bar together to make music. But if I'm attenidng a club with a stage, I'd be delighted if the MC were to suggest that the audience shoud have the courtesy to give the perfomers their full attention. You don't sit in a club and openly read the paper or do the crossword, or get out your laptop, so why is a smartphone any better?

And Joe, as I've said earlier, anyone who has an urgent need to make or answer a call can easily move away into a corner and concentrate on that for as long as it takes. That's not a problem. But if your kids or your elderly relative need to be in contact every five minutes, they really need someone at home with them.

And no, it doesn't happen often - yet - and that's why I am minded to make some comment about it now. Once a few people start to do it regularly, it gets a bit personal for anyone object to it.

Smartphones can be helpful, though: you can get an app to deliver your chosen note, like a pitchpipe. And a metronome app. And - best of all - an app that responds to a note and tells you its pitch. We tried this at an unaccompanied session I go to, and established that the bell that sits on the bar is in G#, so now we can use the bell to find our starting note (does upset the bar staff, though, when we ring it for this purpose!).

Marje