Smoking in any public place - or in a private home if there are children there - is just plain wrong. If someone punches me in the nose, other than in self-defense, he goes to jail if there's a cop around. If he blows poison gas in my face, he claims I'm infringing on his rights if I complain. Pack of a******s.

Smoking in a place where someone is trying to sing for the enjoyment of other people who have paid to hear him/her, is wrong to several higher orders of magnitude. They're sabotaging the performer's gig as surely as if they set off a siren during the song.

Smoking tobacco has been described as the only manufactured product which, if used strictly according to the manufacturer's instructions, is fatal to the user. In some cases, that's a public service; but it's fatal to the other people in the vicinity, too.

Last summer we did a gig for a politician. When he went to do his speech, we'd already heard it, so we went outside to wait, and consume the free sodas and ice cream, so we could tear down when he was finished. A lady came out and asked if it was all right to smoke where we were. I said, sure, if you don't mind if I pick my nose and flick it at you. She went off in a huff. Seemed fair to me. I'd have been doing her lots less harm than she would me.

Peter.