Disrespect to an artist

Subject: Disrespect to an artist
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 11:10 AM

Someone I work with went to a BB King concert. They were in the balcony and noticed that a young teenager in the front row spent the entire time playing a Gameboy.

Kids these days.....

I don't really expect the kid to know any better. But isn't that why we have parents ? To teach children proper conduct ?

Rant over. The air is getting a little thin up on this soapbox.....

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 11:11 AM

Maybe he's learning multi-tasking?

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: MMario
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 11:13 AM

Was he quiet and respectful otherwise? considering the number of adults I see at concerts talking on cellphones, litening to ipods and/or radios, I'd probably welcome a bunch of kids with gameboys.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Wallyvt
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 11:14 AM

Ever play in a bar?

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 11:30 AM

About 12 years ago I went to a Doc Watson concert in Austin and the audience talked through almost the entire show. It got so bad that he had to say, "Be quiet and listen to this song - music is for listening."    I couldn't understand why anyone would come to see a musician of his stature and then ignore him. That was the last show I saw at that venue.

Dan Schatz

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 12:19 PM

comforting to know that idiocy is an international phenomenon..... I

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: alanabit
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 12:22 PM

It is just quite baffling that people go to places where they do not like the music.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 12:41 PM

Because of 'Corporate Entertainment' and 'Sponsorship' many rugby and soccer matches are attended by people with no interest in the game whatsoever, and are mainly there to consume as much free food and drink as they can manage.
These people may spend 90 minutes plus at the venue and never actually see a ball kicked.
Meanwhile real sports fans are unable to get, or cannot afford tickets to see the game they love.
This has become even more of a common occurence due to football, becoming a trendy game among the so called rulers of this country [UK], they think it gives them the 'common touch' and endears them to their working class voters.
WRONG!!!

Giok

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 12:43 PM

I do remember going to the symphony one Sunday afternoon many years ago and observing a man a few rows ahead of me watching the Dallas Cowboys playing football { American football } on a tiny TV in his lap. It was odd to see a man with a blue glow coming from his crotch. Maybe they were in the playoffs....

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Scrump
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 12:51 PM

Going back to the OP's point about the kid playing on a gameboy, it's possible he was dragged along by the parents who couldn't get a baby sitter. A pity they didn't encourage him to watch - but you did say he was a teenager ;-)

I once saw a kid occupying an expensive seat at an important soccer game (brought by his dad sat next to him) - he did the same thing, and I couldn't help thinking about all those people who couldn't get tickets for the game :(

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 01:02 PM

I've only been to the Cambridge( UK version!) Folk Festival once - I think it was '76; anyway, I was amazed how talkative - during performances - the audience were. Interestingly, the audience would listen politely to spokenintroductions to songs but then jabber away all through the actual song!

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 01:13 PM

I sang in a college choir a number of years ago, and we did some great
choral works, Bachs BMinor mass, Carmina Burana etc. The choir was made up of students and community members. At one performance a student had an earphone in one ear so he could listen to the hockey game at the same time.

Yes Id definitely say its poor manners to bring a gameboy, or a tv to a concert. maybe its a stretch to say theres an overall decline in manners - but at the same time it shows how much people are obsessed with technology and cannot seem to appreciate the real experience of listening to music, or for that matter having a quiet moment without
any techno intrusion - whether its a cellphone, ipod, gameboy, tv (all those are converging anyway)

Also it sort of depends on the venue, if the performance is in a pub
as opposed to a concert then people probably should be able to talk.

Was a quiet audience always the case? I seem to remember reading about operas and even plays and vaudeville in the past where people brought food and drink and came to socialize and make business deals.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: catspaw49
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 01:15 PM

LOL.......Sorry Wes, but that would have been my son Michael there....age 13, dresses in black now, occasionally acknowledges us with a series or sometimes just solo grunt, is bored with the entire world, and sometimes goes along to things under duress. He IS always quiet but sometimes a Game Boy or something of that ilk is required. Tristan on the other hand is dancing in the aisles and embarassing the crap out of Michael...............It was sooooo much nicer when they were 5 and 6.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: leftydee
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 01:22 PM

It amazes me to that people will buy a ticket and then talk thru a perfomance. Maybe I'm just cheap, but when I pay my hard earned for a concert , I'd like to hear it.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Mark Ross
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 02:31 PM

I once had the weird experience of playing for some kids at a day care that was run by some friends, one of them a musician. They videotaped my performance, and after I finished, rewound the tape to see how it looked. The little buggers were more attentive to the recorded version of my show then they had been when I was standing right in front of them.... I was non-plussed to say the least, more like flabbergasted!

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: freda underhill
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 02:37 PM

It's frustrating when kids muck around during performances, but what i find harder to take is when accomplished musicians sabotage other people's performances by talking in the corner.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Deckman
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 02:43 PM

I once gave a concert in Seattle where EVERYONE listened to all my songs with rapt attention! Scared the heck out of me! CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 04:00 PM

Bob - It was bound to happen to somebody.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 04:27 PM

Audiences vary from one performance to another--sometimes the crowd can be very responsive, other times, they pay no attention at all, and sometimes they can be hostile. I have been told, by older performers, that this has always been true.

In the past, audiences actually seem to have had a much wider range of responses than they do now--certainly a lot of the negative stuff is rarer than it used to be--booing and catcalls do still happen from time , but, apart from some sporting events, you rarely see stuff thrown(dead cats, for instance, and perhaps for the best, exist now only in urban legends)-Standing ovations, on the other hand, seem to be expected, even for mediocre performances--

Still, as mentioned above, there seem to be a lot more of the "corporate comp" audiences for big events, and also "season" and "package" ticket holders who are just there because they got the ticket free or as part of something else, and who aren't really engaged in the event--

I am particularly annoyed by the folks who start filing down the aisles before the show ends, so they can avoid the parking lot traffic--

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 05:16 PM

Freda's note reminded me of a festival I played at a few years back. A musician whom I admired was playing on stage and the people in front of me, near the front of the audience were talking very loudly. I said something like,"This guy is trying to put on a show; could you take it over to the side?" A big guy stood up and hollered some explitives at me. He was too big to argue with.
Imagine my surprise when he came on to entertain us later that afternoon. He was probably very good, but I couldn't make myself enjoy his show.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 07:52 PM

shoulda talked through HIS show..
but then he was a big guy.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 09:57 PM

Hmm.

My son turned 11 this spring. He's just starting to explore a variety of music: started with Bach, then on to the Beatles. :-) He's been a percussionist in his elementary school band, and this past year started taking private lessons too. At the local university, there are many concerts and recitals that are free. We have gone to some with the understanding that we don't feel badly leaving at intermission if that's as long as our interest/patience persists.

One of the concert opportunities consists of various percussion ensembles. The first one that we went to had the orchestral-type percussionists doing a long, weird, very modern piece for the entire first half. It was hard to sit through it all, and unfortunately Dan was so burned out that he didn't want to continue through the second half when some other groups that might have interested him more were coming up.

We learned from that, and the next time brought along his Harry Potter book. That way, he listened some, read some, and didn't squirm or require whispering or note jotting or other attention that would have been more distracting to other audience members. And, he was up for the second half, which concluded with the marching band drumline, whose performance he found really exciting and inspiring.

So, I'd say, cut the parents some slack. Yeah, maybe they had no babysitting money. Or, maybe the kid wasn't playing his game the entire time. Maybe, even if he was playing his game the entire time, he still absorbed something of the show -- he may have attention issues that would otherwise have made his attendance impossible.

This is not to say there's not a lot of rude audience behavior nowadays -- we're too used to having our in-home entertainment where we can behave without regard to other audience members. But, if it's a kid (or maybe a spouse ;-) with some quiet supplementary entertainment, maybe that's not so horrible.

I'd also temper this with consideration for the venue and the style of music -- personally, my standards would be somewhat higher in a hall where people were paying good money for a show.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 11:31 PM

Geez Spaw,

Do we have the same kid?

Actually Kids,

Mine is twins and 23 years old now. But they could sit through any entire show of any Accoustic act, play Super Mario on the Game boys and sing along with every song, when they was 12.

When I do a show I don't demand rapt attention but I do expect couteous if disinterensted silence until the break. And then if they don't like the show they can leave in silence.

Don

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 11:37 PM

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 11:45 PM

No disrespect....

Another generation.............,

....................................another medium

Both the artist and your eye-witnessed member of the audience, were unable, incapable, unconcerned to make the jump across the generation / culture gap that was cleaved between 10 meters of physical-space.

What gender and estimated ethnic-group was the miscreant of your myopic scruitany?

Sincerely,

Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: IvanB
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 12:31 AM

I'd probably cut both the kid and the parents some slack. Far more infuriating to me is adults who talk through a performance. I find this disrespectful not only to the artist but to those who've come to see and hear and maybe even participate. On numerous occasions I've voiced the fact that I came to enjoy a performance to chatters nearby and asked them to either quiet down or take their conversations elsewhere. Some stare at me as if I'm a creature from outer space, but it seems to work.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: alanabit
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 01:33 AM

Yes. I think that if you are not interested in the artist yourself, the least you can do is to have the manners to shut up and allow others to listen.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,Tom Bliss
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 04:23 AM

Mea culpa. When my son was small we did a deal. He'd come to a folk festival and sit very quietly at the back in a corner with his game boy (with the sound off!), so I could enjoy a couple of concerts. Then we'd go find a theme park on the way home. Now he's big enough to sit and enjoy the show. Personally I'd not mind in the slightest if I saw a kid with a game boy - the more people the better! What is far more bothersome for me is crisp packets. When people are talking (yes, it IS usually the other artists - why can't people whisper for goodness sake!) you can usually shut them up by playing quieter and quieter. But it seems the crisp eaters have just GOT to keep thrusting their hands into that salty bag, regardless of the emotion in the rest of the room!

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 05:05 AM

Last year at a Scottish Folk weekend, while we were singing in the bar, there was one table that just talked through all the singers. Next day these same people who turned out to be folk club organisers and singers from the central belt, expected silence when they wanted to sing.
Sheer bloody ignorance is about the most polite description I can find for that sort of egocentricity.
Giok

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: ossonflags
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 05:29 AM

What generally grinds my gears is someone who says "please sing me this song it means so much to me, I remember listening to this when: I met my partner, my dog died, my grand mother was run over by a number 33 bus" etc.
and then proceeds to talk all the way through it !!

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,banjoman
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 06:48 AM

Some years ago our band was booked to play at a local event to celebrate the end of a weeks summer school. It was a fine evening and a few peole elected to sit on the grass outside the hall. We were amazed when one woman came in and demanded that we turned the PA off because the people outside couldn't hear each other speak.
Needless to say we never played that venue again.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,neovo
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 10:10 AM

Equally annoying is when you're trying to listen to the booked artist singing/playing and the person next to you is singing along, not necessarily in the same key or to the same tune.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Kenneth Ingham
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 02:42 PM

Tracy Emin and daniem Hirst and all that stuff is crap. Not real art like Michaelangelo and all his mates!

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Scoville
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 02:47 PM

"If I only had a dollar for ever song I've sung,
Every time I had to play while people sat there drunk . . . "

(Creedence Clearwater Revival, not that we don't all know that)

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Midchuck
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 03:40 PM

Mudcatters are strange. The point that everyone on this thread is making is exactly the one I made in the "The Meaning of Acoustic" thread, explaining why it was often necessary to use PA in a venue small enough that you ought to be able to do it purely acousticly. But in that thread, everyone seemed to think that a good musician or group would have no trouble getting everyone to be quiet and listen, so if we needed PA we were probably not that good.

Well, I know we aren't great, but I've been to performances by them as were, and they had the same problems. I think this thread is more in touch with reality - unfortunately.

Peter

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Scoville
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 03:46 PM

The only "performance" I've ever been to where the musicians effectively silenced/drowned out the audience without resorting to a PA system was at a dance where the band consisted of a caller/guitar and a Scottish bagpipe. Bagpipe in an enclosed space wins every time.

I'm sure that caller was hoarse for a week afterwards, though.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Kaleea
Date: 02 Jun 06 - 05:05 PM

There are some people, such as guest above, who will "make a deal." Then there are others who will inform youngsters that they will attend a concert even if they have to be dragged kicking & screaming. I have certainly experienced children kicking, screaming, & being dragged during performances.
Perhaps a better way would be to consistently take children to live Music, jams, & concerts from the time they are young. When they are old enough, get them involved in the playing.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,Tom Bliss
Date: 03 Jun 06 - 02:00 PM

In response to:

"why it was often necessary to use PA in a venue small enough that you ought to be able to do it purely acousticly. But in that thread, everyone seemed to think that a good musician or group would have no trouble getting everyone to be quiet and listen, so if we needed PA we were probably not that good."

I think the critical factors are

a) the size and acoustic of the room - even a silent audience soaks up sound, making amplification necessary if there are more than say 50 people (and many folk fans are not in the first flush so hearing may be an issue).

b) whether they've paid to get in or not. Free entry often means some people are not actually interested in the music, only in chatting and drinking, so playing quietly won't work. The 'soft trick' does usually work if people have paid to get in, and if the talkers don't notice and shut up (they often don't) the audience often shush them for you. But only if they really want to hear you (money at the door being the best divider I've encountered so far).

PS I think the deal worked because my lad likes to listen now and needs no bribing. But he's not interested in playing because he's not musical. (Well, it happens)!

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Northerner
Date: 03 Jun 06 - 02:28 PM

I had two dreadful young men sitting next to me at the Stockton Folk Club a few weeks ago. They had never been to a folk club before (I think) and did not know the etiquette at all. The one next to me persisted in talking right through a guest's performance. I got up to get a drink and found that he had picked up my eggs (shakers) and was playing with them - I would really have preferred him to have asked me first. Glares and shushes were completely useless. I did explain to him, politely, that it was rude to talk while a singer was performing but he was so much the worse for drink that he was unable to comply. The sad thing was that the two men really enjoyed the music - in fact the young man next to me called out to the guest several times how much he was enjoying it.

This might have all been in order in a pub night out with a microphone and speakers, but not in the formal setting of a folk club and in a completely accoustic (no speakers) setting. It was horrendous. Thankfully they have not returned.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Azizi
Date: 03 Jun 06 - 09:15 PM

This is slightly off topic, but a comment upthread about "responsive audiences" and gargoyle's question about the ethnic group of the audience served as the spark for my comment that I suppose is a given: Race/ethnicity is sometimes a factor in what constitutes a "responsive" audience.

The first time that I went to an off-Broadway show was with a group of fellow African American university students. The show,performed by Black performers, was a musical revue of African American history. And [but] just about all the rest of the audience was White.

I recall wondering why all througout the performance, the audience sat in silence. That was absolutely not how audiences were supposed to react or respond when they liked what they were hearing and seeing. But maybe this was supposed to be how people were supposed to react off-Broadway. So for a while, "my" group sat quiet. But I recall at least after the spirituals- we had to be real. And real for us was to clap before the end of a song {sometimes in church concerts-but not church services that I went to anyway-folks would clap when a song was announced}. But I don't think we did that. But the group I was with and I sometimes sang along with the songs or responded to the performance of the Black actors/actresses with some verbal affirmation such as "Yeah!" or "Amen". These actions were met with disgusted looks from other audience members.

When the show ended, the audience clapped politely, and then clapped again when the actors/actresses came back out on stage for a second bow. "My group" and I were surprised that it seems that hardly anybody but us stood up and enthusiastically cheered for the performers. I recall that the performers were GOOD. But I think that wasn't the issue.

I think that what was going on was a serious case of cultural dissonance. On the way back 'home' to our campus, the group that I was with talked about how different the energy would have been if the audience had been all or mostly Black. Usually we expect audiences to join in. Usually the desired "distance" between performers and audience is less with Black audiences and performers. Audience involement-including at least one sing along song-is expected and desired. And yes, there's a right way and a wrong way for the audience to be involved. But sitting silently and not expressing yourself until the end of the show, was [is]completely foreign to us.

Again, I recognize the lack of response that 'my group' expected from that almost all White audience was [is] not the same thing as an audience or audience member being rude and disrespectful. And I'm sure that some of that audience thought we were the ones who were being rude and disrespectful-to them if not to the performers on stage. And maybe we were-though we didn't intend to be.

I'm not sure how to bridge this cultural gap between the expectations that different races/ethnicities sometimes have for concerts/performers. But I think that there's no doubt that such a gap existed then and still sometimes exists now.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 04 Jun 06 - 09:08 AM

Azizi, that's a wonderful observation.

I was illuminated (so to speak), but not surprised. I makes perfect sense.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Jun 06 - 09:45 AM

In the folk clubs & concert I'm accustomed to we all sing along with the performers. Once I went to a club where the members sat around tables with their own food & drink & sat quietly & politely applauded at the end of each song. It seemed so odd to me.

I once attended a CD launch at an Irish pub that puts on regular folk concerts. The launch was organised by the artist, who had sent me an invitation, & it was the worse evening I've ever attended, so my friends & I left early. There was no entry fee which led to every drunk in the pub (Sydney??) crowding into the concert area, smoking like chimneys & talking loudly thru the support. I found out later that some of the loudest shouting behind me came from the artist's daughter, I assume she shut up when her father came on, but maybe not, anyway we'd gone by then.

The regular concerts are well organised by a friend who has had decades of experience running venues. When I next saw him I told him I would never attend anything he had not organised. His concerts have an entry fee, are in a no smoking area, are professionally organised, and always have an appreciative audience.

sandra

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Azizi
Date: 04 Jun 06 - 12:51 PM

Before I get jumped on in future posts or pms, let me make this addition to a sentence in my previous post to this thread as it was what I meant to write:

That was absolutely not how I thought audiences were supposed to react or respond when they liked what they were hearing and seeing.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 04 Jun 06 - 01:52 PM

Azizi,
Regarding    ural differences in audience response: My wife was brought up listening to Irish and Scottish music and I've noticed that when a medley of jigs, reels or hornpipes is being played, she will "whoop" when the tune changes, often drawing glares from the people around us.
I've also noticed that bluegrass and jazz audiences will applaud when each soloist finishes a break. I used to think of this as rude to the next soloist, who would have the first measure or two of his/her break drowned out, but I've found myself joining in lately.
Classical audiences always wait until all movements of a particular piece are finished, which can be quite confusing for a novice audience member.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Midchuck
Date: 04 Jun 06 - 04:31 PM

I've also noticed that bluegrass and jazz audiences will applaud when each soloist finishes a break. I used to think of this as rude to the next soloist, who would have the first measure or two of his/her break drowned out, but I've found myself joining in lately.

I have the habit of letting out a loud whoop after a good guitar solo. I've never been asked to leave a Doc or Norman concert...yet.

You ever notice that they always applaud after a bass solo? If I were the bass player, I'd be offended. The implication is that it's a surprise if I can take a solo at all.

(Q:How many bluegrass bass players does it take to change a light bulb?

A: I'm not sure...One?...Five?...One?...Five?...")

P.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 04 Jun 06 - 09:05 PM

As my act is very much based in comic material, my experience is quite different than many of the above.

The worst gigs for me are those where the audience is excessively polite.

To sing a song with one or two punchlines in every verse, and have the audience sit absolutely silent, then laugh and applaud at the end is frankly soul destroying.

I have little difficulty with talkers, as I am capable of making myself audible, without amplification, in most venues. In fact, it gives me the opportunity to use some (carefully rehearsed) ad libs.

If the audience respond to the comic lines as they arrive, it provides an opportunity to "ride" the laugh, and sometimes respond so as to get two for the price of one.

What I do find is that, when I slip in a serious song, the noise level stays the same, which is nice.

Now for this week's useful tip:- Some years ago I was playing regularly at an "in the bar" venue, where a group of four local businessmen were in the habit of taking up a position at the bar, some six feet away between me and the audience, and talking loudly throughout.
So one evening I set up a PA and placed a single speaker on the corner of the bar. When the shop talk boys arrived I let them settle in, then turned the volume to max and lashed out one chord that rattled the windows, and must have deafened them for a week. I switched off the amp, and when I turned round they were at the opposite end of the bar.

Had no more trouble after that!

Don T.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Scoville
Date: 05 Jun 06 - 01:07 PM

I should clarify that I have no problem whatsoever with PA systems. There are very few venues where they aren't necessary (at least, few that I've seen). Besides, my best instrument is Appalachian dulcimer, which is almost completely inaudible if you're more than four feet away from it. I definitely can't gripe about people using PA's. Amplification also takes care of the problem that some instruments are just louder than others, since it can give musicians the opportunity to adjust sound levels.

I hate it when people don't sing along. I'm the only one in my current group with nerve enough to sing anything but I am, quite frankly, not very good at it and I feel a lot like a trained monkey when I'm onstage and the audience just sits and stares at me. I'd rather they didn't talk through our performances but if they don't sing, it looks like they're not having fun or we're not connecting with them. If somebody requests a song and it's within the range of our abilities/style, we do try to learn it for them. We don't care if they aren't great singers (we aren't, either).

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Fraggle
Date: 05 Jun 06 - 01:41 PM

I recently attended a concert that had two local bands performing before the main artist. Whilst the supporting acts were playing there was a group stood near me making a right racket, laughing and chatting during the two sets. What really irritated me about this was that this group included the parents of the headlining artist!

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 10:21 AM

Unfortunately it is too often true that the worst behaviour in the audience comes from the entourage of the "headline" performers who show no respect for the artistic talents of anybody else.
As for the boy playing on his game, as long as it was not preventing others hear the concert I have no problem.
Our twins are now 6 and love folk music. That said, they have a limited attention span especially when tired. Often we need something to take up the slack in their energy levels. Colouring books in a corner are useful, but a small quiet electronic game will keep them silent for longer. We still find them singing choruses the next day, so it doesn't prevent them taking in what is sung.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Disrespect to an artist
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 02:47 PM

Geoff,
I have twins as well. When they were 6, they'd "read" picture books or draw at cocerts or festivals, but they'd also ask questions (quietly) about unfamiliar instruments. They started taking lessons (fiddle and guitar) when they were about 7 and started listening more and more. By the time they were 12, they had separated themselves from us at festivals and located all the blues events. They had also played duets with Dad at our local open stage by this time. They are 30 and both playing professionally now. (bass and mandolin, although they're both multi-instrumentalists)
Can't wait to see your kids in 24 years.