I can't wait for the smoking ban that's due to start in England next year. I perform regularly in one capacity or another and apart from the sheer unpleasantness of cigarette smoke (especially those bloody ready-made things with the extra nasty chemicals to make them burn - saltpetre, is it?), it does affect my ability to sing. In the short term it makes me cough, sneeze and choke, and in the long term it makes me lose my voice (yes, I know there are some of you out there who think that might not be such a bad thing!). It also means that I often spend the following morning coughing repeatedly, and, in severe cases, I can hardly speak.

This results in my attending fewer "dos". If I've been in a smoky atmosphere for two nights on the trot, I would then probably not go to venues where smoking is permitted for the next two or three nights.

This is not my being PC, by the way. It's just telling it as it is.