When I'm at small acoustic gigs, I usually end up tweeting my displeasure at the selfish morons who talk during the set. During one of our mid-week email conversations about the show, I once suggested to Darren that we look into setting up a campaign to try and stamp out talking at gigs. They banned crowd surfing, which is a fun thing to do, so why can't they ban this, something that puts a dampener on the night? I envisaged posters in venues, on billboards, getting the local press involved, local television and radio. With the NottinghamLIVE name behind the campaign, I thought such an idea would take Nottingham by storm. Once word gets round, other cities will be coming to us for advice as ambassadors for live music. Maybe we'd get some kind of award for being brilliant the next time the NME Awards comes around. Darren pointed out that such a thing would be unworkable. As he pointed out, a lot of these gigs take place in pubs and cafes, which people will go to for an after work drink. For that reason you can't expect them to pipe down in their local, as much as I'd like to enforce it. The good thing about the Malt Cross is that it is a Victorian music hall, one of only ten left in the country, which means that the sound (especially at a largely acoustic music event) carries and cancels out the talkers and their incessant noise. The low hum of chattering is cancelled out, especially when you watch the band from the balcony, because of the way these magnificent buildings were designed. Back in the heyday of music hall, comedians and singers had to make themselves heard in a large room without the comfort of microphones and a PA system. Entertainers knew how to project their voices without shouting, and music halls were designed with that specification, to carry sound. I remember seeing Michael Grade doing a series on variety theatre and its roots in music hall, and he talked to a man who ran one of the few remaining functioning buildings. The whole interview took place with Michael Grade sitting right at the very back of the theatre, and the other man standing on the stage, and they spoke at a normal volume, as if they were standing next to each other. If you can do that, then a table of Friday evening office workers trying to avoid going home to their families can't possibly make a bad enough noise to be truly annoying. Sometimes I want to walk over and politely put my finger to my mouth and make the discreet 'shush' sound, but the resulting fracas would probably make more noise.
Despite my dropped hints on Twitter, (I am as my bio says, criminally under followed), nobody has ever approached me with the words "hey you're Nottingham's Mr Radio, have a beer". However, as I entered the Malt Cross, a woman did ask me where she knew me from. I suddenly felt too shy to tell her I was a hugely influential broadcaster and journalist, especially as knowing my luck in social situations, she probably would have recognised me from serving me in her shop or something equally mundane. We couldn't work out how she recognised me, and so disappeared back to her friends. A few minutes later she was back to say she recognised me because of the radio, (and I assume my profile picture, although I wear glasses in real life, and don't wear them in photographs, I'm like a radio broadcasting version of Clark Kent), which I tried to respond to by being cool and just going "oh that, yeah". I wasn't sure where she wanted this to go, but thankfully she left me alone after that.
More interesting than that was finally meeting up with a few of the guys from Prefontaine, a band that I have supported for a while now, and included in my musical predictions for greatness for the year ahead. We've been in touch on Facebook and Twitter for rather a long time now, and meeting people in real life is always nice. I sat with them for the evening and had a wonderful time, they're a great bunch which is a relief because meeting bands can be a bit touch and go. Luckily, Nottingham bands are a friendly bunch and I've only got one on my cunt list so far, which when you add up all the bands and musicians in Nottingham, isn't bad going. Prefontaine are gigging on Tuesday in the city centre, which is a show that I'm really looking forward to. I just hope nobody ruins it by talking.
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